Most children achieve certain milestones the first year of their lives. At about two months, they begin to smile socially. Two months later, they're laughing and squealing, and pushing themselves up on their wrists. Two months later, they're speaking in syllables. At nine months, they're pulling themselves up to stand. At one year, they begin to imitate you. Multiply this by eighteen, and you've got a mini-you entering the world.

Let's put this into perspective: If you have a child who is 21, you might remember Ted Turner started the first 24-hour/7-days-a-week Cable News Network (CNN) the year your child was born. If you have a child who is graduating from high school this spring, actor John Lithgow was providing comedic relief in the movie, "Terms of Endearment" while you were in labor.

My daughter was born in 1989. Milli Vanilli was the (non)singing rage that year. San Francisco almost fell into the Pacific with the Loma Prieta earthquake, and the first World Wide Web server and browser was developed by Tim Berners-Lee while working at CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research).*

This last fact still bowls me over. It's only been twelve years since the WWW was born. It's only been two years since the conception of most online stock brokerages. These days, it's the rage to invest for your child - and it's even more popular to teach children how to invest for themselves.

Progress is wonderful. So is time, if calculated wisely.

Cora loves math, and the calculators provided by BUYandHOLD are one of her favorite toys. My favorite is "What will it take to become a millionaire?" Cora's favorite is " What will it take to save for a college education?"

Cora will be ready for college in six years. I'm astounded at what I need to save for just one year of her tuition. It's a definite reality bite. If today's cost per year is $25,000, an inflation rate of 3% per year will make that same tuition $29,924 in six years.

If there is absolutely no increase in inflation during the four years she attends college, I'll still need to come up with the price of a moderate home to pay for her education. Four years comes to $119,696. I don't believe I've made that much money my entire life.

If you have a newborn, the cost of education in eighteen years at 3% inflation will skyrocket. Today's $25,000 per year education will be $42,871 by the time your child graduates from high school. Ouch! Your good news is this: If you begin to invest now in your child's education, you will only need to save one-third of what I will have to save to meet the goal of college. This, of course, depends on our tax rates, returns on investments, and how much we have in our coffers at the moment.

I know it might seem ridiculous to be evaluating college for our children when they're just beginning to imitate us. A lot can happen in eighteen years. Maybe we'll meet a rich someone who can't live without us. Maybe we'll win the lottery. Maybe the government will decide college needs to be a free-for-all. Maybe.

Chances are more likely we'll run up against obstacles. We'll need medical care. We'll need clothes and food. Our rents, mortgages and health care will go up in cost with inflation. We can't guarantee our jobs will be available next year, let alone in almost two decades.

"Stuff" happens on a day-to-day basis that accumulates into years of experience and memories. This would include what we save and spend during this time. Try the calculator entitled, " What's it worth to reduce my spending?" Curbing "wants" versus "needs" can be a pain, but cutting corners here and there over a period of time can save an amazing amount of money. It can be just as amazing to watch that money grow over the same period of time with investments.

Give the savings calculator a whirl. If you have no money saved, and you can invest just $20 per week for eighteen years at 11% interest, and your state and Federal taxes total 38%, with the 3% inflation rate, you will have saved $28,759. This is if you pay taxes on interest earned. If you sock $20 away under the mattress once a week for eighteen years, all you'll have is $18,720 - that doesn't account for inflation or taxes.

You can check into scholarships, Federal Aid and other sources for your child's future education. Set goals based on your knowledge, and be just as prepared to go with the flow of change. You can try to aim your child down an easy and safe path, but they will always go their own way.

Cora has always wanted to be a teacher. When she was four, she would enlist the neighborhood cats for math lessons. She spent more time persuading the cats to sit in a row than she did in the practice of instruction. This is pretty realistic. Keeping our cats, ducks or children in a row can take up much of our time.

This past month, Cora successfully imitated a current popular singer in a talent show. Afterwards, she said, "You know Mom, I was thinking it might be easier to make a bunch of money singing than being a teacher." She hurried home to figure out how much she needed to save per month to be a millionaire by age thirty-five.

Dreams can become realities, you know. As long as we keep saving and investing in our future, we can sing and teach. Time can be on our side.

Until next week.

Linda Goin

* InfoPlease.com, part of the Learning Network, is a great place to take yourself and your children for informational resources.