Sentinal Post

I've recently moved to San Diego for a new job after having lived in dirt-cheap Cleveland and have come to realize... DAMN! San Diego is friggin' expensive. Much of this is just due to your regular cost-of-living expenses (i.e. housing, food, gas, entertainment), but being southern California, there is a constant black-hole-like pull to try to "keep up with the Joneses". In fact, the default pathway is to try to keep up with your neighbors....whether it is driving a nice car, owning the largest plasma television, taking the nicest vacation; you get the idea. Is this a bi-coastal-blue-state thing? or is it a more universal result of the power of American consumerism? I must say, Cleveland didn't necessarily have the same feeling of materialism... but then again, Cleveland is an economic dead-end..i.e. the mistake by the lake.

So now living in San Diego, my mantra has become to not keep up with the Jonezez.... not only for the money that I will be able to save, but also to stay grounded and maintain self-worth without feeling that I have to purchase something to feel worth. Trying to not keep up with the Jonezez will be the underlying foundation from which I will post on various topics on personal finance, investing, consumerism, etc....

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