In Focus

Chick-Festing For the Future

We here at chickslayingnesteggs.com are working our beaks off trying to get ready for Chick Fest '01. With all the exciting stuff happening at the website (over 180,000 page views a month), the book (40,000 copies sold) and the Chicks' personal lives, Chick Fest '01 kinda crept up on us. It's only one month away, and I have yet to find a DJ. I think I just changed my mind to a karaoke machine and we'll see what Chick Cheryl is made of.

Then, my financial planner called. I hired a new one; no longer is it Stephen from Jersey who was tricky with his lingo, but my new man Ernie in Philly. Ernie helps me with everything under the umbrella of life planning: money, insurance, wills, mortgages etc... He doesn't get to go near my stock portfolio, because I make those decisions. It ticks him off, but that's life as a Chick's Financial Planner.

But get this, today Ernie informed me how much I was going to need for each of my children to attend a decent college. I'm going to share the information with you, and then you can decide if you should get your feathers on down to Chick Fest '01. Below is a chart of the ages of our four kids and what we'll need to send them to a college. The tuition is assumed to be $25,000 per year and that the average school tuition increases by 6% per year. For example, if they were headed to college tomorrow, they'd need $25,000 for this first year, $26,500 for the year after that, $28,090 for year three, and $29,775 for what had better be (hear that kids?) their last year. In total, here's what you'd need for your child if he went off to college today: $109,365! Ummm, just wait... it gets worse. Look at my kids' stats.

So in total, I need to invest $276,844 or $3,579 per month if I want to be able to afford to pay for all of my kids to go to college. First of all, they're going to have to get jobs and/or pretty huge scholarships, and secondly, why the hell did I have so many kids? But the fact of the matter is, they're going to go, and I want to be able to help in anyway I can.

But if you look at the chart, do you see a pretty cool trend? For Avery, my three year old, I only have to invest $54,000 for her to be able to attend college at a pretty good institution for four years! That's the power of investing and it shouldn't be ignored!! This is assuming that the 54K gets a rate of return of only 10% per year -- not even the market's average of 11%.

Now, before I was a Chick, I had no idea what any of that meant, and if I saw a figure like $262,000, I would roll my eyes. Fat chance my child would attend college at those prices unless they were the star athletes and got a full ride. But what you have to understand is, any money invested now will benefit you in the end, either for your children's schooling (every bit helps) or for your own retirement. Did you know that we live on average 16 years after we retire? Most people have no more than $25,000 accumulated at that point.and that is supposed to last sixteen years. Don't be most people! There is no better time in your life than right now to learn how to invest, where to invest and what it could be doing for you.

This is what we are going to be doing at Chick Fest '01. Chicks (around seventy-five women) are flying in from across the U.S and Canada to learn how to invest in the stock market, how to find companies to invest in, how to get a discount broker, how to start an investment club, and most important, have a relaxing weekend. For fun, we are having dinner on Friday night (with a mini-seminar) and then karaoke and dancing. On Saturday, we are having breakfast in our jammies (with mini-seminars) and then heading on down to the St. Croix River for lunch and some fun in the sun. Of course there will be games, prizes and beverages. Later on Sunday evening, we are having dinner at the Mall of America. Is there nuthin' better than learning about your investment future and having fun? We call it Chick-Festing!!

If you think it's about time you took an interest in the family investments, but can't stand the thought of heading to one of those all-day conferences at the City Center where you walk from booth to booth picking up sales pamphlets, Chick Fest is for you. If you're like me, you come away from those investment fairs more confused than when you went in. Take a look at the weekend's events and come to God's Country. You won't regret it!!