Every parent can attest they are willing to do everything in their power to give their children a good life.

Once you have kids, the money will come because you become so motivated to work harder. Not only will you work harder and pay better attention to your finances, you’ll also likely get in better shape because you want to increase your chances of seeing your kids grow up!

Given the desire to give our children a better life, it’s understandable why wealthy families try to bribe their children’s way into various universities every year. We live in a hyper-competitive world.

When Lori Loughlin and Mossimo Giannulli’s plea bargain deal was announced, I was shocked.

Loughlin and Giannulli allegedly paid $500,000 to Rick Singer — the man at the center of the college admissions scandal and the founder and CEO of the company The Key: A Private Life Coaching and Counseling Company — to falsely designate their daughters as recruits to the USC crew team, though neither actually participated in the sport.

Despite evidence from the FBI showing they were guilty, Loughlin and Giannuli held out and stated they were not guilty. Meanwhile, many parents, including Rick Singer, admitted they were guilty. Things were not looking good for this celebrity couple.

For example, Napa Valley winemaker, Agustin Huneeus was sentenced to five months in prison for his role in the college admissions scandal. Prosecutors said Huneeus paid $50,000 for a proctor to sit with his daughter and correct answers as she took the SAT exam. He also paid $50,000 to a University of Southern California athletic department official and agreed to pay $200,000 more when his daughter was accepted to the school as a water polo player.

In another example, LA business executive, Devin Sloane pleaded guilty to fraud and conspiracy for paying $250,000 to get his son admitted to USC, also as a phony athlete. Sloan was sentenced to four months in prison.

Given Loughlin and Giannuli defied the government and paid much more in bribes, the general consensus was that they would ultimately receive a more severe punishment. Lucky for them, that was not the case.

A separate 529 plan for each child versus one 529 plan for multiple children makes the most sense. Let me share with you the reasons why in this post.

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 focused our attention 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.

Before becoming a father, I dreaded changing diapers. Now that I am a father, I long to win the poop lottery. To see my boy take a gigantic dump is curiously gratifying. Digestion system. Check!

Before becoming a father, I wrote a lot about supporting mothers because I couldn’t fathom having to carry a child in my belly for nine months. It didn’t seem possible to naturally give birth to something so big. Watching a C-section video is also uncomfortable. I felt guilty not providing equal care. It was the least I could do.

But now that I am a father, I’ve come to realize that I haven’t been giving fathers enough credit. Being a father is damn hard work! From 11pm – 6:30am shifts, to then having to go grind it out at work, to providing constant moral support, I give props to all dads.

There is a tremendous amount we fathers can do to provide for our children and make our partners’ lives easier.  

As any expecting first-time father would do, I read several books on how to support my wife during her pregnancy, what I should do as a father, and how to care for a baby after birth. I also talked to about 25 moms (12 of which were moms of the boys HS tennis team I coached) about what they wished they had more of or what they would have done differently during their 4th trimester.

Without hesitation, most moms told me they wished they had more support. The first 3-6 months after childbirth is usually quite brutal. The support could have come from more paid time off, more help from grandparents and friends, or more help from their husbands.

I also went down a deep rabbit hole online learning about a lot of parents who lost their babies during the first six months postpartum. It is very sad and fear-inducing, but it is also important to know what might happen without proper care.

Given I didn’t want to mess things up as a first-time father and we didn’t have any local support, I did more research on finding support postpartum. I landed on the benefits of hiring a birthing doula, a day doula, and a night doula.

After being super frugal since graduating from college, now was the chance to finally spend up on something that will help the people I love the most. Here is a guest post from my wife on everything you should know about hiring a night doula.

Before Sam and I had our first child, all I could really think about was getting through the pregnancy and surviving the birth. What I should have done was spend more time preparing for everything that comes postpartum.

Sure, we took newborn care classes, got all the appropriate baby gear, and prepared the nursery. We felt ready. When our son finally arrived though, Sam and I were flooded with indescribable joy juxtaposed with overwhelming first-time-parent anxieties and intense sleep deprivation.

After a few weeks, we realized we needed more help than we anticipated, and hired a night doula.

I’m going to explain why we decided to hire night doulas with both of our two kids, how much it cost us (not cheap!), and what our experiences were like hiring and getting support from night doulas.

So, just what is a night doula and should you hire one?

Stay at home parenting is one of the hardest and most rewarding things one can do. This article will share a day in the life of two stay at home parents who also work on a side business.

The purpose of this article is to:

• Help folks realize that working from home and taking care of a child is not as easy as you might think. It’s actually much easier to drop your kid off at daycare.
• Discuss ways to be a better parent and more efficient producer while at home.
• Encourage the 3% of the male parent population who are stay at home dads to speak up about their experiences. And of course hear from stay at home moms as well.
• To recognize there is no one way to raise a baby since every baby and family situation is different.
• Highlight how difficult juggling parenthood and work is during a global pandemic. After more than 10 months of sheltering-in-place with preschools closed, life has been extra difficult.

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