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As a parent, one of the smartest decisions you can make is investing in a Registered Education Savings Plan (RESP) for your child’s future. You’re saving for your child’s education while taking advantage of government grants that can give you free money (yes, you read that correctly).

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An RESP is a type of investment account that allows you to earn tax-sheltered investment returns (plus Education Savings Grants, known as ESGs) for your child to use towards paying for their post-secondary education. On top of saving on taxes, the government contributes up to $500 a year – for free. But wait, there’s more reasons why you’ll want to open up an RESP for your child.

RESPs give you free money (for real)

For every dollar you contribute to your child’s RESP, the Canadian government will contribute 20 cents up to a max of $500 per year to a maximum of $7,200. Pretty awesome, right? That’s basically a guaranteed 20% return on your investment without even accounting for the growth of your investments.

RESPs allow you to invest your money

One of the huge advantages to investing in an RESP is that you’re able to invest the money in any way you would like. Mutual funds, ETFs, GICs, stocks, and bonds are all open for investing when you’re looking at your RESP. This allows your money to grow exponentially on top of receiving free money – sounds to good to be true, doesn’t it?

RESPs come with tax advantages

The government will even cut you a tax break encouraging you to contribute to your child’s post-secondary education. Like a Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP) and a Tax Free Savings Account (TFSA), you don’t have to pay tax on capital gains and interest income, as long as your investments aren’t withdrawn early.

Beware of the Group RESP!

Group RESP plans charge extremely high fees and the big banks can charge account opening and administrative fees too. Worse, if you miss a single Group RESP payment, even by accident, they can charge penalties and take all of your investment gains and grants. Yeah, we think it’s a really crummy thing to do too. Thankfully, there’s a better way to get all the benefits of an RESP without any of the pitfalls.

Planswell to the rescue!

With Planswell, you’ll get a holistic financial plan that’ll help you open and invest in an RESP so you can get your kids off to university without sacrificing your current lifestyle. The best part? It only takes 3 minutes and it’s completely free.

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