Investments for kids (off topic)
ajross: My wife and I looked at 529's for our 9 month old, and most decided against them.  Partly because over the 18-22 year time frame (assuming relatively conservative investment choices) the tax benefits really aren't that large.  And some of it is a risk thing: there's a very large cost spread (both tuition and financial aid availability) between different schools.  Putting enough in to be worthwhile at an out of state private institution runs the risk of putting in too much to be useful for an in-state public school, etc...Basically, it just seemed simpler and more flexible to firewall off the savings now in a regular account (which, to be fair, we haven't actually done yet) than to deal with the 529 stuff.