Money, Money, Money

That's the title of Chapter 4 in the "The Expectant Father". According to the book, by now I should start experiencing some concerns relating to finances. What the book doesn't know is that I'm ALWAYS thinking about finances - how best to secure a secure present and future. The chapter covers investment options, advice on saving for college, life insurance etc, etc, etc. Funny, I wasn't nearly as 'worried' until I read the paragraph on college tuition. With sweaty pits, chest pain and blurred vision, I set out to do a little research...here is some of what I found.

• On average, tuition tends to increase about 8% per year. An 8% college inflation rate means that the cost of college doubles every nine years.
  
  
• For a baby born today, this means that college costs will be more than three times current rates when the child matriculates in college.
  
  
• Parents should expect to pay at least half to two-thirds of their children's college costs through a combination of savings, current income, and loans.
  

During my 3min lunch break, I spent a little time working through our portfolio - LLNW is up 18% since buying it a few weeks ago, TIVO is still floating around 50%, APPL helping out at 40% and BBBB is up over 150% since purchasing in '05. Today, much of our portfolio is in the green; so banking that Monday will have the pick of his/her college, its hopeful Lina and I will not have to eat rice and beans in order to afford it.

While researching the holdings of some of our mutual funds, I came across an article entitled "The 50 Best Stocks in the World". We already own a number of these, either as individual stocks or as holdings in mutual funds.



Have a read - see if you agree.

Now back to work and onto Chapter 5 "The Lights are On and Somebody's Home"; referring to Monday now becoming more active and able to hear what is going on outside.