Instead of telling you how my family is doing OK during the coronavirus crisis, I wanted to share with you how our family is being negatively impacted.

From going through a logical exercise on how to predict a stock market bottom to providing suggestions on how to better work from home, I have been accused of being too calm and hopeful during this difficult time period. Instead of remaining optimistic, I should wake up from my dreamworld bubble and face the reality that doom is upon us.

Even though I’ve only heard from a few people online who have lost money in their investments (just read all the comments from people who said they were 100% in cash or short before the crash etc), I’m assuming there are some of you out there who are feeling the crunch. Maybe some of you are even a little scared about the future.

If so, I can see how my disposition can irk you. Let me attempt to mix things up.

When I graduated from college in 1999, a bunch of my fellow first-year classmates at GS proudly proclaimed they had either found a great one bedroom to rent or had purchased a condo somewhere in Manhattan.

At the time, I always scratched my head and wondered how they could afford to pay $2,000+/month for rent or $500,000 for a condo when our base salary was only $40,000 at the time.

As I got to know my classmates better, however, I learned many of them came from very wealthy families. There was a disproportionately large number of classmates who went to private universities. One classmate’s dad had been the Prime Minister of Canada. Another classmate’s parents were GS Private Wealth Management clients, where the minimum to be a client was having $25 million in investable assets.

Here I was, sharing a studio with my high school buddy for a total of $1,800 a month because neither of us wanted to spend over $1,000 a month on rent. A year later, my roommate abandoned me because his parents bought him a one-bedroom condo near the United Nations building for $260,000. Now that was a good buy.

Over time, I’ve come to realize there is no one specific way to achieve financial independence. Many people actually view having their parents buy them cars and homes after graduating from college as perfectly normal. As the bull market rages on, there will probably be even more support for adult children.

Although it feels GREAT to make your own money, the slog is often extremely difficult to sustain. Relying on your parents to get ahead is a much easier way to go.

When my wife was in her third trimester, we began to brainstorm about all the things we needed before our daughter was born:

• Name for birth certificate and Social Security #
• Sleeping arrangement
• The type of crib, bassinet, and sleeping devices to use
• The various size diapers, bottles, nipples, swaddles, hats, nose aspirators, clothes, socks
• The safest car seat
• New tires and recently performed car maintenance
• Childcare help

Once we got done with the basics, we moved onto education and finances. Because we already have a son in preschool, if our family remains in good standing, his school policy is siblings automatically have a spot when it’s time to enroll. I think this policy is pretty standard across all schools.

With preschool concerns out of the way, we focused on paying for our daughter’s education through a 529 plan. To keep things simple, my initial thought was to add my daughter to my son’s 529 plan. Alas, after doing some research, it’s probably better to have a separate 529 plan for each child.

If you are faced with the same dilemma, here are the reasons why a separate 529 plan for each child makes more sense.