The RESP sacrifice will be worth it

I wrote the other day about my daughter entering Grade 8 next year. It's hard to believe she'll be entering her last year of grade school in the fall but to look at her you would already think Rebekah was in high school. Boys can look like boys well into their 30s but girls, they tend to look years older as soon as they turn 12.

High school is no longer a five year cycle. If you fail it could be five, six even seven years but that's not going to happen with Rebekah. She's pulling off grades that my parents never saw on my report cards. She must take after her mother.

So in a blink of an eye I will looking at my eldest daughter graduating high school. It shouldn't come as such a surprise. I went to high school with friends who now have daughters graduating university (congratulations Shona) so in some respect I'm a little tardy to the party! I also have colleagues at work whose sons and daughters are heading off to college and university. So the rising cost of education has come up as a topic of conversation.

Here's the million dollar question (gawd, I hope it's not that high!) -- what's it going to cost me?

My wife and I have been saving as much as we can for our kids' educations. Rebekah was lucky because we actually started saving for her education before she was born. We had money back in those days so we threw some of it away in a savings account. Later we switched it over to a Registered Education Savings Plan when Rebekah was born. The other two kids weren't as lucky but we've still managed to squirrel away some cash for them as well. Will it be enough? I doubt it. But it's something that's important so it has to be done.

Since the Recession of 2007-2008 there's been a lot of turmoil in the world. Here in Durham Region well paying jobs are being awarded to those with educations. Long gone are the days when you could leave high school, walk into General Motors and be set for life.

Everybody who has lost jobs around here has gone back to school for retraining. Education has become, if it wasn't already, the most important thing you could do for yourself.

Rebekah's four years away from the rest of her life. Whatever it costs will be worth it.