Backup 4 steps, forget the past, and look at yourself from a distance. You live, since quite awhile, on a waning silver stack. After that quite awhile, that silver stack reached a low level that, combined with an eventual further dropping price, makes you finally (!) face the day of stack run-out. Your entire focus sits on the question whether to sell now or not. If you sell, you miss an eventual higher price, and if you don't sell, you miss the current maybe high price. That's your focus. No matter the outcome, it doesn't change your situation, it only shifts forward or back the moment of your stack / money run-out. And again, this already after a so long time. Well, that's just the wrong focus. Even IF the better decision would be made, it just postpones without changing the final outcome. It's like someone on a sinking ship that runs to higher and higher decks until there is no deck higher anymore and the ship sucks him along to the bottom. You should jump off the ship and swim away. This part of the analogy references finding a job, and an income, no matter what and which. The rest is, at best, just postponing the inevitable outcome your choices bring. In two words: mental problem.
Very sorry to hear of the hell you've been through Recon. Don't know what your formal qualifications are, but if you don't have any then consider doing a degree or post grad part time. There are heaps of things you can do to improve your skills while applying for jobs. If you are looking for web development jobs, learn PHP - get a book or look at online tutorials. Get skilled up on Joomla and Drupal. Think of a website idea of your own and build it in Joomla or Drupal and put it online. You'll at least have something to point employers to that you've built. Offer to build websites for others for free. Anybody. The local fish and chip shop or any other business you deal with. Learn how to develop mobile apps. Think of a simple app and develop it for android. I don't know how old you are but unfortunately there definitely is age discrimination in IT especially with programming type of jobs - employers want young programmers. Nobody can answer this for you. Nobody has a crystal ball to know what will happen to prices in the short term (even if they think they do). Sell part of your stack if you need the money. It's just metal. If it's a loss it's a loss. Compared to all the other shit you've been through it's nothing.
I won't give you lifestyle advice because it would shock you. But regarding the metals, I would sell it all and move on. IMO, the reason you're frustrated with you investment is because you bought at the wrong time. Today I could sell 80% of my stack at a 250% profit in $. Timing is everything... My mate always says that wealth is built on the buy. Damn right! A lot of people think they can invest, but when you look at the numbers it's obviously not the case... So yeah, cop it on the chin, learn from the experience and live on to fight another day. Keep moving on. There always will be another cheap asset to buy in the future. I would concentrate in reducing stress in my life, so taking out the chart-painting banksters out of the picture and stop worrying about cash for a while would be a good start.
I am obviously very sorry to hear about the long term stress you have had to deal with, and I'm not going to blabber on about what you should have done because I don't now you enough to judge. What I would do is just sell the lot right now and forget about the spot price. It sounds crazy but if you're financially hurting, a number in the bank is far more soothing than a pile of metal on the floor - you only realize that after the deed is done though. You have a nice amount of metal, you have at least a years worth of time in just that. I don't know if you the time to de-stress but if so do that, spend some time with your kid and forget the mess you went through to do so, then go to an employment agency and go for some casual work. You won't get great money but it's a start (and often a window in to permanent employment) employment agencies basically control most of the frequent unskilled labor jobs in their given suburbs. While you're doing that run an ad in the paper as a mobile IT specialist, there is still a market for it, my mate still runs a PC repair shop in 2014 without any dramas. Ultimately, you have time on your side, you should be very grateful of that - most unemployed do not have the leeway you do at the moment.
So today's lesson is... (for us the 20ish year olds) Dont get married, dont have children... get a dog.. and your retirement will be glorious
After going through 43 surgeries I FINALLY got disability approved. My hands got pretty much destroyed in the process. I can't type for more than about15 mins. at a time and the last surgery was a total knee replacement. I was making close to 6 figures and now disability checks-and they SUCK. Thank God my house and car are paid for. I would be thankful for ANY job I was able to do. I've tried several things and nothing has lasted even a week so it CAN get worse buddy! I don't have any debt so I have been buying silver and have stacked up a LOT for my daughter. Now that you have your daughter you might want to doctor that resume so it doesn't look like you are over qualified! Well that's about all I can type at once but good luck and hope things will work out. If you have a fire sale let me know!!!
Recon, are you still reading this thread? Try to stay positive. Its hard. One idea I've heard is to get involved in an open source project, or start your own. This shows you are passionate about software development and gives you something to talk about during interviews. If an employer sees you are excited about programming outside of work then that will put you ahead of other applicants who consider it "just a job". And working on a project during a period of unemployment hopefully should give the interviewer a positive view of your motivation when they see you are committed to staying involved and active in software development. Best of luck with everything!
