Are you considering going back to school full time but you’re not sure how you will pay for it? If you have savings in your RRSP, you can take advantage of the Lifelong Learning Plan.
The Lifelong Learning Plan (LLP) is a government program that allows an individual to withdraw money from their Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP) to pay for post secondary education and no tax will be withheld. The funds withdrawn can be used for the individual plan owner or for their spouse or common-law partner.
In order to qualify, you must be enrolled as a full-time student in an educational program at a designated institution.
Here are some fast facts about LLP:
- You can withdraw up to $20,000.
- The maximum withdrawal per year is $10,000.
- There is no lifetime maximum. Once the previous plan has been paid back, you can withdraw more funds from your RRSP under the LLP.
- You cannot withdraw money that has been contributed within the last 89 days.
- You can use the funds to cover living expenses in addition to school expenses while attending school.
- You need to begin repaying the funds back into your RRSP in the fifth year from when the plan started or when you are no longer entitled to the education amount on your tax return for 2 consecutive years, whichever comes first.
- When repayment begins, you need to pay at least 10% of the amount withdrawn back into your RRSP. You will not be getting another tax refund on the repayment as you already received the tax deduction the first time you made your RRSP contribution.
- You have up to 10 years to repay the withdrawals.
For more information, check out this link.
I watched part of Holmes Inspection on TV the other day and it was about this young woman’s experience in buying her first home. She bought a 20 year-old townhouse and had a home inspector give her the go-ahead to make the purchase. Within a week of taking possession of her new home, she noticed that something in her bathroom was causing water to leak through her kitchen ceiling. She hired a plumber to resolve the issue, but all the plumber did was make a large hole in her kitchen ceiling and then he told her he couldn’t find the leak so he wouldn’t be able to do anything. Nice!
Lock your doors, hide your money in the safe, hire security guards to protect your prized possessions, but what can you do if someone stole your identity? If something valuable is stolen, you can call the police and hope to get your stolen property back. Rightly termed as the crime of the 21st century, victimizing millions of Americans, you can do very little if you find your identity stolen. Identity theft is on the rise, and nearly everyone is vulnerable to this new-age form of fraud.
After writing about my experience of losing my credit card, I thought it wouldn’t hurt for me to delve a little deeper into the ways that we can proactively prevent, or at least protect ourselves from identity theft. Here are some tips below:
is an efficient way to ensure all the information is illegible. Be sure to file away the information you need to keep in a safe place.