Quote:
Originally Posted by photon
We did an RESP for my son, worked out well, we're just withdrawing from it now for him for school.
I've never even heard of group RESPs, seems like something that could work but would have zero flexibility and a whole bunch of rules, but would be interested as to the why of "whatever you do, do not join a group RESP", sounds like a story 
We didn't save enough to cover it all so he ended up getting a student loan too because, hey, free money (well interest free loan if we pay it off after he's done) so why not.
Low income families can also get up to $2000 from the govt from the Canada Learning Bond in an RESP with no personal contributions ($500 the first year, and $100 per year up to age 15 for each year they qualify).
I've heard some people say negative things about RESPs in that they aren't flexible and they think it's better to pay down debt and save in RRSPs and TFSAs for better rates of return and more flexibility (if your kid don't use them for traditional post-secondary). If you don't use RESPs for education you lose the part Canada contributes (which is understandable).
But we just used RESPs. |
Re group RESP. Nothing that happened to me personally, I was always in individual resps. Google group RESP and the stories are horrifying.
Extremely rigid, high fees, need to stay in for entirely without withdrawal. Sounds like a tontine scheme where if you withdraw early you don't get back much and whatever growth was there is distributed to members that remained in the plan.