Hello Loves,
So many of you have been following my journey raising Skye and her crazy, super cute antics, but boy has time flown by. I mean can you believe that she is already 8 months old. WTF! (Well That’s Fast).
Seeing Skye changing every day and learning new things, had both Sameer and I thinking is it too early to start planning for her future? Should we be putting aside some savings to help jump start her life. I mean she can already say “DADA” so I’m guessing college is just around the corner.
Sameer is super frugal and loves to save, me on the other hand, I love to spend. HAHA! But I always manage to make it by. That’s my motto lol. Well last week, I took the plunge, saving! Saving for Skye’s future that is. We decided to partner with CST Spark. They manage and distribute RESPs. For those of you outside of Canada, sorry but this plan is only for Canadians. An RESP is a Registered Education Savings Plan, basically put, you can contribute to this plan monthly, annually, or whenever you can and this money will grow tax free until your child needs it for post-secondary education. This makes it super easy to start saving for your child’s future. Pretty cool right?
CST Spark offers a digital-first RESP called CST Bright Plan. This plan is smart, simple, and flexible. It allows you to control how much or how little you want to invest. You can get started with as little as $10 a month or a bulk investment of $500. They make it super easy, especially with our current climate, you can open your child’s RESP right from the comfort of your home. PJ’s are welcomed.
CST Bright Plan, is managed by experienced investment professionals. Your funds are invested in a mix of ETFs (exchange-traded funds), with the goal of minimizing risk and maximizing returns so that you can pay for post-secondary education.
Now the benefits of having an RESP range based on your financial situation but the main points are:
· Tax free growth on your investment while it remains in the plan
· Access to federal and some provincial government grants which can provide up to $7200 or more over the child’s plan
· Plans can stay open for 36 years, no need to rush their schooling decisions
Saving money is always a daunting task and trusting a bank or company is even more daunting. We had done lots of research and found that the parent company of CST Spark, Canadian Scholarship Trust Foundation was founded in 1960. Its subsidiaries, which include CST Spark, manage more than $5B in assets and have helped more than 600,000 families save for their child’s post-secondary education. I think we’re in good hands here!
After speaking to our parents about our decision to move forward with opening our CST Bright Plan, they loved the idea of contributing towards the plan themselves. This was great news. I mean every birthday or celebration, why not throw a couple hundred into Skye’s future. Makes sense to me! Much better than the itchy knit sweater they had in mind… gotta love Grandparents.
To get started with your own CST Bright Plan check out this link. Remember it is never too early to save and if you’re on the fence, they’ve got your covered with a 60-day money back guarantee. If you’re not satisfied, you’ll get all your contributions back. They’ve definitely got your back.
Anyways, hope you learned a little something and I could help clear up just a little bit about the wild world of RESPs and saving for your littles ones future. I’m off to get started on teaching Skye calculus. HAHA! What’s that!
This is a sponsored post in partnership with C.S.T. Spark Inc., the exclusive distributor of CST Bright Plan® which is sold by prospectus only.
xoxo Fil
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