I don't want to burst your bubble, but my first Medium payment was for $0.11 which translates to roughly 6 pence in the UK lol ;-). I totally though it was cool too though. I'm a little bummed they are changing the payout to $10 because I was hoping that (maybe) breaking even in the future/justifying the $5 membership on a monthly basis would be a good goal for me. Still it is nice to see the pennies and like you I am realistic that I will very likely not make anything like the money so many people seem to write about. I would rather write things that I'm passionate about personally and don't want it to feel like a chore. I might change my tune if I suddenly start making real money though, who knows!