Something I have alluded to in previous posts is my status as a US person living in Australia. I unfortunately didn't get into the US real estate market like I want to before I left for my assignment a few years ago. This has left me with a feeling like I am majorly missing out on a pivotal part of the 'American Dream' that I had hoped to accomplish some day.

Due to my visa status I cannot participate in the Aussie home market, and given the outrageous price growth I am not sure if I would jump in if I could.

I have been feverishly diving deeper into crypto over the past few months, especially with the market in a tenuous spot and not much confidence to getting back to All Time Highs. As a wise man once said, "When you want to cry, it's time to buy". With the fear and greed index reading deep in the fear a few weeks ago, I deployed as much cash on hand as I had to get in on the dip.

On this front I have a few things to share. Firstly, the easiest way I have found to get exposure to the crypto market is likely through Grayscale trusts which are available to trade with 401ks. GBTC (Bitcoin BTC) and ETHE (Ethereum ETH) are two funds that I have recently been looking at. They only trade during US market hours (not 24/7 hours that crypto trades) but offer a bit of arbitrage opportunity and don't cost that much to interact with. If you are looking to get exposure to crypto but have no interest in learning any of the tech stack or signing up for any additional accounts this would be the easiest step.

The BTC Futures ETH (BITO) and others that are launching soon are great first steps but still do not actually touch the BTC chain like a spot ETF would. Pressure on the futures ETF does not lead to pressure in the BTC market, but the fact that BTC ETFs are getting approved is great for institutional adoption.

I have spent quite a bit of time looking into a new chain recently, Terra. It has an algorithmic stablecoin (UST) that is pegged to a USD through burning and minting of it's chain native asset, LUNA. This minting/burning action has led several projects to be launched that can offer great returns, ~20% with Anchor Protocol as my primary focus.

With Anchor, you deposit either bonded ETH (bETH) or bonded LUNA (bLUNA) (currently, more to come) and then borrow against them. The borrow APR is positive but dependent on network conditions. At the moment, you can only borrow a max 45% LTV ratio with liquidations at 60% (if the assets you bond go down too far). There is another new project (Nexus Protocol) that aims to automate borrowing maximum while protecting against liquidation, I will write about it in a few weeks time pending the launch and first few weeks go according to plan.

You then take your borrow (in the form of UST) and can do things on Terra with it or swap it to another chain. Since the borrow APY is positive there is no incentive to repay the loan.

My current plan is to keep stacking up my Luna to borrow more UST to participate in liquidity pools (Apollo Farming at the moment) and depositing UST on Anchor Earn for that juicy 20% APY. With enough UST deposited on Anchor Earn your UST that you could withdraw could cover your living expenses.

That is my dream, to have staking/earning on various protocols large enough to cover my ongoing living expenses and allow me to reach financial independence. As I deposit more and more into Anchor and get more confidence the system will not fall over at a black swan event, I hope to reach a point where my rent is effectively covered by these earnings. I'm at $3/day now ($102/mo) and as the bull market hopefully continues to take over the rest of the year I hope to get more UST to deposit and get closer to financial independence.