I read somewhere that poor people think about surviving day-to-day, the middle class thinks check to check and the wealthy plan for generations down the road. So what are you doing to ensure your future generations will have a stronger financial life than you did?

The thing I decided to do over the weekend was start college funds for the babies in the family. I have one newborn little cousin and one who’s three; they’ll both be getting 592 college savings plans in their names. I called up a financial adviser at Fidelity, where my sons’ college plans are and found out that anyone can start a 529 plan for a kid — you don’t have to be the parent. You can start one with as little as $50 and some of the plans allow you to deposit as little as $15 automatically per month. Sounds like a little, but even that much over the course of 18 years will add up to at least books for a semester or two.

Most 529 plans are associated with or sponsored by a state — you don’t have to live in that state to enroll in them, though, and all have federal taxes deferred on them. There are some state tax benefits, too, but you’ll need to read the fine print on which plan you choose to figure out which is best for you.  You can go to www.savingforcollege.com to read up more on 529s.

There’s a proposal in Congress right now to create a “National Save for Retirement Week”. Not sure what week that would be, but the point would be to emphasize financial literacy and officially encourage Americans to be proactive about putting money away for when they’re no longer working.

I think it’s a great idea, if it’s implemented right. I mean, if you could craft a campaign that had the ubiquity of the “50 Million Pound Challenge“, where you’d attach a prominent TV personality’s image to it and have him or her on commercials every day telling people to save, that might work.

So who should it be? Someone rich with pop appeal like a Jay-Z or Oprah? Or someone like a Suze Orman, who’s already synonymous with talking about money? And what kinds of messages would get you more interested in learning how to save your cash?

Just when you thought it was safe… a setback shark bites you in the arse.

The next few weeks are going to be the first real challenge in staying on track with my mission to get rid of all my credit card debt by the end of this year. So far, I’ve been doing great: between the end of February and the end of May, my own net worth is up more than 65 percent and most of that has been because I’ve been stashing money in my online savings and being really aggressive in throwing money at the card. Then Saturday came: car trouble. Car trouble that my regular mechanic said he couldn’t fix, so I had to go to the dealership.

And you know the dealership will always hose you. $766.56 for repairs. Not a killer, but way more than anybody ever wants to pay for an unexpected expense and certainly enough to throw me off on paying down the card for this month. And my mother and kids are coming up next week, which means mo’ money will be spent.

This is what emergency funds are for, except it’s hard to maintain an emergency fund if there’s always an emergency.

Not that I had any cash coming anyway, but according to a story over the weekend in the New York Times, there’s a bunch of reasons why counting an inheritance before you get it isn’t quite a good idea. The story actually lists eight reasons but the gist is that baby boomers don’t have enough saved and too many things to do with what money they do have. There’s also the danger of pensions being raided, and in many cases, money that would have gone to an inheritance is being given to kids and grandkids while their people are still alive to pay for cars, houses or weddings.

Everyone knows, or should know by now, that you have to check your credit report with all three credit bureaus every year to make sure that no one’s stolen your identity or that your credit rating hasn’t been hurt by incorrect information. But here’s something new to add to the list: there’s a company that might be keeping track of your work and salary history as well, and furthermore allowing potential employers and creditors to see that information.

According to this piece on Bankrate.com, a company called Talx is keeping that info. on about one-third of all workers in the US. You can bet that’s going to grow. The bad thing is that more and more companies are paying to access the info; the good is that you can write them or call up and get a copy of the information they have on you for free, once a year, just like your credit report.

Personally, I’m about tired of all these companies saving and selling information about me. Every one you read about, including Talx, claims that they use the greatest safeguards against abuse and theft ever! But let’s be real: we’re talking about technology here, and furthermore personal information. If there’s one lesson to be learned about the digital era is that businesses and government will abuse large collections of personal data when given the chance, and that hackers will find ways around safeguards faster than new ones can be put up.

Why will this be any different?

Last week employees at my company got an email that said the company was rearranging how it contributed to its employees’ retirement accounts. Translation: somebody’s about to get screwed out of some money.

The details went like this: No more contributions to the company’s pension plan; instead the company was increasing the amount it matches our 401(k) contributions to $1 for every $1 we contribute, up to 6 percent of our salary. It had been 50 cents before.

Therein lies who’s getting screwed as more and more companies make cuts and changes to their retirement plans: everybody does. I’m way too young and haven’t been here long enough to qualify for a pension, so that didn’t matter to me much. But I have older coworkers worried that they could lose pensions worth in the six figures if the company were to do a restructuring at some point. That must indeed suck.

On the other hand, it might sound like anybody in the 401(k) is getting a great deal: doubling down on free money. Not so fast though: see, our matches are done in company stock, not cash. So the company isn’t really paying out any money to us, just issuing shares. And those shares are in decline, so that dollar in stock I’m being given to match the real dollar coming out of my paycheck starts losing value the second it vests: 99 cents, 98 cents, 97 cents, 96…

Is it ANY wonder, folks, why young workers are more interested in getting what we can out of corporate America and moving on before its too late?

There might finally be jail time for some of the people involved in mortgage fraud during the housing boom.  The FBI is locking up hundreds of people in the mortgage business in jail for fraud, and has also targeted to Wall Street investment bankers.

I’m kinda glad to see this happening, not in the perverse sense of actually getting off on seeing people go to jail but as it relates to the debate over who’s responsible for the housing mess. I’ve always argued that people who bought houses they should have known they couldn’t afford, but they’re not the ONLY people responsible. Somebody had to approve all those loans and somebody had to profit from the unreasonable rise is home prices, and those folks need to be called to account.

I can’t wait to read the details of the cases against these guys.

And not just with that 27 percent interest rate they charge you. I got this link in an email from Vanguard, the company that administers my old 401(k) (which I need to roll over).

It breaks down the kinds of hidden charges and fees credit card companies try to tack on to your bill — if you let them. If you use your credit card to get cash at an ATM, you could wind up paying 3 percent of the amount you take out, in addition to interest on that money. Transfer your balance to another card and you could get hit with another 3 percent on that money. Even talking to a human being when you call customer service could cost you between $5 and $15.

So what there hasn’t been a new episode in years! The classic dance show Soul Train has been sold by its creator, Don Cornelius, for an undisclosed sum, the New York Times reported today. The new owners, who include the former head of Diddy’s Bad Boy Films and the group publisher of Ebony Magazine, now have plans to release DVDs of the old episodes ad are thinking about creating new ones.

It’ll be interesting to see how Soul Train, as a show and as a brand, holds its own in the era of 109th & Park and TRL.

Not that I’m advocating that approach, but apparently some are. A friend emailed me this story this morning about the rise of gasoline thefts. People are apparently so pissed, or so discouraged, by the cost of a gallon of petro that they’re jacking gas stations. Either that or criminals have just found another way to get paid. Some of the gas thefts sound like the work of organized crime:

“Two men emerge, tinker with a gas pump and somehow manage to activate it. Before long, vehicles begin filing through, as the two men direct them and help fill up their tanks. One trucker tops off at least three 55-gallon drums. The video shows drivers paying off the two men and making calls on their cell phones, perhaps summoning friends to partake in the bonanza.”

-Newsweek.com, June 12, 2008

I’ll be on NPR this afternoon talking about gas prices. If you have a story, or outrage, to share, let me know.