[Berubeland]

I am low income so I get all the additional top ups. I have chosen to deposit all my monthly CCTB and UCCB and all the monies the government sends me into the RESP set up with Investors Group. I was thinking of doing a self directed RESP but then you cannot get the other top ups given by the government all you can get is the regular 20% grant.

I have it preauthorised payments for the 21st of the month the day after they deposit the Baby Bonus money.

So far I have contributed around $7500 and gotten over $10,000 in there. I made 6 % on the overall investment.

 

[Berubeland]

I'm confused now. This HRDC page mentions which promoters are set up to receive all the grants one is eligible for:

http://www.hrsdc.gc.ca/eng/learning/education_savings/publicsection/new_promoter_list.shtml

Some of the promoters (such as the asset management arms of the big banks) are not set up to receive *all* the grants. Doesn't it mean that supplying the promoter with another set of forms won't help? Curiously, iTrade or E*Trade doesn't seem to be listed in that page.

The financial institution which holds your RESP applies for all the grants you are eligible for.

Anyone can get the 20% CESG but if you are low income like me you get an extra $500 the first year for starting the RESP and an additional grant with every further contribution up to a certain amount.

I very carefully researched this issue and I did not find any company that offered self directed RESP that also was allowed to apply for the Canada Learning Bond and Canada Learning Bond Fee. They also would not offer the Additional Education Savings Grant.

TD did offer this but only with a GIC RESP. I can tell you I was exhausted by this time.... Investor's Group did apply for all the grants, they did not charge any fees whatsoever except the MER. The CLB alone is worth $500 plus $100 per year. I knew the guy and he beat the pants off the CST people who couldn't even tell me how much interest my money would earn. It drove me crazy, they just kept telling me over and over about how much the government was giving but would not even answer the question of how much interest that money would earn once it was in their tender care. To this day I have no idea how much and i met with that lady twice and called a few others. So for me the fact that the MER's were higher was irrelevant no MER could be higher than $500 CLB and additional savings grant.

 

[Berubeland]

Dear Maltese,

You can not "miss" it even if you do it later in 2010 you will still be eligible for 2009 contribution and grant amounts.

It took me 9 months to do mine and I still got all the contribution room and grants. Of course I did not get the benefit of the interest.

The only TD RESP that applied for all the grants when i checked into it was the GIC RESP. They said i could maybe transfer the grant amounts over when they arrived but they were not sure if there were fees etc. Their level of knowledge was underwhelming.

I ended doing an Investor's Group RESP because they were the only people who would answer my questions and had at least mutual funds I could put it in. Self directed for me would have cost me too much because I would have lost too much grant money. They applied for all the grants and so far I am happy with them. I also can check my account online and I am up 10% so far.

 

[Berubeland]

These are the government websites and yes Harold it is true the low income people just get their grant faster.

Ask around even high income people and I'm sure you'll find that the minority even contribute to a RESP

The Canada Learning Bond is free and I am the only low income person I know who is even bothering to get it.


http://www.canlearn.ca/eng/saving/cesg/index.shtml

http://www.canlearn.ca/eng/saving/clb/index.shtml