RRSP vs. RESP: Which comes first? + MORE Feb 20th

There’s just 11 days until this year’s RRSP contribution deadline – will you be scrambling to make the most of your return?
While RRSPs can be used a multitude of ways, and enjoy a variety of tax benefits, it’s not always clear whether they’re the right choice for your finances. Check out our retirement savings spotlight below, and see if you should set up an RRSP while there’s still time.
Your RRSP FAQs – Answered!
Using an RRSP to save for retirement, homeownership or education is meant to be an easy way to earmark funds for the future – but the accompanying tax and contribution requirements are confusing for many. Here, we answer some of your top RRSP FAQs.
Read Gordon’s Blog | Your Top RRSP FAQs – Answered
The Best Credit Cards for Wedding Planning
Did your sweetheart pop the question last weekend? Congratulations – you’ve now entered the wedding planning stage. Pulling together such a momentous event can be a costly and stressful process – but with all that credit card swiping comes big point earning potential…

NEW YORK, N.Y. – Moody’s Investors Service says it has cut Russia’s credit rating to junk grade, citing the crisis in Ukraine and a slide in oil prices and the ruble.
The credit rating agency said late Friday that it expects those challenges will plunge Russia into a deep recession this year and continued contraction next year.
Moody’s downgraded Russia’s rating from Baa3 to Ba1, or one notch below investment grade.
Standard & Poor’s downgraded Russia’s rating to junk last month.
Russia’s economy has been hit by the double impact of weaker energy prices as well as Western sanctions over its role in Ukraine.
The Russian economy is expected to contract by 4 to 5 per cent this year for the first time since President Vladimir Putin took the helm in 2000.
The post Moody’s cuts Russia’s credit rating to ‘junk’ grade, cites Ukraine crisis, falling oil prices appeared first on Canadian Business.

“I’m investing in my retirement.”

Bruce Sellery, dad of one
I don’t want to be working at Starbucks when I’m 85 years old. When I retire, I want my days free to travel, gamble online and read the obituaries.
But that freedom in the future requires that I save today. If I couldn’t contribute to both my retirement and my daughter Abby’s education, and I didn’t have a pension, I would choose RRSP over RESP.
What? Don’t I value education? Don’t I love her? Of course I do, on both counts. But the fact is that Abby can take a loan or get a job to pay for her education. As an octogenarian, I wouldn’t be a good credit risk for a retirement loan, and as agile as I intend to be at that age, operating Starbucks’s espresso machine during morning rush would be hell.
I also don’t want to be a financial burden on my daughter. Like verbosity and male pattern baldness, longevity runs in my family. I need to plan ahead to pay my own bills so I don’t end up sleeping in her basement and cleaning out her fridge…

Armed with a buying-power boost, Chinese visa applications see 51-per-cent jump in January as domestic economy falters