Ian Royle

My wife and I are giving our son a head start in the world by investing money into an RESP for his future education.  He’s very cute now and will be 18 years from now, but cute doesn’t usually get a person ahead but brains usually do.  So we are investing by setting up an online trading account, using Q-trade.  Q-trade has some affiliation to the Alberta Treasury Branch.  A Q-trade account runs an annual fee of fifty dollars and each trade is usually around thirty dollars.  As well the governments federal and provincial contribute funds to the RESP in the first year, for us total one thousand five hundred dollars, provided we contribute a thousand.  Total grants for a child will total seven thousand five hundred dollars by the time they are eighteen.  So even if you never do more than contribute the first thousand with a thirty dollar trade fee and nine hundred in annual fees, your child would end up recieving seven thousand five hundred cash for education the day they graduate.  That is one nice Grad present.