Canadian Personal Finance Place

Some older RESP Posts from the Past:

• Canada Learning Bond and RESPs, where I think I have figured out more money, that I have never actually ever received thanks to TD not doing what I think they should.
• RESP and more tree died (which they did this year too), which is last year’s installment on the entire RESP saga.
• RESP Wrinkles where I first learned taking out money from an RESP wasn’t going to be as easy as the previous year.
• RESP Money to get Money where I found out how much it cost to prove I just spent $2500
• RESP: The Old Switcheroo where I rant about one Universities trick for getting more money out of me
• RESPs and Rules taking your own money out shouldn’t be this hard, should it?
• RESP: Withdrawals Redux then I learned that call centers and local branches do not talk nor really acknowledge each other’s existance
• RESP: This Round Finally Ends (Prologue) I actually try to start taking money out of the RESP
• RESP: Lessons Learned it’s important to write down what you have learned so you remember it for the next time.

Sorry, but Stats Canada’s report on Friday aboutspiraling tuition fees at Canadian Universities pretty much made me say that out loud (causing my wife to ask, “What the hell?”).

The report starts out with some obvious stats for those who are paying fees, which is:

Canadian full-time students in undergraduate programs paid 4.3% more on average in tuition fees for the 2011/2012 academic year this fall than they did a year earlier. This follows a 4.0% increase in 2010/2011.

An excellent comment on yesterday’s post about RESP’s Only Covering 1/2 University Costs, pointed out I did miss an important concept that parents and students should be thinking about if there is going to be money issues around going to University (or other post-secondary instiutions) and that is a Co-operative Education program could bridge the monetary gap for many students.

I had a discussion with a writer on Monday about my experiences with the entire RESP system, and I had an epiphany , which is that if I look at the current costs that I know of, and the maximum amount that you can put into an RESP, this will really only (barely) cover the cost of tuition at your child’s university (at this moment in time).

For those of you who have not read about my yearly pilgrimage to the Bank to withdraw money from my children’s RESP account, I strongly suggest you check out my list of articles at the end of this post, but yes, I again return to TD Canada Trust to extract money, and again it was an interesting process.

Luckily, I learned last year, so I already had my Proof of Enrollment letters from each University for each of my daughters (you must have this or no money for you (at least no CESG or growth at least)). These letters can either be a simple download (from Acadia U), or a request for the letter with a fee (like I had to for Wilfrid Laurier). Step one complete, I knew I was going to at least end up with money at the end of my appointment.

Many times new programs and ideas from the Government take a while before they start working in a smooth way (especially if the banks are involved in the process). I learned this the hard way with the RDSP (Registered Disability Savings Plan) that I set up for my son at TD/Canada Trust. The problems were on all sides, but it still frustrates the heck out of me waiting for systems to start working as advertised.

Another thing I learned when I went in for my yearly RESP Fun and Games was that to get the Canada Learning Bond for my son I had to open yet another RESP account (with TD) and that account had to be a GIC account.

As you have read over the past 2 months I have learned a great deal about the inner workings of TD and TD Mutual Funds and some more about how the RESP program actually works, and from these I have put together aLessons Learned as much for myself as for other folks that may be thinking about RESPs.

For those of you who have not read about my yearly pilgrimage to the Bank to withdraw money from my children’s RESP account, I strongly suggest you check out my list of articles at the end of this post, but yes, I again return to TD Canada Trust to extract money, and again it was an interesting process.

For those of you who have not been keeping up with my continuing saga of attempting to extricate funds left in a TD Mutual Funds RESP, I point you to the previous links at the bottom of this post, but I can now report that yes I have finally got the funds that I wanted from the TD Mutual Funds system.