In case any GTA people are interested….SO and I will be attending this. Figured we would make a day out of it walking around and going to the Aquarium.
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Remember how there was pushback against loblaws switching to 30% off stickers?
They are getting around it by doing custom pricing. Some was 50% off, some was 60% and some was an unknown random amount.
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otoh, I can’t totally hate on loblaws this week because their flyer said that FF bone in chicken was $5/lb this past week, and instead it was $5/kg in store. I am woefully low on freezer space, but I got four packages.
also, the flashfood people are sometimes putting in the price of the items as 50% less than the new sticker price, so a full 75% off until they are retrained.
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That is weird pricing. The baguette is $4 at my store. 42.5% off?
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agreed, they are not even consistent in the shelf, you can see one was 2.30 and one was 2.27. I suspect they will do something fairly random and slowly move towards mostly 30%, but not in an obviously coordinated way so there won’t be the same backlash.
Foodbasics this week in my area has oil at 6.88. It’s worth checking yours!
They also have the sausage meat popular in US recipes!
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I picked the wrong time to switch to sunflower oil as my default
It includes canola and corn… I switch between canola and sunflower
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Ahhh! I just went to Foodbasics before I saw your “sausage meat” deal. I did get the pure filter milk at a great price, though. And a number of other things. Oh well. The sausage meat sounds yummy but probably isn’t a great health option.
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Can anyone point me to the basics on RESP? I don’t have children so I never learned the basics, but I’d like to encourage someone to start one for her kids. It’s only for kids, right? Not for adults to go back to school themselves?
The person in question is 30 years old and has kids aged 11 and 2 (who will be 12 and 3 next month, in April).
Is there a guide that shows how much to contribute to get a match? That’s how it works, right?
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I’ll message tomorrow but
You have an RESP account with a bank or investment firm either joint for both children or two separate.
Within the account or at opening you choose account types/investments like with RRSPs. Transfers between institutions are basically impossible even thought they say you can
You can transfer to an RDSP but it’s lengthy- you at least will get better customer service than transferring between institutions and if this is a likelihood you may want to choose an institution that offers RDSPs
Don’t get one with any company that uses tge word education in their name/isn’t a well regarded company. Mine is with wealth simple, the banks are generally fine.
At registration you apply for grants
CESG
CSB
ACESG
CSB is flat, CESG is matching, ACESG is matching tied to income
You have grant catch up room essentially until age 15/16 so you can invest double the annual to catch up on grants
You can always get your principal out less any fees, but if the child doesn’t go on to post secondary education you lose the government grants and the interest earned on the grants. As well as regular university and college courses there are selected shorter programs that can be worth doing to get the maximum from the plan- whatever program you choose you end up submitting a certificate of enrolment when you apply to get the money for school and there can sometimes be weird withdrawal limits (tied to the individual company not usually with banks or wealth simple).
If your grants aren’t being received you might not get notified so it’s a good idea to check that they are - wealth simple emails me to tell me I got my $2 in grants each month. Once your paperwork is working it’s still good to check regularly. You also have to update your anti money laundering and investor risk stuff like with other investments.
Quebec obviously has their own separate named QESG and AQESG grants, and Alberta had one.
I’m not up to date but used to work for a call centre specializing in them. Mine are with wealth simple and CanadianBen helped me find which of their funds was close to what I wanted because they weren’t doing ETFs as an option at that point. I’m happy to chat by phone with your friend once they start thinking about it.
Others here have a good grip on the RDSP side which is probably more solid.
There is a single case where an adult can open one, get the CSB and use it, but it’s super complicated and they are designed for parents and loved ones to contribute for children and for the children to use the money before age 25/30. The plan max is 35 years old and to be honest if you have the skillset to keep the plan active to 35 through appeals and then use it; you should have just done the short course earlier.
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Thanks, ElleP.
I’ll broach the subject with her at some point and if she seems interested, I’ll look more into the details so that it doesn’t seem overwhelming for her to figure it all out.
And thanks for mentioned RDSP. That may be an option for the mom herself and perhaps for one of the children.
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I just looked into this for J1, and the federal rules state that maximum we can take out for the first 13 weeks of a full time program is $8000.
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To qualify for an RDSP, you have to be approved for the Disability Tax Credit.
The RDSP has a variety of rules too, and if you are interested I can give a run down when I have a real keyboard tomorrow
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I have been learning by doing about RESP withdrawals. If anyone wants to know stuff, ask.
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Yes please share how the withdrawals work.
I’ve been trying to figure it out and not getting far.
Basically, I know I want to withdraw the grant first and the interest next? But I’m not sure how.
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The first semester is capped, all after that are unlimited. Keeping them under the basic personal amount makes sense. If you can do the math to know about student tax credits maybe go higher?
One part is taxed (to the student) and one part is not. That is too complicated so I’ve just done it 50:50. I don’t think it ultimately matters, ask long as you don’t take out too much and trigger income taxes for the kid. If your kid is unemployed this does not seem like a risk.
My bank needs proof of enrollment for each withdrawal, and my kid’s school charges $35 for this document each time. It’s a racket.
That’s probably all I know.
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The proof of enrollment is a scam and you need it to be the correct certificate of enrollment but some schools don’t want to give the correct one.
You can also get an exception to the 8000 rule by proving you’re in an extra expensive program, but by the time they approve that you’re provably past week 11 and might as well have waited.
The parents paid income tax on the principal so it is not retaxed. Interest and grant interest are taxable. I can’t remember about the grants but I think they are. For most students it won’t matter.
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Thanks, Star, but I think it’s premature for a rundown.
I’ll start mentioning these things to the person and see how much interest she has.
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