RESPs in the News

As your little ones head off to school, it's hard to imagine your thoughts will turn to post-secondary education in the not-so-distant future. If you haven't already set up a Registered Education Savings Plan (RESP), there's no better time than now.

If you have children chances are you'll want them to attend college or university after high school - and the sooner you can start saving, the better. It's estimated that for a child living away from home - a university education could cost between 75 to 100 thousand dollars.

When Scott Plaskett sits down with his clients in September, he begins with a simple: "What's new?" Usually, a lot. After Labour Day, people have stories, the certified financial planner says. These stories lead to financial conversations. "January 1 isn't really the beginning of the year for most families.

As my buddy put it the other day, "My Facebook newsfeed now consists entirely of wedding/engagement announcements and baby pictures." Getting older kinda sucks Gen Y, what can we say. Friends having babies means friends inviting you to their infant children's birthday parties.

Hello fellow personal finance readers. I go by the pen name "Teacher Man" due to the fact that I recently graduated from university and am in my second year of teaching high school. About 9 months ago my partner and I started a website called My University Money.

I need to open a registered education savings plan (RESP) for my kids. I understand there are a few different types and am trying to figure out which one is best. Can you help? Considering that tuition fees are rising far faster than inflation, any smart parent who wants to raise even smarter kids needs to start saving as soon as possible.

1. There's a $5,000 cap on withdrawals in the first 13 weeks of school. That could be a problem, since tuition and residence fees are usually about $14,000 per year, leaving you $9,000 in the hole. Here's where it pays to know the rules.

Amidst the activity of getting my two school aged children ready for back to school, two news stories really caught my attention this past week. The first was a recent CIBC poll that discovered 60% of Canadian parents with children under the age of 25 have saved less for their...