As a new parent, I read the Financial Tips for Expecting Parents column on CNN Money and the New Parents’ Top 10 Mistakes on MSN Money with great interest. Both columns stress the need to:
- Get adequate life insurance for both parents.
- Get disability coverage for both parents. (I am glad we had disability coverage when my spouse was advised strict bed-rest during the last few months).
- Make a will.
- Contribute to retirement savings before saving for junior’s college.
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3 responses so far ↓
1 Jose Anes // Aug 26, 2005 at 11:31 am
Absolutely agree.
Contribute for your own retirement first (after doing all of the paperwork).
Then… make sure you have your own dwelling and have built up equity on it.
That way… when the time comes to pay for junior’s college:
1. You may have a house paid off and a retirement taken care of. You just work to pay Jr college, and then you retire.
2. You can always take equity line on house to pay for college.
3. Worse case, retirement savings cal also be used for college.
2 The Dividend Guy // Aug 26, 2005 at 1:51 pm
I concur with jose anes. Saving for college is important but there is a lot of marketing that is done by banks and the like to guilt a family to contribute to a college fund (Canada = RESP) when the money can be much better served going to other places. The key is to still invest that money somewhere (pay down mortgage, investments, etc.) rather than just blow it on other stuff.
3 Canadian Capitalist // Aug 28, 2005 at 6:17 pm
Jose and TDG:
Its so important to take care of our retirement. Our kids will really appreciate if we aren’t dependent on them in our older years.
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