School is Expensive….

I have been known to go a little crazy.

But, nothing makes me crazier than people who do not take advantage of the RRSP matching programs from their employer or the RESPs readily available to help them save for their children’s education.

If I had a dollar for my kids’ RESP for every time I’ve told someone about grant money they could be missing out on, my kids would be going to Harvard for 12 years.

Seriously it makes me sooooo twitchy. How can you not take advantage of this program  Even if you can not put away $150 a month for your kid due to low income, the government of Canada will STILL give you money for your kids RESP and it will still GROW. It’s called the Canadian Learning Bond. You need to look into that.

If your family income is less than $43, 953 then you get a one-time initial contribution of $500 and then $100 every year of eligibility until your child turns 15. And remember you have invested it. So, it’s going to grow.

My family qualifies for the Canadian Education Savings Grant. If we take full  advantage we could have an additional $7,200 per child to put towards their post secondary education.

I KNOW RIGHT.

Wow. I am using a ton of capitals. It’s because I am yelling at you.

Sorry, I am just sooooo damn passionate about this.

So let me break this down for you..

-RESP is a Registered Education Savings Plan, it is tax-sheltered until your kid is ready for post-secondary education.

-If you kid decides to NOT go to post secondary school do NOT freak out.  Your bank or  Heritage Education Funds you can roll that money into your own RRSP or pass it on to another kid (any government grant money will be returned, however)

-Yes, you can ask your relatives to put money into it instead of buying stupid plastic toys for Easter, Valentines, Last day of school, etc.

– There are also different grants available from different provincial governments.  British Columbia, AlbertaSaskatchewan and Quebec (with BC to add one in 2015)

So, yes, I am pretty passionate about this and so are the people at Heritage Education Funds. Not only can they answer all of your questions, but they also have a pretty wicked contest going on now: You could win 1 of 8 – $ 2,500 prizes going towards an Heritage Education RESP.

Paying for school is going to be hard, this could totally help.

As you can tell I am pretty passionate about this subject. It’s super important to me, that I’m happy to be helping out Heritage Education Funds with this important Back-to-School Campaign.