Everyone can do what they like with the Hive they earn, but I'm personally always a little dismayed that the majority of people posting choose to just cash out.
The main reason for this is if you're doing so then you're clearly not interested in contributing to Hive security and governance by holding a decent amount of stake, which is just irrational when it's the system you depend on for a portion of your income.
But a further reason is that you're probably missing out on greater future gains down the road given the compounding power of Hive.
Half of your Hive earnings are Powered Up and if you just leave it that way you get a just < 10% APR in curation, and you get to give back to others.
The other half is in liquid HBDs and you could put these in savings for a current 15% return.
If you saved your earnings over 10 years....
If we assume $300 worth of earnings a month, OK that is quite high and assumes a payout of $20 per post (posting daily) then this is the calculation:
NB I put in 10% a year to future proof this....
After just 10 years those earnings compounded have earned you $60K compared to the $36K you would have cashed out as you go...
Furthermore, the chances are you'd earn more on your posts going forwards if you did Power Up more, I've got 120K HP and almost none of that votes on people who cash out on a regular basis - nearly all of it, probably around 95% goes on longer term Vesters, and I know of people who control a few million Hive between them who have the same policy.
NB I'm not saying you can't cash everything out now, but being patient and letting your Hive/ HBDs accumulate for the longer term will earn you more!
My own plans....
Looking at that potential (conservative) $60K gain over 10 years, that means that with that yielding at 10% I could, after 10 years, just skim $6000 a year and hold my HP/ HBds level.
Something else I can do is the old sell Hive high and buy HBDs low, trading in and out is another option.
Or I just keep all my earnings Powered Up/ stacked as HBDs and just keep on keeping on.
Whatever I choose to so I'm certainly not planning on ever having < 100K HP again!