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9 contributions to The AI Side Project
Why I got out of debt before I started investing
I'll be honest: I used to think the fastest way to build wealth was to throw everything at investing and figure out the debt later. Then I actually did the math. If you're paying 20–25% on a credit card, or 10%+ on a car loan, every dollar you put toward that debt is a guaranteed return at that rate. No market, no pool, no strategy reliably beats a guaranteed 20%+. And while you carry those payments, your monthly income is already spoken for before you invest a dime. Here's what clicked for me. Once the debt is gone, every payment you used to make (the car, the cards, all of it) becomes money you can invest every single month. Instead of investing $50 here and there while debt eats the rest, you're investing hundreds or thousands a month with nothing holding you back. That's when things start to snowball the right way. Being debt-free also means: • Less stress when markets dip, because you're not leaning on investments to cover bills • No forced selling at a bad time to make a payment • A real emergency cushion, so one surprise doesn't undo your progress So I'm curious: where are you at? Are you debt-free already, working on it, or investing while still carrying debt? Drop it below. No judgment, just real talk. 👇
1 like • 2d
Debt Free (except Car and House) hits different for sure! What did it for me was realizing that I was paying more for the interest than what I was borrowing in the long run, realizing that I was paying the bank to borrow my own money because if I wasn't in debt I could just spend my money without interest on top, and finally realizing that I couldn't even name or show what I was spending the debt on so I obviously didn't need to borrow to buy "it" whatever it was? Get angry, get so angry that you do something about it... take a look at how much your House cost, and then do the math in dollars (stop looking at percentages that look favorable). You are paying for your house at least three times over even with a super low interest rate. Now do some more math... see what a difference a few hundred dollars towards principle on that house does to your 30 year interest balance and how many years it shaves off that "Debt Sentence of Bondage". Ever heard of "Scared Money"? That's when you are using money needed for expenses to invest. Don't Do It! Investing, no matter how good you are at it, is never a sure thing and if you throw scared money at it, you risk losing what you need to survive. If you think you are broke, look again, how much do we waste without even considering the reality of Want vs Need? Do I need Starbucks? It's just $5... now take a good honest look at your spending line by line for the last year, how many just $5 did you throw away on how many trivial wants? Amazon, McDonalds, Starbucks, Google Games, all easily hundreds if not thousands of dollars each. If you are honest, these are obviously wants not needs, and that's ok as long as you are aware of it and do it on purpose, but don't complain that you are broke or wonder where you're money is when you can't afford your needs. Money has a mind of its own and if you don't tell it what to do on purpose, it will find somewhere to go on it's own.
1 like • 19h
@Greg Zimmerman Smallest to largest always made the most sense to me, because we are psychological beings and need to see the progress of goal achievement by closing out the smallest rather than the analytical accuracy of feeding highest interest first. It may math good but it's not visible and motivational. The "snowball" affect is not just predicated on your payments getting larger over time but on your emotional intensity and involvement as you begin to see daylight!
I'm going to help everyone set up their own AI agent that can run their life and their passive income!
I've got a lot of cool things cooking in the background. Go ahead and comment with anything that you would like to have AI automate for your life. Nothing is off the table. I'm open to any suggestions, but go ahead and share one or two things so I can get a good idea of what you guys want the most help with.
Poll
100 members have voted
0 likes • 3d
I would like to check both blocks please. I like it, I love it, I want more of it... Its scares me, I don't trust it, sometimes it's more work than just doing the work... But, when it gets it right, it's a time saver for sure! I would like a tool that I can feed .csv exports from my accounts into and get the raw data back combined in the same format with the capability to visualize and run dashboards the way I want to see them. I currently spend a lot of time copy paste formatting in excel because I am not happy with any of the commercial products I've used (QuickBooks, Rocket Money, etc...).
Forget APR for a second, here's the number that actually matters...
Hey everyone, It is easy to get blinded by massive headline APRs in DeFi, but APR is an annual projection for a market that changes by the minute. If you want to know what your capital is actually doing for you right now, the metric that really matters is your Average Daily Yield. Focusing on daily yield keeps your expectations grounded and helps you spot when a pool’s fee engine is genuinely firing. Here are the two simple ways to calculate it: The Quick Estimate (From APR): Daily Yield = APR/365 (Example: A 365% APR pool is generating roughly 1% per day). The Precise On-Chain Method (From Pool Telemetry): Daily Yield % = (24h Pool Fees/Pool TVL) X 100 (Example: $1,500 in 24h fees on a $100,000 TVL pool = 1.5% Daily Yield). When you track daily cash flow instead of chasing annualized fantasy numbers, managing your ranges and compounding profits becomes second nature. What daily yield baseline are you targeting for your active positions this week? Drop your thoughts below!
0 likes • 6d
This is great technical information and will help me look at my other investments from a different lens as well.
0 likes • 6d
@Dane Bollwinkel Thanx for the response. I'm trying not to ask too many questions until I finish running through the material, but this felt more conversational and point of perspective related.
Module-0 Complete... or is it?
I'm engaging the community as instructed at the end of Module-0 to "Level Up"... so technically I'm not complete with the Module because I haven't reached level-2 with 5 post engagements. Shhhh, I won't tell if you don't! (2 posts to go)
2 likes • 6d
@Traz Damji to be honest Module-0 is fairly simple and basic, I would have started on my phone sooner had I known they were such granular bite size chunks that wouldn't require my undivided attention. I expect, that the content will become more cumbersome as I continue my journey deeper. I've got to say, that the community Tips and other comment engagement throughout is giving me good vibes that there is something real and beneficial going on here.
0 likes • 6d
@Dane Bollwinkel looking forward to it, hoping MetaMask is a good fit since I already have some funds loaded there to play with. I'm working on setting up a separate bank account and email for this endevour as well, just to keep everything "Firewalled" if you will.
Updated Cheat Sheet
📖 Freedom with DeFi: Ultimate Terminology Cheat Sheet Welcome to your DeFi Translator! Whenever you hear a confusing word on a live call or in the community feed, look it up right here. Every term is explained in simple plain English so you can talk and act like a seasoned on-chain professional. I wanted to make sure I covered as much as possible. 1. 🛡️ Security, Wallets & Fundamentals (OpSec & Self-Custody) 🔑 Self-Custody (Being Your Own Bank) - Plain English: At a regular bank, the bank holds your money. In DeFi self-custody, YOU ARE THE BANK. There is no customer service phone number or undo button if you make a mistake. - Pro Tip: With total freedom comes total operational responsibility! 🛡️ OpSec (Operational Security) - Plain English: Your daily safety habits to keep scammers away from your money (using clean browser profiles, password managers, and bookmarked links). 🔐 Password Manager (Bitwarden) - Plain English: An encrypted digital lockbox (bitwarden.com) where you store complex 30+ character random passwords (xK9#mP2$vL9!qW5#zR4) so you never have to guess or reuse passwords. You only remember ONE Master Password to open the vault. 🔑 Seed Phrase (Recovery Phrase / Secret Words) - Plain English: A list of 12 or 24 secret random words generated when you create a crypto wallet. This is the master key to all your money. - Pro Tip: NEVER take a screenshot, photo, or digital note of these words. Write them down with a pen on paper or metal and put them in a fireproof safe off the internet. 🎣 Phishing - Plain English: Fake websites, Google ads, or messages designed by scammers to trick you into connecting your wallet so they can steal your funds. Always skip "Sponsored" Google search ads! 👛 Hot Wallet vs. Cold Wallet (Hardware Wallet) - Hot Wallet (OKX Wallet): Connected to your computer browser for fast daily trading and yield execution. - Cold Wallet (Hardware Wallet like Ledger): A physical handheld device kept disconnected from the internet. You must press a real physical button on the device to approve any outbound transfer.
0 likes • 6d
@Greg Zimmerman this is an amazing tool. I'm a military Vet and our culture is riddled with acronyms. So much so, that it is literally like learning another language, many identical acronyms have different meanings depending on the community that you are talking to (logistics, mechanics, medics, etc...). You can have entire conversations using nothing more than acronyms, not on purpose trying to be cute or funny, just by how engrained they are into our vernacular and subculture. Anyhoo... the first thing I always did when I moved into a new subculture like say from an Armor Division (Combat Tanks) to an Aviation Brigade (Helicopters), was to start an acronym library quicksheet to reference and learn the terminology for meetings and conversations, because they truly are speaking different languages and lingo. I hope you don't mind, but converted it to a word DOC so I could keep it handy on my desktop and update as I go along. It's original content is intact, I only added one sentence to your opening comment... "Additional terms can be found here on the Investopedia's WallStreetBets Slang Guide". Feel free to use it, make it your own, share it... or ask me to remove it from my post if you would prefer that it not be captured or distributed in this format.
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Justin Evans
2
13 points to level up
@justin-evans-6305
Iam not a product of my environment, my environment is molded by my actions!

Active 12h ago
Joined Oct 31, 2026
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