Who Am I?

Who am I? I'm just a person living in the Bay Area in California trying to make navigate through these tough times and also keep my sanity in the process.

I've always been interested in personal finance, but there are so many temptations and during these tough economic times, it's hard to keep focused. There have been some stumbles, but I've always tried to keep a long term perspective while also balancing the need to live for today as well. Now, I am wondering if I should have kept my money in mutual funds and watch the value of my funds go down at least 30%, and whether I should keep trusting all of the so-called "experts" when they state that this is a true buying opportunity and that the market will eventually rebound. I guess all I can do is hedge my bets, continue to invest, try to save and try to keep my worries about the present at bay.

I guess my focus for this blog is to put my perspective out there. I think that you have to sacrifice quite a bit to live in the Bay Area, but the same basic principles apply regardless of where you live, that one should learn from past mistakes, save and plan for the future, but also live for today. I know that there is a chorus of personal finance "experts" out there, but I may be able to add a tiny voice to that chorus with a slightly skewed perspective about living well in an expensive area of the country.