96.3FM Radio Spot

When I had my first of 4 children my father said to me “You will need to save $17,000 a year for each year, each child goes to university. Ridiculous I thought and time would prove my Dad wrong…it cost more! Now four children later at $17k a year …of after tax dollars I’m thinking a little planning, long, long ago would have been a good thing. These big ticket items need a lot of planning and forethought or they will ‘gut’ any savings you have…

I did a little research and discovered a couple of insights. 1. Over 60% of the highest income earners in Canada had some post secondary education and conversely over 60% of the lowest income earners had no more than school. Your take away David is "Don't be too cool for school".

2. The cost for tuition and books ranges from $2500 per year to an average of $9,000 per year and can get upwards of $30,000 per year depending on the courses and level of education. Gord is taking an executive MBA right now and his tuition is over $30,000. Now keep in mind that includes an iPad that holds all your books. The average overall cost in 2004 was $14,500 so the number of $17,000 per year is not far off. You are looking at over $50,000 for a 4 year program. There is a website put out by Stats Canada that gives you info on all costs associated for school. Google Tuition costs for post secondary schooling.

We are seeing an increasing number of parents and grand parents build education into their wealth management plan as part of their vision. There are some choices as to how you can accomplish this. An RESP is one where you receive some additional matching from the government. There are some restrictions so some people are opting for TFSA's or more elaborate structures like flowing money thru family trusts. It's definetly an area of concern and when you think about it most poeple want to give their kids some skills that last a lifetime rather than leave them a big estate.