As soon as you no longer control the MX record for the domain, your email will fail delivery, or someone else will buy the domain and then they can get that email. You’re best off to keep the domain in parallel for at least a year (since that is the minimum subscription) and make sure you’re ready to give it up.
2 Likes
That was my same thought. Also allows you to set rules so anyone emailing in that year gets a message, please e-mail at blank@yournewdomain.com
2 Likes
This is an older thread - Update… After all this time, I FINALLY got my own domain name a month ago, and set it up for my own email. I didn’t use Google - I am paying Hover to run my email (I registered with Hover).
I had a few days to cancel the email with Hover, and I almost switched to Fastmail (who Leo recommends all the time).
But, I had to call Hover a couple of things to get some stuff done to stop having my email seen as SPAM. Fastmail is in Australia, and seems to be contactable thru email mainly. I found it easier to call Hover and talk to them. So, I decided to just stay with Hover.
it’s all running fine now 
4 Likes