What should I invest in inside an RESP?

The best RESP investments depend on your child's age and your risk tolerance. Many investors use growth-focused ETFs such as VGRO or VEQT when children are young, then gradually move toward bonds and cash as post-secondary education approaches.

When should I reduce risk in an RESP?

Many parents begin reducing risk approximately four to five years before their child may need the money. This helps protect against a market downturn immediately before RESP withdrawals begin.

Can I hold ETFs in an RESP?

Yes. Most self-directed RESP accounts allow investors to hold ETFs, stocks, bonds, GICs, and cash. Broad-market ETFs are commonly used because they provide diversification at a low cost.

What is a Family RESP?

A Family RESP allows multiple children who are related by blood or adoption to share a single RESP account. Contributions, grants, and investment growth can be allocated among eligible beneficiaries as needed.

Should an RESP be invested aggressively?

When children are young, many investors choose a higher equity allocation because the money may not be needed for more than a decade. As the education start date gets closer, a gradual shift toward bonds and cash can reduce volatility and sequence-of-returns risk.

Can I manage two children with different ages in one Family RESP?

Yes. A Family RESP can effectively be managed as separate portfolios within the same account by adjusting contributions and asset allocation based on each child's expected withdrawal timeline.

What is a glide path in an RESP?

A glide path is a planned transition from higher-risk investments such as equities toward lower-risk investments such as bonds and cash as the time to withdrawal gets shorter.

How does the CESG help an RESP grow?

The Canada Education Savings Grant (CESG) adds government contributions to eligible RESP deposits, helping the account grow faster through additional invested capital and compounding returns.

19 Jun 2026 4 min read Investing

My RESP Investment Strategy

Surprisingly, my RESP primer has been getting traction. I say surprisingly because I didn't expect a new post on a new blog to immediately start pulling in readers. But apparently a lot of people are trying to figure out what to do with an RESP beyond just opening one. So here we are - the follow-up post where I get into the actual strategy.

Where is my RESP?

I've been using Questrade for my personal investments since 2010, so opening an RESP there was a natural choice. One login, all accounts visible at once.

I'll be honest though - opening a Family RESP was a bit of a slog. Some paperwork, some back and forth with support staff who clearly hadn't dealt with many RESP setups. Adding a second kid was its own special kind of painful. But you do it once and you're done. And this was eight years ago. I'm sure it's smoother now.

What's in my RESP

When our first kid was born, my wife became a stay-at-home parent and we genuinely didn't know how our finances would hold up on a single income. So we put in $10,000 and went all-in on VGRO. Right call, even though we only got a $500 CESG at the time.

Then came inflation, a mortgage, daycare, and all the other ways life finds ways to squeeze a single income. When our second kid was born, we managed to add $2,500 - this time into VEQT.

Since then, we've been adding $100–$200 when we can. In eight years we've contributed a little over $17,000. That account is now sitting at over $35,000, thanks to CESG top-ups, market gains, and dividend reinvestment. The fund has essentially doubled. Not bad for inconsistent contributions on a tight budget. This is the power of time-in-market with the initial $10,000 investment.

The Plan

Here's the glide path I'm running as the kids get closer to needing the money:

Now → Oldest turns 10 - Keep buying VGRO with new contributions. Dividends start getting redirected into XQB to begin slowly building the bond sleeve. Low friction. No selling, no decisions, just redirecting cash flow.
Oldest turns 14 - New contributions shift to XQB entirely. The equity positions stay put for now but stop growing.
Oldest turns 15 - We start converting VEQT into XSB. The logic here is duration. XQB carries a longer duration that can hurt you in a rising rate environment, so as we get within three years of withdrawal, I want to be moving toward shorter-dated bonds. Starting the conversion at 15, not 16, gives us a full extra year of runway and avoids being forced to sell equity or long bonds into a bad market right before we need the money.
Oldest turns 16 - New contributions move to CASH.TO. VEQT conversion into XSB continues.
Oldest turns 18 - Target is at least 40% in CASH.TO, with the remainder split between XQB, XSB, and just a little bit of VGRO. At this point our youngest is 14, so the same glide path kicks in for their share of the portfolio - starting the bond accumulation phase and eventually migrating from XQB toward XSB and cash as they approach 18.

The rough idea - XQB handles the middle years where you still want some yield and can tolerate modest duration risk. XSB takes over as withdrawal gets close and capital preservation matters more than return. CASH.TO covers what you actually need to spend. Think of it as a three-bucket glide path - growth, stability, and liquidity. We are just shifting the weight between them over time.

The staggered glide paths for each kid let us treat this as two portfolios inside one account, rather than making one blended decision that doesn't serve either child particularly well.

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