John F. McLaughlin

Born in Ontario, by age six, I was part of the economic unit known as the family farm. We were dirt poor, and farm life was not idyllic. Raising livestock meant handling feed and manure, 365 days a year! It was hard, smelly work and stressful, since my Dad suffered from WWII PTSD. In my grade 3 report card, my teacher wrote “Hook Your Wagon to a Satellite”, confirming my evolving view that education was the key to a better life. While earning straight A’s, I planned to become a teacher of math, my best mark. Within a month of leaving home after high school graduation, Dad sold the farm.
I funded my undergraduate degree from savings, summer and part-time jobs, a small scholarship and government grants. My plan to teach math failed as I barely passed calculus at the U of Toronto. So, I pivoted and transferred to the U. of Ottawa to study Recreation. After getting married and working full-time in that field from 1974 to 1977, I returned to obtain a Master’s in Environmental Design (Urban & Regional Planning) in 1978-80, at the U. of Calgary. Over the rest of my career, I enjoyed over 1,000 hours of professional development and certification courses, to stay current.
When I was 23, I created my own financial plan to retire by age 67. After a diverse 44-year professional career, I left professional employment in May, 2018, 3 months before my 67th birthday! Over that time, I held 25 different jobs in – municipal recreation, environmental advocacy, facilities and realty management, and finally management consulting. I’ve lived in 5 Canadian cities, moved 20 times, and attended ten different institutions of learning.
As my career progressed, employers recognized and most valued my financial analytical skills. At the pinnacle of my career, I was leading and coaching a team of management consultants who prepared financial models and business cases for multi-million capital investments across Canada. Details can be found on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnfrederickmclaughlin/

When our first child, Reilly was born in 1984, we established a self-directed RESP) and In 1987, added our daughter, Kaitlin to the plan. Both children went to university, finishing debt free. Because of high interest rates for most of the time, I was able to select and manage low risk/volatility investments for the RESP, such as GICZs, corporate bonds and dividend-producing utility stocks, When liquidating the RESP fund, Instead of keeping the principal contributed, we gifted the principal to our children, to help them get established. For the last 15 years, we’ve been contributing to our grandchildren’s RESP’s to help them realize their dreams of becoming a psychologist, a chartered accountant, and a software engineer. We always considered our RESP’s as a timely and tax efficient way to transfer wealth from our generation to the next ones!

Since 1984, as a side project, I researched options to fund post-secondary education and compiled my findings into a guide. On two occasions, I was preparing to publish, but found some material was outdated, due to changing legislation, markets, and industry players. So formal sharing this information remained on the back burner, deferred until retirement. But I never stopped researching, learning, and analyzing, and I adopted hotlinks for all sources and resources for ease of updating. Over the last 4 years, I market tested key concepts and sharing my knowledge and skills with 20 families, several of whom have provided endorsements herein. Now I’m ready to share with the rest of Canada!