I just wrote this email to our parents. It's soooo... real. Hidden in the lines is anxiety and hope and prayer and worry and fear and love. Part of me wishes I made a lot more money so that I wouldn't have to be as anxious about this stuff. But then part of me is concerned with the sacrifices necessary to make a lot more money. Part of me is so content and happy that I feel like my heart will burst.

(sigh)

Money will getcha if you let it.

Please Lord, don't let it get me.

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Hey guys,
I just wanted to let you know that I did open a 529 Plan for the boys. It's through the Utah plan because it had very low fees and was not too complex.

Check it out here.
http://www.uesp.org/index.html

The option I chose was Option 10.
It's outlined below.
-
New Investment Option
A new static investment option with more exposure to international equity funds will be
available to account owners October 1, 2008. This option results in the highest allocation
in international securities of any current UESP product:
• 70% in the Vanguard Institutional Total Stock Market Index Fund (VITSX)
• 30% in the Vanguard Institutional Developed Markets Index Fund (VIDMX)
This new investment option (Option 10 Equities—30% International) will provide
investors with greater access to the world market and growing regional economies.
-
If you want to give gifts to the boys that will help pay for their college and you're worried that Annalisa and I will just take the money and spend it haphazardly, the best way to do that is to:

Make a check payable to UESP
Send to UESP, PO Box 145100, Salt Lake City, UT 84114-5100
Include the beneficiary’s name and account number on the check
The beneficiary's name is: XXXXX and the account number is: XXXXX
Print out the gift notice at http://www.uesp.org/pdfs/GiftNoticeChristmas.pdf and just give that to the boys.

I can change the beneficiary whenever I want. Making 3 different accounts would have incurred more fees. The max that you can have in any account is $330,000. So far, we've saved $XXXXX total for all the boys. But that is just sitting in 3 separate savings accounts as emergency funds in case I lose my job. I haven't commited that money to UESP yet. I just opened the UESP account with $XXXXX.

Fidelity says that we'll need:
$138,000 to send Isaiah to U of M
$152,000 to send Ethan to U of M
$167,000 to send Owen to U of M

The puts us at $457,000 for all three.
Any help you want to give would be appreciated tremendously by us and the boys.

Thanks guys,
Eric