How to help your kids pay for school without compromising retirement
Are you feeling the financial pinch of helping your kids with their school cost?
Between tuition, textbooks, housing and meals, post-secondary education comes with a big price tag.
A new FP Canada survey reveals that two thirds of parents have already helped their kids to pay for University. Those with kids under 18, that number jumps up to 82% of parents wanting to help. And that means putting off retirement and paying off debt.
The most stand out finding from the survey is that two thirds of Canadians say they are unfamiliar with tax credits, grants and other financial assistance programs associated with post-secondary costs.
Statistics Canada also reports that we’re leaving thousands of dollars of free money on the table. More than 50% of Canadians aren’t taking advantage of the education savings grant available within your child’s RESP.
University is expensive and if you’re going to help your kids, you need to have a plan and the confidence that you can still fulfill your life goals. If you’re going to help, how are you going to do it? Will you have to take money from your own savings, a line of credit, reverse mortgage? You don’t want to make these decisions lightly.
If you have young children, have you considered an RESP? Are you maximizing what it’s invested in and the child savings grant? A pro like a Certified Financial Planner can assist you with clear answers to these questions along with other tax credits and benefit you might be missing out on.
For my interview on this topic with BNN Bloomberg’s Greg Bonnell, you can view it here.