<prompt> Human: Hi all,Im a long time lurker. I just had a baby - undoubtedly, the best day of my life - but the birth has triggered bouts of finance-induced depression. Im 37. Did a PhD in a technical discipline about 7 years ago, which costed me 7 prime earning years. Since we had a kid, I realized my life of being a constant nomad isnt going to cut it anymore. When I started looking for houses compared to my finances, I had a big freakout. I have about 250K saved up .. 180K in retirement and 70k in savings. I only have investments as part of my retirement .. the savings are in short term CDs. My income is just over 180K. Unfortunately, were not going to be dual income for a few years ... we want my wife to take care of the baby and eventually well be working on baby 2. How screwed am I? I looked at my last 7 years and it seems I blew 180K on rent high cost of living area. After taxes, that has been the biggest sinkhole in my life. Given the sky high prices, I have a bad feeling Ill be buying at the top of the market.Some general advice or book suggestions would be appreciated. Ive been getting a feeling of utter dread in the pit of my stomach for the past week. I feel Ive been priced out of housing forever due to the specialized degree, I cant move to a lower priced area without halving my salary and basically becoming a general IT guy.  <response>: Youve got a 180,000 income and 70,000 liquid and are wondering how screwed you are? Youre not impoverished and there is no reason why a family of three cant live comfortably on what youve got now. 