Education planning for your grand children?

Education planning for your grand children? By Bruno M. Scanga Deposit Broker, Insurance & Investment Advisor First you were putting on their diapers. Then you walked them to their kindergarten classroom. You helped them with their math homework. You listened to their loud music through the walls. Are you ready for what comes next? Post-secondary education tuition can cost over $ 20,000 per year. If you have multiple children or grand children you are looking at a lot of money if you are planning on helping them out. How can you make this process easier? A Registered Education Savings Plan (RESP) is one option. Contributions to these accounts receive a 20% match from the Canadian Education Savings Grant up to $2,500 per year, which is $500 of free money. If your income is low, you can receive a 30-40% match on the first $500. Setting up a trust account is another choice to help pay for college. Saving for Post-secondary education can appear daunting, but it doesn’t have to be. Your Financial Advisor can help create a road map so you can make progress in steps. Before you know it, your child will be out of Post-secondary education, and you’ll be putting on diapers again – on your grandchildren. Spoil your Grandchildren with Education Grandparents, in their children’s eyes, can be a source of frustration. Not because they do not love their grandchildren but because of the way they express it in a material sense. Grandparents tend to buy too many things that are not age proper, too expensive or items that do not reflect the parent’s sense of value; even though the parent likely established their values based on the influence of ‘their’ parents. It is also true that a great number of grandparents give money for birthdays, or other holidays. So how can a grandparent stay in the good graces of both their kids and grandkids? In a word; ‘education’. Giving the Gift of Knowledge Most of the last few generations focused on keeping a roof over their family’s head and providing food and clothing. There was little left for ‘luxuries’ and if there was, those luxuries came in the form of hockey registration and equipment (upgraded year after year), dance lessons or musical instruments. Now that baby-boomers have reached retirement age, there is much more time on their hands and more disposable income from life-long savings and pensions. Many grandparents are turning their focus to providing their grandchildren with whatever advantages were not necessarily available for their own kids. One prominent choice of giving a gift that helps the grandchild and keeps their own children happy is an RESP (Registered Education Savings Plan). RESP Start-up is Easy The best time to start a RESP is the moment your grandchild is issued a Social Insurance Number (SIN).