For me in practice, I hardly have made any serious gains from Bitcoin, Yeah, apart from using it as a payment medium for jobs I do for clients. Are there other ways people like us who are late adopters benefit from Bitcoin?
What about the BTC's that you earn from your job? It seems like you are some kind of a VA or something that works online but I think most of them pay well. The earnings that you can get can also get boosted once BTC value rises and it can happen even if you don't HODL but only upon receiving your payment from your client. You think you are late but there are still people who can be later than you, so don't get discouraged okay? You receiving BTC as a payment method is already a benefit from Bitcoin.
You shouldn't ask for more actually. In the forum, there are lots of users who are getting paid in a signature campaign and I believe these people aren't also involved in hodling, trading, or any other else but they are already very thankful for this.