The Newsprint
Written by Josh Ginter.

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The Sunday Edition — 03.15.26

Sunday, Mar 15, 2026

Happy Sunday evening, friends. I’m putting this week’s Sunday Edition together while taking in the widely anticipated USA vs. Dominican Republic World Baseball Classic semi-final. The field is filled with stars, and stars who want to desperately win for their country. This isn’t a yawn-fest mid-season all-star game. This is all-out baseball.

It’s the time of year or where my workflows and habits are really put through the grinder. If a habit is going to last for me, it has to get through the depths of a tax-season-March. And the list of habits I’m shedding is growing by the day:

  • I’ve written a Sunday Edition post for about 70 straight weeks, and I’m going to narrowly hit the deadline today.
  • I’ve successfully worked out for 5 or 6 days a week for the last year and a half. That fell by the wayside this week.
  • I’ve planned my task list and daily time blocks consistently for the last 4 months. Nope, that habit was crushed this week.
  • I’ve read five complete books since mid-December. I didn’t pick up a book once this week.

This March-grind is a truly great testing ground for habits that actually improve my life. If they improve life, I’ll work doubly hard to make it happen. But if it’s just a habit for habit’s sake, then it’ll die. I guess there’s no sense in completing unnecessary stuff each day for the sake of “keeping my habits”.

Now, on that note, I’ve struggled to find time this week for this Sunday Edition. So below is a somewhat longer piece I published a long time ago about Registered Education Savings Plans. I continue to have conversations with friends, family, and clients about RESPs. They are out-of-this-world good investment vehicles.

How RESPs Are the Best Investment Tool When You Have Kids

A Registered Education Savings Plan is the most powerful way to save for your child’s future. Pretty definitive, but I mean it. RESPs are easy to set up and easy to contribute to, and you can receive an incredible 20% kick-in from the government (to a maximum of $500 per year) on your contributions each year.

Even if your child doesn’t head to university or college, I think saving and investing inside the RESP is still worthwhile.

Registered Education Savings Plan (RESP) Tech Specs

First, a bullet list of important information for clarity’s sake:

  • RESPs can be set up for your children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, or even family friends. Beneficiaries (the child) have to be a Canadian resident and have a Social Insurance Number.
  • RESPs can be set up as Individual RESPs for a specific beneficiary, or can be set up as a Family RESP. I always recommend setting up a Family RESP, as they are in nearly every way superior to Individual RESPs.
  • You can contribute to an RESP for up to 31 years, and the plan can remain open for 35 years (or longer if the beneficiary is disabled).
  • The government matches 20% of the first $2,500 contributed each year to the RESP (leading to a maximum of $500 per year). This is the Canada Education Savings Grant (CESG).
  • There is a lifetime CESG maximum per beneficiary of $7,200 and the grant is matchable until the beneficiary is 18 years old. You’ll note quickly that a maximum grant of $500 per year will finish somewhere shortly after the child’s 14th birthday. If you don’t contribute the full amount each year from birth, you can carry forward the unused CESG limit until the child turns 18 years of age.
  • The rate at which CESG is paid out on your first contributions each year is dependent on your family’s net income.

Withdrawing from the RESP falls into two different scenarios. If the funds are withdrawn for education purposes, then:

  • Funds are paid out to the student with proof of enrolment. Payments are comprised of the CESG amounts and investment earnings (known as Accumulated Income), and the principal amount contributed by the plan holder.
  • Earnings and CESG amounts are claimed on the beneficiary’s tax return in the year of withdrawal.
  • Principal withdrawal amounts are non-taxable.

If the beneficiary doesn’t attend post-secondary and the funds are withdrawn for non-education purposes, you have 4 options:

  1. You can keep the RESP open for 36 years from the date of plan creation. This is a great option if the child needs a few years to decide their path for the future.
  2. You can transfer the amount to a different beneficiary. This is easier if you have a Family RESP. CESG earnings and investment earnings can all be used for another beneficiary in the Family RESP plan.
  3. You can transfer the amount to your RRSP (more below).
  4. You can close the RESP.

Withdrawing Funds if Your Child Goes to School

This path is easy to explain, as it’s quite common for children to go to post-secondary in their years immediately following high school. If the funds are withdrawn for education purposes, the withdrawals are made of three different portions:

  • The CESG: This amount is taxable upon withdrawal.
  • The investment earnings: These amounts are taxable upon withdrawal.
  • The principal contributions: These amounts are not taxable upon withdrawal.

(The first two make up Accumulated Income Payments and will be reported on a T4A slip on the child’s tax return.)

So, if you read between the lines, you’ll note there is a form of income-splitting here — by contributing to the plan and earning accumulated income and having those amounts taxed in the child’s hands, it’s likely the accumulated income will be taxed in a lower tax bracket (most students have low levels of income in their post-secondary years).

To ensure the investment earnings and CESG are taxed in the lowest possible tax bracket, withdraw the earnings and CESG amounts in a year when the child does not have a summer job. Do not withdraw more than the child’s non-refundable tax credits in that tax year if you want to completely shelter the income from tax. If the child has picked up a summer job, their employment earnings will eat into the Basic Personal Amount available to shelter the income from tax. In this situation, the child should withdraw from the contribution portion of the RESP (the portion that is tax-free).

But what happens if your child doesn’t go to post-secondary? Or what if you know they’ll never want to go to school.

Well, you should still invest inside that RESP.

Withdrawing Funds if Your Child Does Not Go to School

This is where things get fun, and I’ll pull some math out of my hat to prove it.

First, if you have a Family RESP, transfer any unused money to a child who is attending post-secondary school.

From here on in, my comments assume all beneficiaries of the Family RESP are not going to school.

If the child doesn’t go to post-secondary school, you have two options for the money in the RESP: You can transfer the RESP to your RRSP (to a maximum) or you can close the RESP.

Don’t close the RESP.

If you close the RESP, you’ll forfeit the CESG amounts, pay tax on the investment earnings and pay a 20% penalty on the investment earnings.

Closing the RESP is costly.

Instead, if the child(ren) is/are older than 21 years old and the RESP has been open for 10 years, you can withdraw the accumulated income from the RESP and transfer them to your RRSP. You can transfer up to $50,000 tax-free to your RRSP (assuming you have enough RRSP contribution room to do so), forfeit the CESG, and avoid the painful 20% penalty when you close the RESP.

By opening an RESP and investing in the RESP throughout your child’s life, you will receive CESG money that is subsequently invested. Then, if your child doesn’t go to school, you can keep the investment earnings on the CESG money, just not the CESG itself.

In a way, this is like investing on margin: You’re “borrowing” the CESG money and investing it for your child’s life, only to “return” the CESG money back to the government in the end.

Here’s the math, which requires a fun future value calculation:

  • Contributions of $200 per month ($166.67 principal plus $33.33 CESG) for 18 years (216 months) at 5% results in a future value of $83,808. Repay the CESG of $7,200 and withdraw your initial contributions of $36,000 ($166.67 × 12 × 18) and you’re left with $40,608 of accumulated earnings.
  • You can transfer up to $50,000 to your RRSP tax-free (and pay tax on it later).

Here’s the math if you don’t include the RESP in the same savings plan:

  • Contributions of $166.67 per month (remember, no CESG money) for 18 years (216 months) at 5% results in a future value of $58,202. Take out your initial contributions, and you’re left with $22,202 of accumulated earnings.

That’s a really, really big difference. $18,407, in fact.

So, the lessons for today:

  1. Always open a Family RESP, as you may end up with more than one child even if you don’t plan on it.
  2. Contribute as much as you’re comfortable contributing to, a maximum of $2,500 per year. To receive the maximum CESG, you do not need to maximize your contribution each year — the CESG maximum will be reached after 14 years. Spread out the difference of that 4 years and provide yourself some additional cash flow in your life.
  3. Withdraw from the accumulated earnings of the RESP in a year when your child does not have a summer job or has low levels of income.
  4. Do not withdraw more than the Basic Personal Amount (plus tuition and the Canada Employment Amount, but that gets sticky) each year, unless the RESP has a large balance and your child does not anticipate going to college for a long time.
  5. If your child does not go to school, don’t fret — the accumulated earnings can be transferred to an RRSP to a maximum of $50,000, sheltering the income from immediate tax and allowing you to control the tax as you withdraw from your RRSP down the road.

The Second Cup

A bit of a theme this week for The Second Cup. Evidently, a new computer launched, and there’s some excellent work out there discussing its implications.

“This Is Not The Computer For You”

I’m not sure that this constitutes a “review” of the MacBook Neo. But if you obsessed over anything as a child — computers, sport, books, chess — this may hit you right in the feels.

Software Bonkers

So, the future is everyone making their own apps. Yet, more than 75% of the people I meet each day struggle to set up their Outlook account.

The MacBook Neo

I love when John Gruber writes about Apple devices.

MacBook Neo Review - It Might Be TOO Cheap.

And this week’s final look at the MacBook Neo, from Dave2D. Dave’s videos are skyrocketing to the top of the list each time a new device is launched. Dave seems so approachable, relatable, and down to earth.

Highlight of the Week

“Motion makes you feel like you’re getting things done. But really, you’re just preparing to get something done. When preparation becomes a form of procrastination, you need to change something. You don’t want to merely be planning. You want to be practicing.”

James Clear, Atomic Habits

Happy Sunday. I hope you have a wonderful week ahead.

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