Great post. This struggle is very real to me as well, and part of the reason I started my blog. It is so easy to get caught up in the should-be's, could-be's of life that you spend more time day dreaming about the future or regretting the past instead of living today. Whatever your life looks like, whatever the balance between work and family and pleasure, that is life. Life isn't one extreme or the other, but the blend of them all and our job is to blend them the best we can. The key becomes enjoying what you do, working hard, and starting to carve out margin for the things you've always dreamed about.
The signs make me nervous as well, but I think what you say is correct: what other choice do we have than to continue to follow our investment strategy? Real estate is an option I've considered, but not sure I am ready to jump in yet.
Short term, bailing out private companies will avert some signficant oscilations of the market, but at what long term price? We can't keep giving these companies a pass by putting their mistakes on the nation's credit card. I know it is becoming a tired argument at this point, but government can't spend more than they earn and and expect to escape consequences.