I have socked away about $2700 into the baby bean's 529 plan.

My strategy is to build a diversified Vanguard portfolio, one fund at a time.
So far, the money is invested in:
-Vanguard Aggressive Growth Index Portfolio -Vanguard 500 Index
-Vanguard Developed Markets International Stock Index
I'll add more options once more money is in the account.

Also, I had a conversation with my MIL today. The in-laws want to contribute to his college, but they are retired. Every dollar they would contribute would come out of an IRA, and would thus increase their annual taxable income. They are trying to avoid this as they live in a very high tax state (Vermont).

This is a problem that hadn't even occurred to me. So, we tried to figure out what accounts would work best for them. I'm at a loss, so if any of you have any ideas on how to address this problem, I'd be interested to here them.

I just finished the first Rich Dad Poor Dad book and am halfway through the investing one, which is the third in the series. I'm not sure what I think of them. At first, I was interested because they were a little different than the standard p. finance books out there. But now, I don't know.

In the investing book, there is a lot of talk about generating assets. I think the idea is right on, but I'm not so sure the advice is as nitty gritty how to as I'd like it to be.

I'm wondering if there is another book out there that could give more concrete advice on how to create assets and generate passive income...

One day, I would like to not have to depend on work and jobs for money. And not just in a living off of dividends in retirement kind of way, you know?

Anyway, if you have any thoughts on this. Or any book recommendations, I'd love to hear them.

I'm a financial journalist, so I think I do a decent job managing my finances. But, every week at the library I load up on 4 or 5 personal finance books and read them all just in case. I call it job research, and usually it's no big deal.

But last night, I read the Automatic Millionaire by David Bach. It was great. So simple. And,even though I do a good job staying on top of the cash as family CFO, it made me realize we weren't paying ourselves first and we could do so much better.

We hadn't "paid ourselves first" since Hurricane Katrina threw a wrench in our plans. But that was almost three years ago. I guess that kind of financial/emotional stress makes you even more conservative, to your own detriment.

So, this morning, I hit the computer and automated our savings.

I set up bimonthly transfers to our stock brokerage account, my hubby's Roth IRA, the high-interest online savings account, and the 529 college savings plan for our soon-to-be-born baby.

The money will be taken out on the Monday after each payday and will be enough to max out our personal savings goals for 2008, and then some.

I hope it will also instill more discipline because now we REALLY only have what's left over to spend.

Today was also great because my hubby's annual bonus finally came through. Although taxes cut it in half (love those taxes), it allowed us to pay off the new windows we just had installed. I had used the credit card as no-interest loan for them, so that's now paid (And I get rewards on top of that...)

I also socked away the "monthly payments" I should have made to the above accounts in January and February, so we will be on track for the year.

I boosted the reserve in our checking account, too. I had run the balance razor thin since Christmas, in part because of the holidays and the window expense. I wanted to pay for all of that with normal cash flow, not savings, even though they were larger, partly unplanned expenses.

And we still have a little left over. I think what's left will (hopefully) be enough to cover any out of pocket expenses we'll have to pay the hospital when our baby is born this Spring. Of course, it's nigh impossible to read the mind of the insurance company...

Well, looks like the stimulus plan is going to make it through. I'm really not a fan of the idea, but I guess it's time to at least entertain the idea of what to do with the money.

Bush won't be happy. It won't stimulate the economy.

Looks like we're in line for $1,200 as a couple.

With a new baby due April 4, we've decided to put all of it into junior's 529 college savings fund. We'd planned to contribute $2,000 this year (that's the max for the state income tax deduction). So we'll only need to put in $800 after that to reach our goal.

Hey, I don't know how expensive having a baby is going to be, so it does feel good to not have to think so much about scraping together the money for that future college education!

Another check from a freelance assignment came in the mail today, so that's another $225 toward the IRA goal. I'm now up to $2,199 out of the $5,000 I want to contribute for 2008.

Here's the rub. I was reading the IRS guidelines on IRA contributions (yes, I'm a geek) and it appears that I have to subtract half of my self-employment tax from the amount I am allowed to contribute. .

If I have a good year, this won't be an issue, as I will have enough freelance income to max out the IRA and then some. But if I make less than $5,000 this year, I won't know exactly how much I can put into the IRA, due to the SEP calculation.

What to do.

I guess these are the challenges facing the self-employed.

At the moment, I've just been putting the entire freelance check into a reserve bound for the IRA account. I guess I can wait and see how much I have in it at the end of the year and do a quickie calculation.

Any other ideas?

I sold two book through the Amazon marketplace, so those profits are going to the Tiki Bar Fund.

(I'm applying the $20 challenge principle to my Tiki Bar Fund-- using new sources of revenue to boost my savings.)

The total sales came to $17.87, but after shipping and fees my profit was only $7. (Boo.) The tiki bar fund total is now $399.19.

I should be able to add more to that by the end of the month, due to some pending eBay sales.

On a more exciting note, I just got a check for $1,947 for a freelance project I did late last year. It's going directly into my IRA.

My goal is to max out my IRA this year with $5,000 in contributions. This is a good jump start. Only $3,053 left to go!

On another note, I just got $75 worth of Amazon gift certificates in the mail. We use an Amazon credit card to and these are our accrued "Rewards". I used the certificates to buy my crib mattress, so that was a nice bonus for baby that didn't have to come out of our pockets.