Guild Wars 2

So I am relatively new to this game. I only started playing a week or so ago, and currently I am working on two characters: a lvl 39 engineer and a lvl 29 warrior.
I’ve been working on crafting on both of them for a total of 4 crafting professions all around level 125 or so. I’ve been reading the wiki, reading the forums and Andrew McLeod blog post on crafting itself…
My question is whether I am doing something wrong or if I am mistaken in thinking I can keep the level of gear I am crafting even with my characters level?
Gathering basic materials is no problem, but the fine and rare ones seem rather absurd… I seem to rapidly out level the area just trying kill enough to gather them and buying them on the market has left me too broke to buy the skill book I need for my trait points.
Should I give up on crafting until I am level 80 and then waste time making a bunch of junk I don’t want even though that seems to be the exact opposite of the intent of the games makers?
Also just reading about the mystic forge stuff depresses me.

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.