RESPs

For my non Canadian readers, RESP stands for Registered Education Savings Plan.  It's a government sponsored plan where they will contribute 20% of what you contribute up to a maximum of $500/year for your kids education fund.  You can set these up as family or individual plans, though I think family makes more sense because then if one child doesn't go to school, another can use the money.  If you're kids never go to school you can pull the principal plus interest out, but lose the government grants.

So, I don't know if you are aware of another guaranteed way to get a 20% return on your savings for your children's education - but there's really nothing that beats the RESP in Canada.

It was really important to my mom that we get started right away, and don't let this be one of those things that you 'get to one of these days'.  So in December, I met with a Sunlife Advisor and set up a family RESP with Little Man as the beneficiary.  Due to a very generous financial gift, we were able to get the matching grant for 2015 - so we already have $3,000 for his education and he's not enough three months old yet.

We're going to continue to contribute $100/month as a base, and then hope to get the maximum each year when we can afford it.