“There is no way that we could put all of our children through post-secondary if we hadn’t started saving early with an RESP,” said Deborah. “And now,” continued Joe, “our children can graduate debt free, able to focus on building their lives.”

With seven children aged 11 through 33, Joe and Deborah D’Ettore know what it takes to stay on course with their education savings.

“We opened our first plans when our first two children, Kate and Dominique, were very young,” explains Joe, a director of a large contact centre. Seeing the benefit of starting early and making regular contributions, the D’Ettores started new plans when each addition to their family was a newborn.

“I liked the relationship with our sales representative and the simplicity of not having to manage multiple plans,” continued Joe.

For parents who start an RESP for a young child, the post-secondary school years can seem like the distant future. “There were times when we thought how 17 or 18 years is a long way off, and about how much we were putting away,” said Deborah. “But we still remember the day we got our first cheque. It was completely worth it. We were so glad.”

Joe adds these words of encouragement: “The trick is treating RESP contributions like pension deductions, or any normal, fixed expenses. Maintaining the payments is the key to success, which should be easy as long as you save an amount you can afford.”

Since 1999, at least one D’Ettore child has been in post-secondary school. This year their fifth child, Anna, will graduate from nursing school at the University of New Brunswick. Each one has helped out by working part-time or earning scholarships, but the RESPs from Knowledge First Financial made all the difference.