Yes 500 is a lot for me too.
My monthly earnings via posts and curation is not that big.

Lately, i have been converting my earned HBD to Hive and also using some from my HBD savings.
I was able to sell few of my HE tokens like Index (which is closing), Utopis etc
I also brought in some dogecoin to Hive Engine

All this adds up and a big power-up :-)

So, i am using all means available to improve my Hive Power.