Do you have a recent college graduate who is unemployed, or if they are employed, dislikes and maybe even hates their first job? Well, don't feel bad, because by all estimates, at least half of all recent graduates are either unemployed or underemployed (working a job that doesn't use either their education or their ambition). It's difficult deciding who should feel worse, our kids or us.

The children of baby boomers (our kids) are going to college in record numbers. There are more applicants to American universities today than at any time in our country's history. There are also record numbers of foreign students flocking to American universities taking up a limited number of seats. Our college track and soccer teams have very talented South Americans, our swim teams include world class Australians and the University of Colorado's entire ski team is European. As a result of this growing imbalance of supply and demand, the price for each college seat continues to rise.

When you and I went to college, the monthly cost was equal to a car payment. Today it is a mortgage! I have three kids all heading to private universities. The average cost of one year of private college is approaching $40,000. State schools are quickly approaching $20,000. Today, it's not just a diploma, it's about the "campus experience" with multi-million dollar student centers, laptop computers, cell phones, cars on campus, semesters studying abroad, and semester breaks in the Bahamas. In my next life, I want to come back as one of my kids!

As our children near graduation (in four or more years), we hope that they get what we paid for