upsideofmoney

Hey, Barbara here. I’m based in the mostly sunny SF Bay Area, right near a famous bridge.  I’m a late baby-boomer, and I’ve been at this writing thing for a while (say, 20 years) and I’ve got some ideas about getting and staying on the UPSIDE of money I’d like to share.

A little background:
Starting in my early twenties, I learned about investing with my own hard-earned money and a couple of books. (I did have a mentor, which I recommend.) I bought a REIT, invested in silver and , took my company stock options and bought a fixer , then began to look for ways to invest that let me sleep at night–without all the hammering. Some ideas tanked, others didn’t. I swing traded, studied calls and puts, and did graduate study in technical analysis and stock market analysis. I built up and paid down debt, scrimped and saved and got creative during two recessions. I learned and grew and started writing about it. Through it all, I kept looking for the UPSIDE and was thrilled to watch peer-to-peer lending grow up and for microfinance to take root around the world.

I have a BA from Oberlin College and a certificate in financial planning from UCLA. I studied technical analysis at Golden Gate (the school, not the bridge) and am a certified Credit Counselor. My work has appeared on MSN Money, examiner.com SF, Minyanville, and numerous blogs.