As the bear market continues to drag on, many of us are looking to get a foothold in some projects and establish a good holding in preparation for making money when the bulls come back. This is a good thing. But it can be too much of a good thing! If we don't keep our focus we can end up buying a little of everything and spreading ourselves too thin. How can we avoid this trap?

I write this because I am invested in PIMP and attend their weekly meetings. After one of their meetings I am always so excited about several new projects I've heard of and I want to buy everything. I'm invested in PIMP so that I don't have to invest in everything, so that I can benefit from PIMP investing in all this stuff for me. But I still feel the urge to do it myself. In addition to this, LeoFinance just released an alpha release of Project Blank; I've been critical of Leo before, but Project Blank is very exciting, and gives me the urge to start buying Leo again.

I know I have to temper these urges. I simply am not rich enough to buy everything. Luckily, I have a plan to control myself. If you are like me, maybe this will help you too.

Know Your Limits

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First I think we need to establish our limits. It's so easy to watch these whales ape into things and want to copy that. We all saw the week before last how @lazy-panda bought a heck of a lot of HBD (725k); looking at the insane monthly interest he's going to be pulling probably made more than a few people envious and inspired them to also buy some more than they otherwise would have.

So first things first, we have to establish our limits. How much do we have to spend every month? Break that down into per week and per day if you like. It might help to figure two figures: How much you have to spend and how much you have to comfortably spend? The second number is the one you'll want to use, but the first number can tell you what your absolute limit is if something amazing suddenly appears and you feel the urge to buy all of it.

These figures can include how much fiat you are investing and also how much crypto you are earning (from post payouts, divs, and so on). Probably most of us aren't investing a lot from fiat. I know that's me. Kids things (like schooling costs and clothes), a car, a house, and saving for plane tickets back and forth to the US for all of us doesn't leave me much extra to invest. But anyway, whatever the case may be for you, add up all these things and see what your limits are.

So yes, basically we are establishing a budget for our crypto spending.

Establish Goals

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Many of you may have seen my weekly Hive Goals posts. Several other people make these posts every week. I do them to inspire others but also to hold myself accountable and to help myself stick to my goals. All the data I record about my Hive earnings isn't worth much if I never look at it and think about what I'm doing. Making these posts forces me to do just that.

Don't make too many goals! Again, we don't want to spread ourselves too thin. I know the struggle. There are so many good things out there with potential to do really well. Bro and Lgn from the Mancave. Income. Cartel. EDS. HBD. Splinterlands. With Project Blank out, Leo is starting to look even better. Of course we all want to get out Hive Power up too, right? And let's not forget the granddaddy of them all, Bitcoin. We definitely want to be buying BTC as much as we can.

This is where the budget we made in the previous step comes in. Depending on what we have to spend, whittle down that list of coins you want to what your budget can support.

That might only be one or two. For me that's pretty much just Hive right now. But when I get extra swap.Hive from selling shittokens I've been dropped, I leave it there and buy Bro with it. I do dabble in other tokens sometimes (I posted about Dhedge in my last Hive Goals post, for instance) but mainly it's Bro I focus on on the second-layer side of things. And with fiat I do make regular buys of BTC. I don't talk about that one on my Hive Goals post, but it's there. So you could say my three goals are Hive, Bro, and BTC, with the first two of those being my Hive goals.

Most of your budget should go towards your goals, but there might be a portion of it, say 5–10%, than you leave free to throw at anything exciting. Heard about a new token for an exciting new game that gives an airdrop for holding it? This is where the money for buying that comes from.

Consult the Budget and Follow the Goals

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Now that we have these things, we have to follow them. Say your budget is 25 Hive per week to spend, but you see a new token, get really excited—this is the one that's going to finally make you rich—and ape in all 100 liquid Hive that you had sitting in your account. That was your budget for everything you wanted to buy for the month, but now it's gambled into one coin.

That budget didn't do very well did it? It's worthless if we don't use it. So consult it often and stick to it. You have willpower—use it.

Revisit Your Goals

This isn't to say you have to stick with your goals forever. Don't be fickle, of course, changing your goals every week. That's no different from trying to buy everything. But if one isn't working for you after focusing on it for awhile, then think about changing it. This is another reason I make my weekly Hive Goals post, to see what is working for me and what isn't. For example, I was making daily buys of SPT for a long time. But watching the performance of that coin and, more importantly, the lack of care from the Splinterlands team, led me to abandon that goal.

I'd fully suggest starting your own Hive Goals posts. It'll help you track everything. If you want examples, here is my last one, and here is @jongolson last one. Follow the tags hivegoals or myhivegoals to find others.

Anyway, that's what I follow. I realize this is pretty close to standard investment advice you might get from a stock broker and it may not be exciting. We all want to invest aggressively, gambling for the big win, but following a smart conservative plan that we make knowing our spending limits and our goals will usually have better results.

(title graphic made in Photoshop from an image by Lorenzo Cafaro from Pixabay)

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David LaSpina is an American photographer and translator lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time and searching for the perfect haiku.