Are Children’s Extracurricular Activities Worth It?

12-year old Brittanie is supposed to be practicing her piano lessons.  Instead she’s playing catch with the dog.  “Play,” yells her mother, “I’m not paying 50 bucks a week for you to take piano if you’re not going to practice.” Sometimes parents feel like drill sergeants when their children loaf around instead of concentrating on…

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Student Loan Repayment: How Quickly Should You Pay It Off?

Not many students can afford to pay for their entire post secondary education without some form of education financing.  The average student loan debt for graduating students in Canada is over $20,000, seriously harming their financial position as they enter the workforce.  But should you be focused on student loan repayment as soon as you’re done…

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RESP Account: Getting Started

We set up an RESP for our daughter just a few weeks after she was born.  Being new parents with little free time, we just opened the most straightforward RESP account that was available – an RESP GIC Account under a family plan. This account was easy to open and set-up our monthly contributions.  The RESP…

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RESP Contributions And A Tuition Benefit

Shortly after our daughter was born we opened up an RESP and began regular monthly contributions.  We didn’t start with much, just $100 each month to go towards her post secondary education. A few months later I changed careers and moved into the public sector, working at a University.  I had to sit through an…

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