Each year when Father's Day rolls around, I'm reminded that I wouldn't trade the experience of raising my two kids for the world. But when I think back to how naïve my wife and I once were about the costs of raising children, I can't help wishing we'd been better prepared.

If you're a new dad, or about to become one, you'd better sit down. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, a typical middle-income family can expect to spend over $241,000 to raise a newborn child until age 18 – and that doesn't even include prenatal care or college costs.

Right now, you're probably more worried about getting enough sleep than funding your retirement. But at some point, you'll need to plot out a financial roadmap to ensure your family's future financial security. As one dad to another, here are a few strategies I've learned that can help:

Start saving ASAP. It's hard to save for the future when your present expenses are so daunting, but it's important to start making regular contributions to several savings vehicles, even if only a few dollars at a time:

Establish an emergency fund with enough cash to cover at least six months of living expenses. Start small by having $25 or $50 a month deducted from your paycheck and automatically deposited into a separate savings account.

Even if retirement is decades away, the sooner you start saving and compounding your interest, the faster your savings will grow. If your employer offers 401(k) matching contributions, contribute at least enough to take full advantage of the match.

Once those two accounts are well established, open a 529 Qualified State Tuition Plan to start saving for your children's education.

If funding these accounts seems impossible, look for a few luxuries you could cut from your budget for six months – lattes, eating out, premium cable, etc. After six months, evaluate whether they were actual "needs" or simply "wants" you can live without.

Get insured. If your family depends on your income, you must be prepared for life's unexpected events, whether an accident, illness, unemployment or death. Get adequate coverage for:

Health insurance. Everyone needs medical insurance, no matter how young or healthy.

Homeowner/renter's insurance. Don't let theft, fire or another catastrophe leave your family without a home or possessions. To reduce premiums, consider choosing a higher deductible.

Life insurance. You'll probably want coverage worth at least five to 10 times your annual pay – more, if you want to cover college costs. And don't forget to insure your spouse's life so you'll be protected as well.

Disability insurance. Millions of Americans suffer disabilities serious enough to miss work for months or years, yet many forego disability insurance, potentially leaving them without an income after a serious accident or illness. Ask about your employer's sick leave and short-term disability benefits and if long-term disability is offered, consider buying it.

Car insurance. Almost every state requires insurance if you own or drive a car, and for good reason: It protects you financially should you cause an accident or be hit by an uninsured driver. Make sure you have sufficient liability coverage to protect your net worth and income – it only takes one serious accident to wipe out your savings.

And finally, spend responsibly. If you buy things you don't really need or can't afford, you'll just end up having to work longer hours to pay for them – time you could have spent watching your kids growing up.

Jason Alderman directs Visa's financial education programs.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: PRACTICAL MONEY SKILLS: Financial advice for new fathers

CRESTVIEW — Vera Harold Owen, who turns 100 years old on Saturday, recalls a childhood of chasing boll weevils and picking cotton on a Southern Georgia family farm.

Before she reaches the milestone, she shared her life story — and some life lessons — while celebrating with friends at the Crestview Rehabilitation Center.

Growing up

Being the second of six children, with two younger sisters and three brothers, she said she was left to take care of the house and family while her mother often traveled as a midwife and her father worked in the field.

Owen and her late husband, Sam, grew up in the same neighborhood and married at 18 and 25, respectively, before buying a farm in the deep woods of Ashburn, Ga., and having two children.

Her upbringing and farm life prepared her for plenty of work to come.

Work ethic

“Hard work might hurt you, but it sure won’t kill you,” Owen said, referring to long hours spent in fields of cotton, corn and livestock when she wasn’t serving as the manager of a men’s dress-pant factory.

While controversy loomed as needles worked and bobbins spun, Owen said she was one of the few willing to train black women in the factory. Skin color didn't faze her; after all, they needed the work as much as anyone else, she said.

“We was just in a small town, and you know that town just prospered because everybody in town who wanted a job could go get a job … it was a good time,” she said.

She recalled being happy that some of the women remembered her as the one who taught them how to sew when she returned to the factory town years ago.

“I would be so proud that I had done something for somebody,” she said.

'Don't brag'

In addition to investing in others, Owen said her best advice is to be true to oneself; to live a good life.

What does that mean to Owen?

“Don’t live falsely. Live like you are. Live your character just like your character is … Don’t brag about nothing. Don’t make people think you’re what you’re not. Be what you want to be.

“To be what you want to be, be truthful, be loving and kind. Be kind to everybody.”

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Near-centenarian advises being kind, living an authentic life

The great thing about self-publishing is that anybody can release their inner novel.

The bad thing is that many wannabe authors do.

Cliché-riddled tomes fraught with improbable scenarios and stilted dialogue often fill such books and e-books.

Fortunately, "The Last Flight of the Electra," a finely wrought tale of nautical adventure and historic conjecture, isn't among them.

Crestview author Paul A. Hinton combated the first-time writer's urge to beleaguer his 360-page adventure with metaphor, mercilessly slaughtering literary darlings in a successful effort to skirt the traps into which many novice authors have tumbled.

"Stephen King tells you to get rid of the adverbs and get rid of the clichés," Hinton said. "You don't realize how much you think in clichés until you start writing. You get trained in them in Southern culture."

Historic conjecture

Hinton, a music minister at the First United Methodist Church, found inspiration for "Last Flight…" 10 years ago on a mission trip to the Marshall Islands.

Since then, his patient wife, Cecily, has put up with another woman in Hinton's life: aviator Amelia Earhart, who vanished during a 1937 attempt to circumnavigate the globe.

During a tour of Roi-Namur island, Hinton saw the ruins of a secret Japanese mini-submarine program base operational more than four years before the attack on Pearl Harbor.

"The islanders claim they saw Amelia there," Hinton said. "They said in one of the jail cells they found a brooch or a pin with the initials 'AE' on it."

Taking cues from countless reports, investigations, searches and historic conjectures, Hinton weaves an exciting tale of an elderly Marshallese mariner who constructs an oversized outrigger from the remains of Earhart's Lockheed Electra and sails it to Hawaii to deliver the flyer's journal.

His main characters, including the mariner Truc, the British sailing couple who first encounter him, several Coast Guardsmen, and a Honolulu TV crew, are richly developed and believable.

Forgivable typos

A delightful love story enhances the tale without getting smutty or drippy, and sufficient technical detail makes situations believable  — and exciting — but not ponderous.

There are also quite a few typos, mostly the kind spell check won't snag. The admiral's walking "gate" comes to mind.

And just as Ian Fleming famously issued James Bond the wrong gun in an early 007 novel, experts might find some technical error to quibble over. Like a Honolulu TV station would have a K call sign rather than a W.

I know it, and my TV friends know it. But do I care? Not a whit, because "Last Flight of the Electra" tumbles along with such compelling, page-turning energy that a first-time author's minor errors are easily forgiven as readers enjoy a sensational beach read.

CHECK IT OUT

"Last Flight…" is available to check out at the Crestview Public Library. It also is available for download and in print from Amazon.com, and in print from the author, 797-5314 or at Salon Josephine, 509 N. Ferdon Blvd., Crestview. 

Email News Bulletin Staff Arts and Entertainment Editor Brian Hughes at brianh@crestviewbulletin.com, follow him on Twitter @cnbBrian or call 850-682-6524.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: BOOK REVIEW: Crestview author offers compelling resolution to Amelia Earhart mystery