In some parts of Canada, school is already “back in,” but we have another week in Ottawa until school is back in session. I am enjoying some time off, but for those who may not be up to date with my comprehensive library of posts, here are some good ones for your back-to-school planning this week.
When my kids were going to High School, I was never thrilled with all the hidden costs. Little did I know how that was nothing compared to higher education:
I Thought Public School was Free?
I was running low on ideas and asked my wife for a topic for today’s blog and she came up with the cost of our “free†education system. She had been out shopping for back to school supplies (a HUGE industry in itself) and was telling me about all the “bargains†she was going to have to find to pay for all the unwritten educational expenses.
(click here for the many hidden costs in your Public Education)
September is a financial mayhem month for those with kids going to school. I am sure September will not be like this one year, and I may even miss it, but not this year.
Wake Me Up When September Ends
Not just a very good song by Green Day, but also an anthem in my personal financial life. September seems to create a “perfect storm†of debt load that appears every year and I think I can give you the list of the things that are the causes:
(to see the list of mayhem click here to read the whole article)
For University Students going back to school:
Advice is Best Served with Water
It is the magical Back to School season so many of my compatriots in the Personal Finance Blog world have taken it upon themselves to pass on sage advice to the future leaders of our world. The advice given is very good and I wish someone had told me some of this advice before I started off at University, but then again, I most likely wouldn’t have listened (after all I was much smarter back then).
(click here for the rest of this piece of advice all University Students could use)
For more exciting ideas about back to school and RESPs, remember to read my entire RESP Page, which outlines the fun and games I have had set up, putting money into and then attempting to extricate money from an RESP.
RESP’s have been huge in minimizing the financial impact as our kids go back to school. One of the best financial decisions we’ve made to date.
We’ve made the kids save towards school since they’ve had summer jobs, all the way through high school. Those savings, plus funds from their current summer jobs, plus the RESP – and living at home as they go to university – have meant that there’s been almost no financial impact.
Thinking of sending my kids to private school but I just found out only post secondary is tax deductible and Resps only apply to Post secondary! Damn u government!!!!
French Boards in and around Ottawa are all back today… English kids have yet another week. Now in spring it is the French kids who are out a week ahead… Happy my boy is back, now I get the house to myself again during the day :)… well except for the dogs. – Cheers.