Your children's education is no doubt one of your top priorities. Post-secondary education will make a big difference to your children's earning potential and standard of living. In fact, Canadians with a high school graduation certificate earned an average of $37,403, while those with a bachelor degree earned one and a half times more - $56,048 (Statistics Canada, 2006 Census). Yet, government funding to universities is dropping, and post-secondary institutions are making up the shortfall by raising student fees. By setting aside education funds for your children now, you can ensure their opportunity to attend college or university and ease the debt they may carry upon graduation.

A Registered Education Savings Plan (RESP) is an effective way to maximize the money available to your children when they enroll in a post-secondary program. Although your contributions are not tax-deductible, money inside the plan will grow tax-free until it's withdrawn for your children. In addition, the government has several grants to help you build your education savings. The Basic Canada Education Savings Grant is available to everyone. See our section on Government Grants for the grants that your family may be eligible for.

An education savings plan (ESP) is an arrangement between the subscriber, who can be either:

1. an individual
2. an individual and their spouse or common-law partner
3. a public primary caregiver
   
   and a person or organization (the promoter).

The subscriber makes contributions that accumulate tax-free earnings. In return the promoter agrees to use the accumulated funds to pay or to cause to be paid educational assistance payments to one or more beneficiaries designated by the subscriber.