Book Review and Giveaway: The RESP Book

By 2 Cents on October 22nd, 2010 | Category: Book Reviews | 32 comments

Saving for your child’s education will likely improve the odds that she will participate in post-secondary education by diminishing financial barriers and building a financial nest egg.

~ Mike Holman

Whenever I was looking for detailed information about RESPs, I would always end up at Mike Holman’s blog. It used to be called Four Pillars, but the name has since changed to Money Smarts Blog. Mike’s always had a very comprehensive section on RESPs on his site and it was my go-to reference on the topic.

Still, I’m a huge fan of physical books rather than their cyberspace cousins and I wished I could have a concise book about RESPs on hand to use as a reference. It’s so easy to forget the details of relatively complex financial products like RESPs given that you likely don’t revisit them more than once or [...]

Read on and enjoy … Book Review and Giveaway: The RESP Book

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Questrade Offering Bonds and GICs with No Commission

By 2 Cents on October 7th, 2010 | Category: Investing | 5 comments
Percent Blue

This is just a short post to let you know that discount brokerage Questrade is now offering commission-free GIC and bond trades. This issue came up during a discussion in the comments section of my 2010 Financial Plan Update for the third quarter. I’ve updated the comments with some of this information, but I just thought I would pass it along in case anyone else is interested.

Holding our sons’ RESP money in cash has been an issue for us for a while. It’s earning zero in a brokerage account, but I hesitated to buy a GIC because my brokerage (Questrade) charged about $30 for each purchase. It hardly seemed worth it with interest rates so low. Further, we may need some of that money within 3 years, and those rates are even lower than the 5-year rates. Unlike the GICs we have in our [...]

Read on and enjoy … Questrade Offering Bonds and GICs with No Commission

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Our 2010 Financial Plan

By 2 Cents on January 11th, 2010 | Category: Planning | 5 comments

Map out your future, but do it in pencil.

~ Jon Bon Jovi

Well, after the last 2 years, my pencil is 2 centimetres long and my eraser – well, let’s just say I have a new one. Budgeting and goal setting have been a real challenge recently for reasons outlined in Our Money Story (Part I & Part II) last week. Still, that hasn’t kept me from trying, and sometimes failing.

I normally might have finished my 2010 list of goals some time in December in years past. This year, I just couldn’t do it. There seemed to be too many uncertainties surrounding 2010, and frankly, after 2008 and 2009, I was afraid to write anything down because I was pretty sure all my plans would eventually get scrapped anyway.

But as sure as flowers in springtime, my annual New Year’s burst of energy [...]

Read on and enjoy … Our 2010 Financial Plan

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