YFP 288: An Interview with Suze Orman (YFP Classic)


This week we replay a YFP Podcast Classic. Suze Orman, #1 New York Times bestselling author on personal finance with over 25 million books in circulation, joins Tim Ulbrich on today’s episode. They talk about her most recent book Women & Money: Be Strong, Be Smart, Be Secure and the advice Suze has for pharmacy professionals feeling overwhelmed with their student loan debt and managing their financial plan. 

About Today’s Guest

Suze Orman has been called “a force in the world of personal finance” and a “one-woman financial advice power house” by USA today. A #1 New York Times bestselling author, magazine and online columnist, writer/producer, and one of the top motivational speakers in the world today, Orman is undeniably America’s most recognized expert on personal finance.

Orman was the contributing editor to “O” The Oprah Magazine for 16 years, the Costco Connection Magazine for over 18 years, and hosted the award winning Suze Orman Show, which aired every Saturday night on CNBC for 13 years. Over her television career Suze has accomplished that which no other television personality ever has before. Not only is she the single most successful fundraiser in the history of Public Television, but she has also garnered an unprecedented eight Gracie awards, more than anyone in the entire history of this prestigious award. The Gracies recognize the nation’s best radio, television, and cable programming for, by, and about women.

In March 2013, Forbes magazine awarded Suze a spot in the top 10 on a list of the most influential celebrities of 2013. In January 2013, The Television Academy Foundation’s Archive of American Television has honored Suze’s broadcast career accomplishments with her recent inclusion in its historic Emmy TV Legends interview collection.

In 2010, Orman was also honored with the Touchstone Award from Women in Cable Telecommunications, was named one of “The World’s 100 Most Powerful Women” by Forbes and was presented with an Honorary Doctor of Commercial Science degree from Bentley University. In that same month, Orman received the Gracie Allen Tribute Award from the American Women in Radio and Television (AWRT); the Gracie Allen Tribute Award is bestowed upon an individual who truly plays a key role in laying the foundation for future generations of women in the media.

In October 2009, Orman was the recipient of a Visionary Award from the Council for Economic Education for being a champion on economic empowerment. In July 2009, Forbes named Orman 18th on their list of The Most Influential Women In Media. In May 2009, Orman was presented with an honorary degree Doctor of Humane Letters from the University of Illinois. In May 2009 and May 2008, Time Magazine named Orman as one of the TIME 100, The World’s Most Influential People. In October 2008, Orman was the recipient of the National Equality Award from the Human Rights Campaign.

In April 2008, Orman was presented with the Amelia Earhart Award for her message of financial empowerment for women. Saturday Night Live has spoofed Suze six times during 2008-2011. In 2007, Business Week named Orman one of the top ten motivational speakers in the world-she was the ONLY woman on that list, thereby making her 2007’s top female motivational speaker in the world.

Orman who grew up on the South Side of Chicago earned a bachelor’s degree in social work at the University of Illinois and at the age of 30 was still a waitress making $400 a month.

Episode Summary

Happy Holidays! This week, we bring back a YFP Podcast classic! YFP Co-Founder & CEO, Tim Ulbrich, PharmD, is joined by the one and only, Suze Orman. Suze, #1 New York Times bestselling personal finance author with over 25 million books in circulation, talks about her book, Women & Money: Be Strong, Be Smart, Be Secure, and shares advice for pharmacy professionals feeling overwhelmed with their student loan debt and managing their financial plan.

Suze shares her journey of being a waitress until she was 30 years old and going through a loss of $50,000 from an investment through Merryl Lynch in a three month time period. This is where her passion for personal finance began. Suze landed a job at Merryl Lynch, quickly began rising in rankings and eventually started her own firm. Suze became an advocate to ensure other people’s investments make more money than she’s earning. 

Suze says it’s important to have a healthy relationship with money and that there is no shame big enough to keep you from who you are meant to be. She shares that fear, shame and anger are the three internal obstacles to wealth. 

In regards to student loans, particularly for those with the biggest debt loads, Suze says that first and foremost you have to understand the ramifications that unpaid student loan debt will have on your life. She suggests following the standard repayment plan to minimize the additional interest and amount added on the end of loan (if following an income driven plan), and the taxes to be paid if the loan is forgiven. After paying off your student loan debt, Suze says that you can start dreaming. If an employer offers a 401(k) or 403(b) with an employer match, Suze suggests to contribute to the retirement account only up until the amount of the match. 

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode

Episode Transcript

[INTRODUCTION]

[00:00:00] TU: Hey, everybody. Happy holidays. Tim Ulbrich here, and thank you for listening to the YFP Podcast, where each week we strive to inspire and encourage you on your path towards achieving financial freedom. 

This week, our team at YFP is taking off an annual tradition for us, as we reflect on the year behind us, plan the year ahead, and most importantly, spend time with family and friends. Since our team is on a break this week, I’m bringing back one of our most listened to episodes of all time. That’s an episode from July 2019, where I had the pleasure of interviewing the one and only Suze Orman, a number one New York Times bestselling author on personal finance with over 25 million books in circulation. 

On the show, we talked about one of her books, Women & Money: Be Strong, Be Smart, Be Secure, and the advice she has for pharmacists, as it relates to managing their finances. Now, Suze has been called a force in the world of personal finance and a one-woman financial advice powerhouse by USA Today. She’s a number one New York Times bestselling author, magazine and online columnist, writer, producer, and one of the top motivational speakers in the world. Orman was a contributing editor to the O, The Oprah Magazine, for 16 years, the Costco Connection magazine for over 18 years, and hosted the award-winning Suze Orman Show, which aired every Saturday night on CNBC for 13 years. 

With that said, it’s without question and honor to welcome Suze Orman to the YPF Podcast. 

[INTERVIEW]

[00:01:28] TU: Suze, before we jump in to discuss how pharmacists can be more intentional with their financial plan, I want to give a shout-out to one of our avid listeners, Amanda Copolinski, who is a super fan of yours that said, “Tim, you need to interview Suze on the podcast. Her message will resonate so well with your listeners in the financial issues that pharmacists are facing.” So while you have impacted millions of people, Amanda is one of those. Because of your work, your message will now impact thousands more in our community. So thank you so much for coming on the show.

[00:02:00] SO: You’re welcome. But, Tim, I just have to say one thing about Amanda, seriously. Amanda asked, and because she had a voice, because it is so important, particularly, that women have a voice, and they ask for what they want, and because she asked for what she wanted, even though it was for the good of all, it obviously was also good for Amanda. She got what she wanted. So if we can just learn to ask for what we want, I mean, what’s the worst thing that could happen? I say no. So then it wouldn’t have mattered if even – Do you see what I mean? So, Amanda, you go girl, you go girl, you go girl. All right, we can go now.

[00:02:41] TU: So before we jump in and talk more about your book, Women & Money: Be Strong, Be Smart, Be Secure, I’m curious and want our listeners to know as well a little bit more about your background into this world of personal finance that has led you to transform millions of people on their own financial journey. Were there a series of events or an aha moment for you that set you on this path, on this journey to teach and empower others about personal finance? 

[00:03:07] SO: Yeah. It was a very simple story, actually, where I was a waitress till I was 30 years of age in Berkeley, California. Having been a waitress for seven years, making $400 a month, to make a very long story short, I had this idea that I could open up my own restaurant because I made these people a fortune with all my ideas. My parents had absolutely no money. My mother was a secretary. My father was sick most of his life, blah, blah, blah, blah. And the customers I had been waiting on lent me $50,000 to open up my own restaurant. 

So I’m, again, making a long story short. They had me put that money in Merrill Lynch, which was a brokerage firm. I had a crooked broker. Within three months, all $50,000 was lost. Now, I didn’t know what to do, and I thought I know I can be a broker. They just make you broker. Because during those three months, I really loved starting to learn about a world that was so foreign to me. I didn’t even know what a money market was or Merrill Lynch was. 

Anyway, I went and applied for a job at Merrill Lynch because I knew I wanted to pay these people back that lent me $50,000, and I wasn’t going to do that at $400 a month, which was my salary as a waitress. They hired me to fill their women’s quota. While I was working for them, I realized what my broker did was illegal, and I also had been told that women belonged barefoot and pregnant. They had to hire me, but they would fire me in six months. So while I was working for them, I sued them with the help of somebody who worked for Merrill Lynch who told me what had happened to me was illegal. Because I sued them, they couldn’t fire me. 

During the two years until it came to court, and they then settled outside of court because I was their number six producing broker at the time, but what happened was during that time, those two years, I realized, oh, my God, how many people out there don’t have the money to lose? Like all right, I was young. I could have somehow come back. But what if it were my parents? What if it were your parents? What if it was somebody who that was every penny they had to their name? 

Even though I was a financial advisor, in terms of serving people at that time, I became an advocate to make sure that every single person that invested money, that their money meant more than the money I was going to earn off of them. I put them before me. People first, then money, then things. It was those people that mattered because I was one of those people. Before you knew it, I just rose and rose in the ranks, started my own firm, and here we are today.

[00:06:20] TU: Indeed. I think that’s a good segue into talking about your million-copy, 

number one New York Times bestselling book, Women & Money: Be Strong, Be Smart, Be Secure. As you may or may not already know, the profession of pharmacy is made up of a majority of women, approximately 60-40 split, two-thirds, one-third of graduates today, roughly speaking. So I think this message in your book is certainly going to resonate with our audience. 

You start the book with a chapter titled Imagine What’s Possible, and there’s a passage in there that I want to briefly read that really stood out to me. You said, “Women can invest, save, and handle debt just as well and skillfully as any man. I still believe that. Why would anyone think differently? So imagine my surprise when I learned that some of the people closest to me in my life were in the dark about their own finances. Clueless or, in some cases, willfully resisting, doing what they knew needed to be done. I’m talking about smart, competent, accomplished women who present a face to the world that is pure confidence and capability.” 

So why, Suze, is this topic of personal finance, even for well, smart, accomplished women, such as the pharmacists listening, and heck, regardless of gender, I would say this is true. Really smart people that often can’t effectively manage their money. What are the root causes for them?

[00:07:42] SO: Yeah. You just used the word can’t. Oh, they can. Women have more talent in their little fingers, I’m so sorry to say, more capability than most men have in both hands, really. I don’t say that as a put-down to men. It’s just that women hold up the entire sky here in the United States. They take care of their parents, their children, their spouse, their brothers, their sisters, their employees, their clients, their patients, everybody, their pets, their plants. When it’s all said and done, when they’re 50 or 60 years of age, that’s when, for the very first time, they start to think about themselves. 

You have got to remember that women have the ability to give birth, in most cases. They have the ability to feed that which they have given birth to, in most cases. So a woman’s nature is to nurture, is to take care of everybody else before she takes care of herself. So it’s not that she can’t. It’s she doesn’t want to. She doesn’t want to. She wants to make sure that her kids, in particular – A woman will do anything to make sure that her children are fine. That is not true with men. That is not true with men. 

I used to think that it was until 2008 came along and when people were laid off of their jobs. They lost their home. They lost their retirement. They lost everything. Women would go back to work, working three or four jobs, a waitress, a cocktail waitress, anything, just to put food on the table. A man, if they had a $200,000 job, would not go back to work if all they were offered was $60,000. They weren’t going to do it. 

Again, it’s not putting men down. Please, men, don’t think that because I don’t put you down. It’s the socialization effect of the difference between a man and a woman. So a woman just will do it all, but she won’t take care of herself. She chooses not to. In any aspect, she’ll only take care of her household expenses. You know why? Because her house holds everybody that she loves. That’s the only difference. That’s the only difference, boyfriend. That’s the only difference.

[00:10:06] TU: Which is a good segue to talk about healthy relationships with money because in the book, you mention that in order to build a healthy relationship with money, there are attitudes that women need to get rid of, with the first of these being these weights or burdens that you referenced that are commonly carried around, one being the burden of shame and the second being the tendency of blame. Can you tell us more about this concept of blame?

[00:10:29] SO: Yep. You know, in the book, I talk about truthfully that there is no blame big enough or shame big enough to keep you who you are meant from being. There just isn’t. Sometimes, we’re ashamed that we don’t know about money. Sometimes, we’re ashamed that we don’t have the money that we need to be able to give our children what they want. 

Now, what I just said was very heavy, believe it or not, because it’s really difficult. I mean, I just experienced it. I had my niece here. In fact, I had all my nieces here, but one in particular that has a five-year-old child who loves Pluto more than life itself. He literally thinks Pluto is alive. He said to me, “Aunt Suze, how do I get a real Pluto?” I mean, “You mean a dog?” He said, “No, really. I want this Pluto to be alive.” You could just see, you want to give this kid anything this kid wants because he’s so fabulous. Not that – All your kids are fabulous, to you, anyway. 

So a mother feels, especially if she’s a single mother, that she has to make up for the loss of a father figure or another mother figure or parent figure, and she does it usually by purchasing things for her kids because when they go to school, oh, but this kid has this cute backpack, and this kid has this, and look at these watches, and look at this iPhone. So it becomes very interesting that a lot of times, you’re ashamed of what you yourself don’t have. You’re not proud that you have anything. You’re ashamed of what you don’t have, and you blame it, usually, on somebody else. Or you blame it on yourself. 

It’s – Fear, shame, and anger are the three internal obstacles to wealth. They just are. I have people – I know you’re talking about the book right now, but my true love at this moment in time is the Women & Money podcast because it’s on the Women & Money podcast that you can hear. You can hear via the emails that are sent in the shame and the blame that women feel, the anger that they have at themselves for staying in a relationship that they don’t want to be in, but they don’t have the money to leave, the confusion that’s out there. A lot of these women are so powerless because they’re not powerful over their own money.

[00:13:10] TU: In the book, you go through a detailed financial empowerment plan, which I think is incredibly helpful for our listeners to hear more about since we know many pharmacists are struggling with spinning their wheels financially, graduating now with more than six figures of student loan debt, the average about $166,000, having many competing financial priorities with home buying, starting up a family, building up reserves, saving up for retirement. The list goes on and on. So the question is where does one start when they are looking at so many competing financial priorities, and it can feel so overwhelming?

[00:13:42] SO: You start by, number one, really understanding the ramifications that student loan debt that goes unpaid will have on your life forever. So your number one, bar none, is your student loan debt, and you have got to understand the difference between paying back student loan debt on the standard repayment method and the income-based repayment methods. You have to understand that in your head, if you think, “Oh, I have all this debt. I’m just going to pay back a little bit because I don’t have that much of an income, and they’re going to forgive it in 20 or 25 years. I’ll be OK,” no, you won’t. 

You won’t because if under the standard repayment method, your monthly payment should be $1,500 a month, and under income-based repayment, you’re only $750 a month, that $750 difference gets added onto the back end of your loan, plus interest. When they forgive it, when a debt is forgiven, you need to pay taxes on that, as if it were ordinary income. It is possible that if you do that over 20 years, you’re going to end up owing more than you even started with that they’re going to forgive.

So you have to be realistic here. If you’re going to go in this industry, if you’re going to become a vet, if you’re going to become anything with massive student loan debt, then you have to put your priorities in place. Your first priority is your student loan. After your student loan, hopefully, on the standard repayment method, it is paid off, then start dreaming. Ten years isn’t that big of a deal. It will come, and it will go. But don’t try to do it all at once.

[00:15:45] TU: Yeah. That’s really timely. I know for many pharmacists that are listening to this, they’re looking at, as I mentioned, six figures of student loan debt, $160,000, $170,000, $200,000 of loan, unsubsidized many of those, interest rates that are at six to eight percent. So obviously, those interest rates and the growing interest and the baby interest can have an incredible negative impact on their financial plan. 

That being a good segue, I think, into the conversation about loan forgiveness, which has gotten a lot of attention with the upcoming presidential elections, and we’ve had some discussion with Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, have forgiveness plans that are out there. Not even getting into specific candidates or politics or the individual policies, I think it brings up an interesting discussion around loan forgiveness and the positives and benefits of that, relative to what people learn through the process of paying off student loans. 

I know, for me, individually, going through the process of paying off more than $200,000 of student loan debt, there was a lot I learned and that my wife and I learned through that lesson in terms of budgeting, working together, setting goals. But I also understand that for many, and certainly would have been the case for us as well, not having that debt would have been fantastic. So how do we reconcile forgiveness relative to being able to learn through that process?

[00:16:58] SO: First of all, let’s talk about student loan debt to begin with and the viability of it. Is everybody crazy that we should have to pay, our children should have to pay $200,000 for a college education?

[00:17:13] TU: Amen.

[00:17:14] SO: Like is that, just to begin with, the sickest thing you have ever heard in your life? So while everybody’s dealing with the debt that we have, what we also should be dealing with is why are we paying that kind of money? Listen, if that’s what these financial institutions need to keep the buildings and the teachers and everything going, maybe we need to go to online universities that are fully credited that everything is done online because the burden that these kids are leaving school with is so heavy. It is the number one question that I am asked. What is so sad, it is the number one question that I do not really have an answer for because they will not let you discharge it in bankruptcy. They do not –

I mean, it is crazy that you pay the same amount of money to get a master’s in social work as you do an MBA. Really? So tuitions, number one, should be based on the area that you are specializing in. Hey, if you’re going to graduate and you’re going to make $200,000, $400,000, $500,000 a year, fine. Then you start spending money that then subsidizes those that are going to make $30,000 a year because they want to be a teacher. Or whatever it may be. But I do think what’s going to start to happen is that people are going to have to start going to community colleges for the first two years or so, and then probably switch over. But then, you have to be crazy if you go to a school that’s $50,000 a year. 

Now, with that said, I get when you want to be a vet, when you want to be a pharmacist, when you want to be a doctor. That’s what they charge. So if you know, if you know beforehand that that’s what it’s going to cost you, and you have an unsubsidized loan, which means that it is growing while you are in school, can you at least pay the interest on that loan while you’re in school? 

I know everybody’s going to say, “But, Suze, I’m working full-time at school. I can’t.” Oh, yes, you can. I had to put myself through school. I worked until 2:00 AM every morning. I started at 7:00. I worked seven days a week for four years straight. Don’t you dare tell Suze Orman you can’t do it. You most certainly can. You just don’t want to. When you have debt that you can’t pay back, this is not a choice if you can or you can’t, if you want to or you don’t want to. You have to, and it’s – I don’t mean to sound harsh to you, but you’ll thank me years from now that at least you haven’t accumulated an interest rate on top of everything else.

[00:20:02] TU: Suze, one of the most common questions that I get and I’m sure you get all the time as well is how do I balance paying off my student loan debt relative to investing and saving for the future? As we think about pharmacy professionals specifically, many of them have gone through lots of education to get where they are. They may have four years of undergrad. They have four years – Likely, some people more in terms of getting their doctorate degree. They may go on and do residency training. 

So here they are, and they look at the clock and say, “Yes, I’m young. But I also know I need to aggressively save, and I keep hearing the message of I need to be putting away money for the future. But I’ve got $160,000, $180,000, $200,000 of student loan debt, unsubsidized loans, six to eight percent. So how do I balance the two of these?” What advice do you give people to help them think through that?

[00:20:48] SO: I would not not pay a student loan under the standard repayment method in order to then save in a retirement account. Obviously, if you work for a corporation that gives you a 401(k) or a 403(b) or whatever it may be, and it matches your contribution, then you have absolutely no choice whatsoever but to absolutely at least invest up to the point of the match. After that, your very first bill that has to be paid before you can decide anything is your student loan repayment. 

After you know what it’s going to cost you to pay on your student loan, then you have to make a decision. Oh, do I have to move in with six or seven kids and all live together in order just to do whatever? What do I have to do after that payment? Is there any money left over? If there is, what will it allow me to do? It may only allow you, I know you’re going to really think I’ve lost it, to move back in with your parents for a number of years.

[00:21:53] TU: You’ve got to do what you’ve got to do.

[00:21:54] SO: You’ve got to do what you’ve got to do. For all of us to make it in today’s society, we have to either really enhance the nuclear unit and nuclear family, and really help each other. Or if we can’t do what we’re born into, then create our own nuclear family, whereas five or six of you get together and you go, “Okay, we have this problem.” It’s not like communal living, but it’s how do we solve this problem? So rather than you each have your own individual apartment, you each have your own car, you each have all of this stuff, what can you do as a group of people? Uber and Lyft and Zipcars, all of that came, especially Zipcars, about people who couldn’t afford to have their own car. 

Again, I don’t mean to be Suze Smackdown here. But I do want you just to be realistic about your life and the independence dream, living on your own, having all of these things. Nothing will give you more pleasure than having money versus things.

[00:23:08] TU: Yeah. My wife and I talk often, as we think about our own financial situations, that we felt some of that pressure in our mid-20s of wanting to live up to the lifestyle that our parents have gotten to after 30 or 40 years. So I think really reshifting expectations and thinking about specifically today’s pharmacy graduates just really has to be intentional with their financial plan and change some of those expectations to set them up to be successful in the long run. 

Shifting gears a little bit, I want to talk about planning for the future, and we recently had on the show Cameron Huddleston, author of the book, Mom and Dad: How to Have Essential Conversations with Your Parents About Their Finances, an excellent book that has me thinking more and more about the significance and importance of healthy and open financial conversations with family about money and ensuring that the estate planning process is well thought out and is in place. 

I noticed that you offer a protection portfolio that is meant to help people take the worry out of protecting themselves, their assets, and their family. So tell us a little bit more about why this process of having a protection portfolio in place is so important and what information is compiled in a portfolio like this.

[00:24:19] SO: What’s really important is for everybody to understand that we have no control over the things that happen to us. Are we going to be in an accident? I mean, really, just the other day, Tim, you know I live on a private island, and I’m driving down this road. I mean, there are no cars on this private island. There are only golf carts. There were only like – There’s 80 homes. There’s nobody here most of the time. I’m driving back to my house, and I come up on a golf cart that overturned on these four 20-year-olds, and they were seriously hurt, all right? I mean, five minutes before then, they were on this private island, having a fabulous time. Now, I’m like, “Oh, my God.” 

So anything can happen at any time, and every one of you needs to be protected against the what ifs of life. May you always hope for the best, but may you plan for the worst, whether it’s an accident, an illness, an early death, whatever it may be. The number of emails I get from 40-year-old women, 50-year-old women, 30-year-old women saying, “Suze, my spouse died. I have three kids. I never expected to be in this situation.” They go on and on and on about it. 

This is also, what I’m about to tell you, very important if you have parents. Because if you have parents, the question becomes like – My mom lived till she was 97. If something happens to your parents, they lose their mind, so to speak, they have dementia, they have Alzheimer’s, and they can’t write their checks anymore or pay their bills, who’s going to take care of them? You can’t do anything for them, unless you have what I call the must-have documents. Not only a will, a living revocable trust, an advanced directive, and a durable power of attorney for healthcare. You must have those. 

But most of the time, lawyers tell you, “All you need is a will.” Oh, give me a break. The less money you have, the more you need a living revocable trust because wills make it so that in most cases, if you own a piece of real estate or whatever it may be, your estate has to go through probate. Guess who gets the probate fees? The lawyer that told you all you need is a will. So a living revocable trust not only passes your assets from one person to another within a two-week period of time, no fees, nothing. But in case of an incapacity, it will say you can sign for so-and-so. So-and-so can sign for you. It sets up your estate every way you want it, and it also helps you because minors cannot inherit money. 

So if you have young children, and both you and your spouse are killed in a car crash, something happens, the money can’t go to your minors. If you left your money to them via your will, good luck. It’s going to end up in a blocked account until they’re 18. So with that said, most trusts, if you go to see a trust lawyer, first of all, you have to know there are good trust lawyers. Most of them are not, are at least $2,500. Every time you make a change, $500, $1,000, you’re just sitting here talking to me about you don’t have even have enough money to pay your student loan debt. Where are you going to get $2,500 to do a will, a trust, an advanced directive, a durable power of attorney for healthcare? Every time you need to make a change, where are you going to get the money to do that? 

So years ago, with my own trust lawyer, I created what’s called the must-have documents. These documents are my documents. If you were to look at my trust, my will, everything, you would see these. But I wanted to do it at a price that every single person could afford. So we created over $2,500 worth of state-of-the-art documents for approximately $69. What’s great about these documents, not only are they fabulous. Every time the law changes, they automatically get updated, but you can change it as many times as you want. 

So if you go from one kid to two kids, you go back to your computer, you change them. So you never have to pay for it again. If you’re interested, really, in that offer, you can just go to suzeorman.com/offer. Through there, it’s $69. Otherwise, you’ll see it sold for $100, $90. They’re sold for all over the place. But these documents have changed the lives of millions and millions and millions of people over the years.

[00:29:28] TU: Yeah. I think it’s also important for our listeners just to consider the peace of mind of having all of this together. When you think about all of the things that are found in estate planning documents, and my wife and I went through this process we’ve talked about on the podcast before, where you put together insurance policy information and where your accounts are at and birth certificates and all of the papers that would need to be readily accessible, in addition to all of your estate planning documents. To get there and the conversations you have and the peace of mind it provides is incredible. Again, suzeorman.com/offer will get you there. 

Suze, I want to wrap up our time together by talking about legacy, and I’m fascinated with learning more about what drives very successful, highly influential individuals such as yourself to take on the life’s mission and work that they do. So for you, as you look back on a career that is undeniably wildly successful and that has positively transformed the lives of millions of people, what is the legacy that you’re leaving?

[00:30:31] SO: I hope the legacy that I leave is that women in particular, but men as well, but women in particular really know that they are more capable than they have any idea, that they will never be powerful in life until they’re powerful over their own money, how they think about it, how they feel about it, and how they invest it, and that every one of them, one of them, has what it takes to be more and to have more. They just have to want to. 

I don’t really know. I don’t know how to answer that because I never think about what I’m going to leave. I only really think about what I’m doing. I can tell you right now, like one of my friends said to me, “You just can’t help yourself, can you, Suze Orman?” So with the Women & Money podcast, people write in their emails. I keep saying, “I’m not going to answer them. I can’t answer all these emails.” Now, I’ve answered almost every one, except four. I’ve got four left, and then they’ll mount up again, and blah, blah, blah, blah. 

But I have such a desire for every single woman and the men smart enough to listen, but really for every single woman to get the right advice, the best advice, to start to educate them so that they become smart enough, strong enough, secure enough. So they can start educating their daughters and their sisters and their aunts and their moms and their grandmas and everybody. So that we start really teaching one another because I’m just so afraid of where this world – Truthfully, the hatred in this world that we are experiencing right now, I am very afraid of where it’s going to take us next year. So I hope I leave a legacy of love and power. That’s what I really hope I leave.

[00:32:45] TU: Yeah. What really stands out to me, Suze, the work that you’re doing, and you alluded to this, is the generational impact that it’s having, and that will forever go on. I mean, that’s an amazing thing, when you think about transforming somebody’s personal financial life. Let’s say they’re a mother, and they pass it on to their kids and their friends and their cousins and their network, and that gets passed on to another generation. That is incredible transformational work that will forever have impact. So I thank you for that work, and I know it’s had an impact here on me in even having the opportunity to talk with you today. 

To our listeners, as Suze mentioned, she responds to her requests as it relates to the podcast that she has each and every week, the Suze Orman’s Women & Money podcast. So if you have a question for Suze that we did not touch on during today’s show, make sure to reach out at [email protected]

Again, as a reminder, make sure to head on over to suzeorman.com, S-U-Z-E-O-R-M-A-N.com, where you can learn more about Suze, including her blog, the podcast, comprehensive resources, live events that she hosts, and books and products that are designed to help empower you in your own financial plan. 

Suze, again, thank you so much for coming on the show, and I’m grateful for what you were able to share and the impact that it will have on our community. Thank you very much.

[00:34:04] SO: Anytime, boyfriend. Anytime.

[END OF INTERVIEW]

[00:34:07] TU: As we conclude this week’s podcast, an important reminder that the content on this show is provided to you for informational purposes only and is not intended to provide and should not be relied on for investment or any other advice. Information in the podcast and corresponding materials should not be construed as a solicitation or offer to buy or sell any investment or related financial products. We urge listeners to consult with a financial advisor with respect to any investment. 

Furthermore, the information contained in our archived newsletters, blog posts, and podcasts is not updated and may not be accurate at the time you listen to it on the podcast. Opinions and analyses expressed herein are solely those of Your Financial Pharmacist, unless otherwise noted, and constitute judgments as of the dates published. Such information may contain forward-looking statements that are not intended to be guarantees of future events. Actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements. For more information, please visit yourfinancialpharmacist.com/disclaimer. 

Thank you, again, for your support of the Your Financial Pharmacist Podcast. Have a great rest of your week. 

[END]

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You Can’t Undo That: How Tax Proactive Planning Can Prevent Costly Mistakes in Filing Season

By Sean Richards, CPA, EA

As I was relaxing this weekend and watching one of my all-time favorite films — the 1985 Robert Zemeckis classic Back to the Future — I was thinking…how awesome would it be to be able to turn back time? 

I’m not talking about going 30 years in the past and accidentally preventing my parents from falling in love, threatening my very existence. I just mean being able to go back and change some small mistakes, knowing what I know now. 

Like an Undo button for life — a quick Ctrl + Z (or I guess I should say, Command + Z, as a recent Mac-convert).

That time you accidentally called your professor “Mom” in front of the whole class? *click* Do over!

That holiday dinner with extended family when you figured why not to bring up politics? *click* Now you can just talk about the weather!

And how about a few tax examples that could benefit from a Command + Z including…

That year you made it rain…so much so that you didn’t have enough cash to pay your taxes at the end of the year? *click* Do over!

That time you bought, fixed up, and sold an investment property only to be surprised by the taxes on the capital gains? *click* Now you can go back and strategize how to minimize or avoid those taxes!

Or, a big one right now…that time you didn’t synergize your tax-filing and public service loan forgiveness (PSLF) strategy and ended up paying more out of pocket than otherwise could have been forgiven tax-free? Ouch. *click* Redo!

The list can go on and on for common tax mistakes we see pharmacists making and, perhaps, less obvious, common strategies that could be employed, through proactive planning, to make sure you pay your fair share but no more. 

Unfortunately, we’re still waiting for the Flux Capacitor to be invented.

Until that time comes, we need to be proactive in avoiding mistakes before they happen.

The good news is that some mistakes are easily avoidable…with the right strategy in place, that is.

Let’s take the first example from above – You’ve started doing some consulting work on the side of your full-time gig – after all, your mentor always did say, “If you’re good at something, never do it for free.” A few clients send you something called “1099s”. “Must be like some sort of proof of payment,” you tell yourself. “They already paid me in cash.”

You’re overrun with emotion. Excitement, surprise, self-validation (“maybe I’ll make a post on LinkedIn thanking all the haters who told me I couldn’t do it…”).

And on top of all that, you are ~flush~ with cash. 

Finally, with some extra cash and breathing room, you can start hitting the fast-forward button to achieving your financial goals.

Building extra reserves – check.

Extra savings towards retirement – yes, please.

Purchasing an investment property – let’s do it!

Life’s looking pretty good with some extra cash, isn’t it?

Flash forward ten months (in real life, no time machines this time) — it’s April, and your tax return is due. “Congrats on the great year!” your accountant tells you, although this face suggests it may be best to put the champagne bottle back on ice. “I do, however, have a bit of bad news…”

$10,000.

You owe ten THOUSAND dollars to the IRS. 

“Well, that’s the price of doing business I guess.” And you’re right; a large tax bill usually is an indicator that you had a great year. The problem is, that money is long gone. You set up an installment plan with the IRS, pay a boatload of interest, and learn from your mistakes. 

But what if…

What if you had put some money aside for taxes in the summer? 

Better yet, what if you had forecasted your end-of-year tax liability and made estimated payments against it each quarter? 

Better better yet, what if you had strategically redeployed your excess cash to support your financial growth AND reduce your taxable income? 

Even better still, what if you had an accountant do all that for you?

The proactive, forward-looking process I’m describing is called tax planning and is something that is too often overlooked when folks are crafting their financial plans. The focus tends to be on tax preparation, the once-a-year push to file returns before scary, looming deadlines.

While we all wait for the Undo button for life, we need to shift that focus.

I like to compare tax planning to the role of a director in filmmaking, while tax preparation is more like the role of an editor. While both are crucial to the end product, a director has the ability to change the acting in real-time, allowing her to align what’s happening on the set to exactly what she envisions in her script. The film editor can work his magic to take what has already been filmed and make it beautiful, but he’s limited by the passage of time: the scenes have already been cut. 

Would a filmmaker prefer to edit a movie that was shot without direction or one that was filmed under the guidance of an expert director like Robert Zemeckis?

So why choose to build a financial plan without incorporating tax planning?

And don’t say because you can always hop in the DeLorean…unless, of course, you’re offering me a ride.

Still have questions? We can help.

The YFP Tax team offers a Comprehensive Tax Planning (CTP) service, created for the pharmacy professional, designed for folks who are ready to be proactive about their tax strategies.

To learn more about how YFP Tax’s CTP service can help add direction to your financial plan, visit yfptax.com or book a call with Sean Richards, CPA, EA, Director of Tax at YFP.

YFP 287: Monetizing Your Clinical Expertise with Dr. Timothy Gauthier


Timothy Gauthier, antimicrobial stewardship pharmacist and pharmacy entrepreneur, discusses the genesis of IDStewardship.com and LearnAntibiotics.com, how he has monetized his clinical expertise to create passive revenue streams, and how he balances the demands of entrepreneurship with his personal and professional commitments. 

About Today’s Guest

Timothy P. Gauthier, Pharm.D., BCPS, BCIDP is a pharmacist trained in infectious diseases and antimicrobial stewardship. He is a clinician, researcher, educator, and author. He is an advocate for antimicrobial stewardship and pharmacy education.

Dr. Gauthier graduated from Northeastern University’s School of Pharmacy (Boston, MA) in 2008. He then completed a Post-Graduate Year-1 Pharmacy Practice Residency and a Post-Graduate Year-2 Infectious Diseases Pharmacy Residency at Jackson Memorial Hospital (Miami, FL). Since finishing terminal training he has worked in academia (Nova Southeastern University, 2010-2015), clinical practice (Miami Veterans Affairs Healthcare System, 2015-2019), and a leadership role (Baptist Health South Florida, 2019-current), all focusing on advancing the fields of infectious diseases pharmacy and antimicrobial stewardship.

He holds certifications from the Board of Pharmacy Specialties for Pharmacotherapy and Infectious diseases. He has completed the Making A Difference in Infectious Diseases Pharmacotherapy Antimicrobial Stewardship Training Program.

He is the creator and editor-in-chief of www.IDstewardship.com, www.LearnAntibiotics.com, and the many @IDstewardship social media profiles. He co-hosts the #ASPchat each month on Twitter. He reaches thousands of people each day on the internet and on social media, where he aims share reliable and relevant information from the world of pharmacy and healthcare in general. IDstewardship.com alone has registered over 5,00,000 page views as of November 2022. He is also the author of the recently released book “Learn Antibiotics” which is now available for sale on Amazon.

Episode Summary

This week on the YFP Podcast, YFP Co-Founder & CEO, Tim Ulbrich, PharmD, welcomes antimicrobial stewardship pharmacist and fellow pharmacy entrepreneur, Tim Gauthier. Tim is the creator of IDStewarship.com and LearnAntibiotics.com. During the show, Tim and Tim discuss the genesis for creating these two learning platforms, how Tim has monetized his clinical experience to create passive streams of income, and how he manages to stay consistent in entrepreneurship while balancing a full-time pharmacy career and fulfilling personal life. Listeners will hear about Tim’s pathway to pharmacy, what drew him into the profession, his passion for infectious disease pharmacy, and what he was hoping to accomplish with his learning platforms, IDStwardship.com and LearnAntibiotics.com. Tim walks us through the content and resources available on his websites and how he has monetized them while providing a wealth of free content to his community. Making things passive and generating passive revenue streams is crucial to Tim, and he shares the tools and systems he has put in place to make that goal possible while balancing other obligations. Tim also discusses the incredible value of community and how he has built an active, engaged pharmacists community that contributes to the platforms in multiple ways. Tim closes with advice for pharmacists looking to follow a similar path in monetizing their clinical expertise.

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode

Episode Transcript

[INTRODUCTION]

[00:00:00] T. ULBRICH: Hey, everybody. Tim Ulbrich here, and thank you for listening to the YFP Podcast, where each week we strive to inspire and encourage you on your path towards achieving financial freedom. 

This week, I had a chance to welcome antimicrobial stewardship pharmacist and fellow pharmacy entrepreneur, Tim Gauthier. Tim is the creator of IDStewardship.com and LearnAntibiotics.com. During the show, Tim and I talk about the genesis for creating these two learning platforms, how Tim has monetized his clinical expertise, and how he manages and leverages his time to be able to consistently put out good content while working full-time and fulfilling his personal commitments and goals.

Before we jump into the show, I recognize that many listeners may not be aware of what the team at YFP Planning does in working one-on-one with more than 250 households in 40-plus states. YFP Planning offers fee-only high-touch financial planning that is customized for the pharmacy professional. If you’re interested in learning more about how working one-on-one with a certified financial planner may help you achieve your financial goals, you can book a free discovery call at yfpplanning.com. Whether or not YFP Planning’s financial planning services are a good fit for you, know that we appreciate your support of this podcast and our mission to help pharmacists achieve financial freedom. 

All right, let’s jump into my interview with pharmacist and entrepreneur, Tim Gauthier. 

[INTERVIEW]

[00:01:21] T. ULBRICH: Tim, welcome to the show.

[00:01:23] T. GAUTHIER: Hey, thanks for having me. I’m really excited to be here. How are you, Tim?

[00:01:26] T. ULBRICH: I’m well. I’m excited to dig into the work that you’re doing and for you to share with the YFP community how you’ve been monetizing your clinical expertise. But before we jump into that, I’d love to learn about your journey into pharmacy school, into the profession, where you went to school, when you graduated, and what drew you into the profession of pharmacy.

[00:01:44] T. GAUTHIER: Oh, yeah, of course. So I went to Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts and graduated in 2008, which feels like yesterday, but it’s been four years now. I got into pharmacy because I really was interested in microbiology. It turns out it’s easier to transfer into microbiology from pharmacy than pharmacy to microbiology. So I started in pharmacy. I ended up sticking with it. I never thought I’d go into infectious diseases pharmacy, just because it didn’t really cross my mind, and I didn’t know much about that early in my years. 

Then later on, after PGY1, I had the opportunity to do a PGY2 in ID. Lo and behold, today, I’m an infectious diseases-obsessed pharmacist, who’s out there to defend antibiotics and promote clinical pharmacy. So here we are today.

[00:02:27] T. ULBRICH: So the Northeast, Tim, to Florida. This is the time of year in the Northeast. I grew up in the Buffalo area, where it’s beautiful. I always say six months out of the year, I’d live anywhere else. But the Midwest I’m at now or the Northeast. But the other six months, included this time of year, is absolutely gorgeous. So do you miss the seasons at all?

[00:02:49] T. GAUTHIER: I do miss the seasons, but the winter in Miami, Florida, where I live now, is just absolutely wonderful. I love the culture, as well as all the different types of food here. We do visit. Periodically, I go to Boston, Rhode Island, Connecticut and stuff. So it’s nice to be able to have a little bit of the best of both worlds.

[00:03:06] T. ULBRICH: Yeah, yeah. So we connected several years back, and I’ve been following your work for some time. I wanted to bring you out in the show, as I think what you’ve built is a really cool example of how pharmacists can monetize their clinical expertise. Certainly, as we’ll talk about, it’s not just about the money, but it’s being able to leverage the skills, the passion, the interest that you have to fill a gap in the market and to help people looking to learn more about a topic. 

Here, we’re going to be talking about infectious disease, of course, and we have featured a variety of individuals on the podcasts over the past year or so. So I’m excited to share your journey as well. So let’s start with IDStewardship.com. When and why did you start it? Who was it for? What were you hoping to accomplish? 

[00:03:49] T. GAUTHIER: Yeah. So IDStewardship.com has been alive since about 2016, and I just had a friend who knew how to build websites, and I wanted to build something on my own, and he offered to help and put it together. Then I kind of took off from there, and I do pretty much everything on my own now. When I have a technical problem, he comes in? But why did I do it? There’s a couple of reasons. 

One is I wanted to own my own space on the Internet, where I could have a voice, where I could publish things and not be restricted by a company or a manager or a group of people. Also, I just really enjoy your writing. So it gave me an opportunity to use a different part of my brain on the weekends and in the evening hours to share information that could be open access and someone else could benefit from. There’s a huge need in pharmacy. It has been for us to share our experiences and practical advice and insights so that others can learn and grow from it. 

Also, just sharing information about antibiotics to make it easier for people to understand what drugs can I use for MRSA or Pseudomonas. But then some deeper things like what are five things to know about, I don’t know, Stenotrophomonas or Acinetobacter. So really, it’s just a myriad of content these days. If you’re a pharmacy professional, if you’re a healthcare professional, there’s some stuff on there that you’ll be interested in. If you’re just looking for fun stuff, there’s a drug name emoji that people really, really seem to enjoy. 

[00:05:03] T. ULBRICH: So I’m trying to understand, Tim, the need you’re filling with this resource. So obviously, we all went through ID curriculums in our PharmD program. There are there are PGY2 residencies that focus on this fellowships who focus on this. Certainly, there are associations or interest groups within associations that focus on this. So what is different here that you’re trying to carve out to fill a need that you felt like either wasn’t being met for you or for other clinicians through those other learning pathways?

[00:05:32] T. GAUTHIER: Yeah. I didn’t do very well in ID in pharmacy school, ironically, and I didn’t feel comfortable with it until I was like halfway through my PGY2. Practical resources that are available that are insightful and that consider the things that are beyond just the obvious, those were lacking. That really motivated me to try to put out things that were interesting. But also, like when you go to practice, these are five things you need to know about [inaudible 00:05:55] come across [inaudible 00:05:57]. I think that the community has received it really well, but I use social media to amplify that voice in different social media platforms. 

So it’s been a really rewarding experience, and collaborating with others from around the world has been something an area of success, I think, to be part of kind of the community that I’ve built. But I have a lot of flexibility, and that’s one thing that a lot of organizations don’t have.

[00:06:21] T. ULBRICH: Yes, yeah. The digestible nature of the content strikes me. You’ve alluded to it a couple of times with examples you’ve given thus far in the show. It reminds me of one of the pharmacist we’ve had on this show, Kelley Carlstrom, on episode 217. Her business called KelleyCPharmD. She does an awesome job of this in the pharmacy space, specifically in oncology practice, making it accessible, no matter where you are. She trained at the Cleveland Clinic, an internationally recognized institution. Not everyone can go do your residency there, right? Has the time to commit, potentially has to travel to do that. 

Her vision really is what about all the other hospitals? What about all the rural healthcare settings that are trying to treat patients and get their clinical staff up to speed? Or perhaps different practice models that don’t have a lineup of board certified residency trained pharmacists with multiple credentials? How can we expand the accessibility of this content? That’s one of things I love about what you’re doing here, and it really does strike me as being much more accessible than what is out there and some more traditional training programs or those that are offered by other groups. 

It’s also written and presented in a way that is easy to understand. It’s relevant. It’s things that, Tim, you’re experiencing daily as a clinician yourself or encounters when you’re precepting residents or students. So you know the pain points. You know the questions, the problems, the points of confusion because you’re living them each day. I love the platform of what you built to address that. 

So take us, Tim, through IDStewardship.com, in terms of the content you have, the resources you offer, and how you’ve been able to monetize it, right? You give out a lot of great content for free. But you also been able to monetize the site and enable to reap some of the fruit for all the work that you’re putting in, and you’ve put in over the last seven years. So talk to us about what you offer and provide on the site and how you’ve been able to monetize that.

[00:08:14] T. GAUTHIER: Yeah. I offered way too much stuff for free, probably. But exactly like an altruistic passion project, it has to make some kind of money for my wife to allow me to continue it. So definitely, it’s a mixed bag. But the art of the IDStewardship.com offers articles, which are blog articles talking about the student experience, the pharmacist experience, clinical insights into common questions that we ask and that we see. Those are always written by content experts who have practical experience in the area, and I vet all that content to make sure it’s reliable, credible, and it goes beyond like the obvious content that you might find in a general article. 

Also, there’s a study guide section, which is free and open access that has a picture of the drug, some of my key points, which I think you might find on your pharmacy school exams or maybe the BCPS or BCIDP exam and then links to some of the articles or some of the guidelines that are really relevant to that drug. I have a list of resources, which is pretty cool. If you’re looking for anything about antibiotics, that is a very robust list of resources. So like hepatitis C screening for Child-Pugh score. There’s a calculator in there. Just pick one random example. Or even if you’re looking for regulatory content from the Joint Commission, it’s linked there. 

I also have the contributor section, where you can see who’s participated, and there’s really a lot of contributors to my website. So I do want to emphasize that that’s a really cool part of what I’ve been able to do, and it’s not just Tim doing it. It’s the community. But I kind of lead it because I’m kind of like the editor in chief of the content founder. The other part, though, which I really want to talk about for a second is LearnAntibiotics.com. So I’ve taken the opportunity to show people that, yes, these are articles that are available. But I’ve been able to produce content that you can use for learning. As a background in academia, I know that you have to go and be able to identify and define before you can analyze and assess and predict. 

So I’ve built content specifically to help people through that learning process. If you’re looking to identify and define, I have cheat sheets on different disease states, on different drug classes. Those can help people to say, okay, like, “Pseudomonas drugs, these are my drugs.” But then I also make more fun content that has like a word search or a Jeopardy game. Those can be applied to the specific area. Then the practice tests I’ve built so that if you are able to pass that practice test, you can practice pretty competently as a pharmacist and know what questions to ask for infectious diseases and even some of them I’ll give you. Here’s the question, here’s the answer, and here’s the rationale for why each answer is right, and each answer is wrong. So it’s pretty robust. 

[00:10:59] T. ULBRICH: I love that and I want to come back in a little bit to talk more about the LearnAntibiotics.com, in terms of what you’re trying to accomplish there. I think that’s going to give some folks some interesting ideas about as you’re considering monetizing your clinical expertise, there’s a lot of different ways to do that. I love what you’ve built there with that membership type of model. 

Two words, Tim, that really stand out about what you’ve built and the vision that you have going forward are passion and community. You mentioned community just a moment ago, and I love that you’ve brought together a group of people that are, obviously, passionate about learning more about antimicrobial stewardship, learning more about infectious disease, bringing in contributors to the site, taking them from just a passive learner, to engaging them in the conversation, contributing to the community, and then passion. Your passion for this topic and furthering individuals’ knowledge and, obviously, the more our healthcare professionals know about this topic, the better they’re able to serve their patients. 

I think this is so important for folks to hear, when you’re working on a side hustle or a business, especially when you’re working a full-time job, you have lots of other commitments, doing something that you’re passionate about, you mentioned that I probably got too much free content out there, right? It’s a passion project for you. Yes, you’re monetizing it. But that is going to really drive the energy and the enthusiasm to continue to build, especially in the early years, as someone who’s trying to get something off the ground. 

Tim, as people go to IDStewardship.com and they see what you’ve built over several years, how much of this is what you have built and maintained? And how much of this is what you have other people that are helping you in building and maintaining the site?

[00:12:36] T. GAUTHIER: That’s a great question, and it’s definitely changed over time. When I started to look at developing a website, I talked to one of my friends who’s in website development, and he said, “Tim, we can do a website. But this is not a six-month thing, and this is not a one-year thing. This is like a 10-year journey, and you have to think of it very long-term.” So taking small bites has been one of the keys to success. As I’ve understood the workflows on developing different items, it’s gotten to be more efficient over time. I do produce actually the majority of the content on my own when it comes to the background work. 

But the one thing that people send to the community of pharmacists, they’re willing to be a part of this journey. Them sending me articles and communicating with me and offering their assistance and trying to get their message out and share their passion, that really has enabled me to produce more content and put more information out there. But it is a tremendous amount of work. I do spend a lot of time between the hours of 8:00 PM and 11:00 PM working on this type of stuff. I think if you don’t have the passion for it, it’s probably going to be hard to do it long term. 

But that’s what drives me because I just really am totally obsessed with infectious diseases and microbial stewardship, and I think people need help learning. I needed a lot of help learning. I see where there’s benefit. I see where there’s value. There’s some monetary benefit that comes with it. It’s not anything that’s extreme by any means. But by having that win-win, it’s really been something that I think has been worth pursuing. 

One of the secrets that they say is not to do things alone, right? If you’re going to build a program like this, or you’re going to build a side business. I have mixed feelings about that. On one hand, I love the freedom that I have. I have total creative freedom to do whatever I want, whenever I want, with no one arguing with me. But at the same time, being in an echo chamber with yourself is not always a positive thing, and having a partner can push you in good directions. So I think partnerships are important, and you can choose to pursue things as a partnership or as an individual.

Something else I want to note that as I built out what I have online with IDStewardship is I’ve really purposely tried to make it about the brand and not about me. That kind of protects me in a way because the voice is the voice of the brand and not the voice of the individual. Also, people can engage within behind that brand and be a part of the community again, rather than it being part of what Tim is doing. So that was actually very strategic in the development. 

[00:15:02] T. ULBRICH: Yeah, Tim. I think that’s a strategic move for the reason you mentioned also. I think about the passion and the mission of what you’re trying to do. Like there may be a day where maybe this isn’t only Tim who’s doing this. Or for whatever reason, you have others that are involved in the mission of advancing the education around IDStewardship and being able to have this information accessible, where folks can learn and perhaps be excited about learning it I think transcends just one person, right? So I think the contributors is another important aspect here of what you’ve highlighted.

[00:15:34] T. GAUTHIER: Like making things passive is also really important to me. I’ve learned that a lot during COVID because COVID has been absolutely horrible for all infectious diseases pharmacists and time management and when life was balanced. I mean, everybody in general. But I mean, trying to keep up with the literature and be engaged, on top of having this site and stuff going on, I need things to be able to put on pause, right? If I have no commitments that I’ve made, that’s not going to serve me well in the long term. So I really try to do things that are passive whenever possible and then only commit to like a couple of things at a time.

[00:16:05] T. ULBRICH: Yeah. One other thing I was thinking about, Tim, as I was looking at your site, that would be I think good advice for folks that are thinking about building their own, especially if they don’t have a huge budget upfront to be able to hire a web developer. If you’re building a content-based site, it could be blog articles that you’re adding, podcasts that you’re adding, e-resources that you’re adding checklists, guides, e-books, whatever, like you want to make sure you’re building it in a way that you understand and can add to it on a regular basis. 

So even if you’re working with a developer or a contractor to help you, making sure you have enough understanding of the back end so that you’re not spending a whole lot of money long-term or frustrated that each time you’re trying to add a piece of content to the site, whether that’s a blog, podcast, an opt-in guide, whatever be the case, that you want to be able to have something that’s nimble, and you can add to over time. 

[00:16:51] T. GAUTHIER: I’ve seen some people who built 20,000, 25,000-dollar websites, and they tend to be the people that follow a lot of podcasters in the space of like social media and engagement and business development. So I think if you’re committed to it, it can be worth the money. But you got to proceed with caution.

[00:17:10] T. ULBRICH: When I go to the site, Tim, and you mentioned already that LearnAantibiotics.com, www.learnantibiotics.com, we’ll link to that in the show notes, which takes you over to the IDStewardship site, that really is the membership portion of the site, where folks can be engaging with the community on an ongoing basis. Obviously, the goal there is that becomes some stability of recurring revenue that supports a lot of the time and effort and the free content that you’re putting out there. 

Talk to us about – I think in content marketing, and I hesitate to use that word because I feel like you’re leading with such good passion and education that sometimes that word can sound dirty. But ultimately, the value that you’re providing and really good free rich education is naturally going to make people aware of what you’re doing on the membership side, which has a recurring revenue potential. 

So what has your strategy or approach been to connect the free content with the membership model? Is it just that, hey, more eyeballs on the site and value that they’ll kind of find their way over there? Is it opt-ins that then point people to that resource? Tell us more about the strategy that you’ve employed to connect the free education people are viewing and receiving with some of the paid options you have. 

[00:18:24] T. GAUTHIER: For sure. As you’re saying, this, I’m thinking about how I need to be more strategic. Sometimes, just go with the flow. That feels good. That feels good. Sometimes, I think of things, and I’m like, “Oh, I wish I had done that.” Even right now, there’s a list of things that if I had the time in my life to do, I would totally do. 

But in general, what I try to do is capture a large audience and engage a large audience and do that through all these different ways that I think of, whether it’s something that’s like a clickable link on an Instagram story, or it’s a new blog post that I put out, or it’s putting a meme out there or just sharing like, “Hey, here’s like a part of my cheat sheet. If you’d like to see more of it like, shoot me your email address. I’ll shoot you a copy of this cheat sheet in full.” Then I have a way to communicate with those individuals. So if you’re just interested in the LearnAntibotics site or you’re interested in like all of IDStewardship, and you want to get our monthly newsletter, I’m able to reach you that way.

Another thing that’s important about having a mail listing is that if like tomorrow, Instagram decides to just delete my account, which they can’t, I have nothing. I’m left with nothing. Whereas since I have a Mailchimp account, they’re able to house my ability to communicate with my people. So in general, I provide something for free. I get the ability to contact these people. If you want to unsubscribe, I have no problem with that. Actually, when people unsubscribe, I don’t have to pay for you to be on my listserv anymore. I actually don’t mind at all. So if you don’t look at the newsletters we send out, feel free to unsubscribe. But if you want to subscribe, then we’d love to communicate with you. 

I think that’s kind of the most important thing I’ve learned when it comes to telling people you have something to share with them, showing them that it’s meaningful, getting them excited about it, showing them that you’re a reliable person that has the know-how to get them the resource that they need to succeed. That is really critical. So that’s kind of some of the messaging there. 

[00:20:18] T. ULBRICH: Yeah. I think one of the other things you’ve done really well, Tim, that I admire is you’re consistent in your content. We know and we’ll talk in a moment about how you balance time with other personal responsibilities. None of us are perfect and consistent in delivering the same amount of material, but you’ve been consistent over the years in terms of there’s not months and months of like quiet phases, and then you dump a bunch of content. 

I think that’s so important for any – If we think about communities we like to be a part of or content we like to follow, it’s a consistent offering that we’re engaging with that content. So as you’re getting started, as someone’s getting started, I think thinking about what is – Once you decide on the medium, is it a blog, is it a podcast, whatever you’re looking at, is it something like a vlog, what is going to be your rhythm roughly that you’re going to be delivering content and making sure you’re showing up on a consistent basis with your audience and those that are finding value from what you’re doing?

[00:21:10] T. GAUTHIER: Along those lines, I think listening to your community is important. I had someone email me recently and say, “Hey, Tim. I wish you had a malaria cheat sheet because I’m studying for the BCIDP exam or the BCPS exam,” I forget which. I made one that weekend, and I really enjoyed it. I thought it was super interesting. I learned a bunch about malaria. So not only does it like help people advance their professional goals. It helps me remember things. I use my websites all the time to remember some of these nuances that are details that are just – You can’t remember everything.

[00:21:40] T. ULBRICH: That’s where I think the community piece comes in well too. You’ve got a good social media following. I’m sure people reach out to your questions all the time. You have students on rotation. You start to put some of those repeated questions into content buckets, right? I know you have a list of running content ideas. I’m sure you do. But once you hear a question more than one, two, or three times, it’s like, all right, maybe there’s something here in terms of a piece of content that we should be putting out. 

Let’s talk about time and balancing doing this. You’ve certainly made a strong case that there’s a lot of passion behind it. But nonetheless, like you’ve got a family. You’re working a full-time job. You’re precepting residents, students. You have expectations at home and at work. Like what strategies have you employed time blocking, or how have you been able to really leverage time so that you can continue to put out content on a consistent basis while working full-time?

[00:22:31] T. GAUTHIER: Yeah. Well, in the early days, and I was working at the Veterans Affairs Hospital in Miami, and they’re very strict in terms of their hours. So when you’re off duty, you’re off time. So everything that I did in the beginning was during off hours. That’s still the same today, but it taught me that you should only work on these things when you’re not on company resources, etc. 

But then I didn’t have small children in the early days, which meant I have had a lot more time, especially in the evening areas of the day. More recently, I have a three-year-old and a seven-year-old, and the evening hours are much more strenuous. So now, since we’ve developed more of an awareness in the community about IDStewardship, I reach out to people. When I see an article posted on like Twitter about something new that I’m interested in, I’ll reach out to the person who authored the article and say, “Hey, I’d love to have you write five things to know about whatever the topic is.” 

People almost always say yes because they want to share their passion. But it’s not just about me getting content. They now have a way to share that information. Sometimes, it’s the resident or the student or the second or third author that I work with. So they get an opportunity to share their voice. Coming up with strategies where I don’t have to do all the work has been one thing. Then also, like when you look at the development of like research and scholarly work in an academic position, you kind of look at it like a conveyor belt, and you want projects in all areas of your conveyor belt. 

Some things are in – You’re designing. What do you think it might look like, and you have your concepts, your list of projects? Then other things are going into publication, going out on the newsletter. So you’re constantly just like feeding that conveyor belt and keeping it going in different areas, and that’s how you stay productive over a long period of time. It’s not about taking one thing and rushing it forward but just maintaining that conveyor belt. There might be different conveyor belts that go faster or slower, and some things might take two years to do. 

But I always move forward with projects based upon what I think is like fun and interesting, and I don’t put pressure on people. I’m not out there saying, “Hey, if you don’t get back to me in two weeks, you’re not going to be allowed to do this.” If you don’t feel like doing this later because you have a problem, whatever. Don’t do it. If you want to circle back in two years, circle back into years, like no pressure.

[00:24:39] T. ULBRICH: Take us a little bit behind the scenes. I think one of the barriers that folks run into is they’re just trying to get started, and they go to someone’s site. They don’t necessarily have a picture of what are some of the tools and the systems and the processes that you have in place. You’ve mentioned a couple things already. Obviously, you’ve got the website infrastructure. You mentioned the email list. So like for us, we use WordPress for our website build. We use Bluehost for our domain hosting. We use ActiveCampaign for our email marketing. Then we have several other tools we use for project management and other things. 

So what are some of the tools that you use or that you have found to be helpful as you’ve been working on IDStewardship?

[00:25:18] T. GAUTHIER: Yeah, for sure. I use WordPress, and then I use WPX Hosting. Then for like the memberships, it’s PMPro or Paid Memberships Pro. I’ve been pretty happy with those overall. The WordPress in particular, it’s just overall really easy to use. You add a plug in. It updates. It’s no big deal. WPX is really – Once a year, I pay a fee. Once in a while, I’ll have a bandwidth issue. So I’ve learned that I need to downsize the images that I use when I post, which I think a lot of people kind of learn that lesson. 

I mean, that’s really the gist of it. Outside that, I use Mailchimp for my emails. I don’t really love how much they charge. I think they’re charging me like 250 a month for like 25,000 subscribers. So it’s great to have that many subscribers, but it doesn’t feel good paying $2,500 a year for that. But it also motivates me to put out content to use that tool that I’m paying for. So those are some of the key things that I’m using now. 

Otherwise, I just maintained like Excel sheets for a while. In the beginning, when I didn’t have as much content, I would do a lineup, and I would remind myself of when I posted to Facebook about a specific blog post, and I would just keep cycling through them. So I was always posting like one thing a day on Facebook. But it’s gotten to the point that I can’t do that anymore. I’d need to hire like a social media manager or something like that. I think as you grow, you need to start considering how can you work with who can you bring in. 

Another thing is as I’ve kind of met people in life through my way or through other venues, I work with them. So I just met a guy over the weekend that he prints things for a living, right? So there’s so much opportunity for us to collaborate with printing things. My audience is interested in topics of pharmacy and infectious diseases. So being entrepreneurial is one of the definitely keys to success here and also not being stuck in your ways, being able to evaluate things, and then accept feedback. If it’s not going well and someone tells you it’s not going well, take that advice and see how you can make it better and ask them, “Hey, how can I make this better?”

[00:27:13] T. ULBRICH: Yes, great advice, Tim. I think for people that are listening, and they hear 25,000 people on an email list and again not getting paralyzed from Jump Street. I think I love what you shared of it was a spreadsheet to begin with, right? I’ve shared before on this podcast that the first 100 subscribers on our email list were a combination of text messages and Facebook messages and LinkedIn posts that I had, and that eventually got added to an email software. Eventually, we added automations. Eventually, we added opt-in funnels and all those things, project management, social media management tools, things like that. But just getting started, you can do a lot of that manually. Get some of the things off the ground. Then as you get momentum, you can build out the systems and the processes that will help with efficiencies. 

Tim, if someone is listening and they are on the very front end of this, so let’s just pick another specialty that’s out there, and they’re thinking, “I’d love to build something in this domain, similar to what I see Tim doing with IDStewardship, Kelley doing with oncology. I also think about what Jimmy Pruitt’s doing with acute care out there in pharmacy,” like what advice would you have with them at the very beginning of their journey? If you think back to where you were when you started in 2015, like now looking back seven years later, like what piece of advice would you have to share with them as they get started on this journey?

[00:28:33] T. GAUTHIER: Well, I mean, first of all, not just because I – If I say something, it doesn’t mean it’s necessarily true. So it’s just my opinion on some of this. So feel free to disagree. But one thing I feel is that, especially when it comes to social media, people go on Twitter, on TikTok, on Facebook because they’re looking for things for themselves. So if you’re not putting out things that are going to be interesting to your audience, then your audience is not going to grow like they should. 

So everything that you do, no matter what you’re doing, should be aligned with why your audience is going to that area, and that’s going to help to get them to like it, get them to share it, which is very, very difficult in the pharmacy profession. We’re like 90% passive users. We love to learn. 

[00:29:11] T. ULBRICH: That’s right. 

[00:29:13] T. GAUTHIER: I’ll post something on Facebook, man, and it’s like five likes. But then I’ll see that I got 250 link clicks. So it’s very interesting. From an outside, you might look at my Facebook page or something and say, “Oh, I got a couple of likes or clicks,” and you can’t see the clicks, but you’ll only see a couple of likes, and they got lots of clicks. So it’s kind of one thing that’s important, I think, as you’re starting off. 

Another thing about starting off would probably be considered like long-term how you’re going to grow, and you’re talking about the design of your product. I think that core message and that core what am I doing here is really important. Over time, is that going to change? Because if it’s focused on something that’s relevant now like COVID, for example, or monkeypox, maybe that’s not relevant in two years from now.

[00:29:59] T. ULBRICH: It’s pretty cool. Yep, absolutely. That’s great stuff, Tim. I’m excited for our listeners, if they’re not already aware to follow the journey, and I hope they’ll opt in your newsletter. Where is the best place that folks can go to follow you and the journey and the work that you’re doing?

[00:30:16] T. GAUTHIER: Yeah. I mean, definitely IDStewardship.com, and you can sign up for our newsletter there or just follow along on Instagram or our Facebook or goods areas. Twitter, you can find me there as well. It’s a little bit more focused on infectious diseases and as a whole and staying up with the literature on Twitter. So either of those but the newsletters are really a good place to start.

[00:30:37] T. ULBRICH: Awesome. Thanks, Tim. Appreciate you taking time to come on the show.

[00:30:39] T. GAUTHIER: Oh, it was my pleasure. We’ve worked together for so long over the years. It’s really a wonderful opportunity for me, and I appreciate your time.

[00:30:46] T. ULBRICH: Thank you. 

[END OF INTERVIEW]

[00:30:47] T. ULBRICH: As we conclude this week’s podcast, an important reminder that the content on this show is provided to you for informational purposes only and is not intended to provide and should not be relied on for investment or any other advice. Information in the podcast and corresponding materials should not be construed as a solicitation or offer to buy or sell any investment or related financial products. We urge listeners to consult with a financial advisor with respect to any investment. 

Furthermore, the information contained in our archived newsletters, blog posts, and podcasts is not updated and may not be accurate at the time you listen to it on the podcast. Opinions and analyses expressed herein are solely those of Your Financial Pharmacist, unless otherwise noted, and constitute judgments as of the dates published. Such information may contain forward-looking statements that are not intended to be guarantees of future events. Actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements. For more information, please visit yourfinancialpharmacist.com/disclaimer. 

Thank you, again, for your support of the Your Financial Pharmacist Podcast. Have a great rest of your week. 

[END]

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YFP 286: YFP Planning Case Study #5: Modeling Retirement Scenarios and How to Handle a Large Cash Position


YFP Co-Founder & Director of Financial Planning, Tim Baker, CFP®, RLP® is joined by Kelly Reddy-Heffner, CFP®, CSLP®, CDFA®, and Christina Slavonik, CFP® to discuss retirement scenarios and how to handle a large cash position in this YFP Planning Case Study. 

About Today’s Guests

Kelly Reddy-Heffner, CFP®, CSLP®, CDFA®

Kelly Reddy-Heffner, CFP®, CSLP®, CDFA® is a Lead Planner at YFP Planning. She enjoys time with her husband and two sons, riding her bike, running, and keeping after her pup ‘Fred Rogers.’ Kelly loves to cheer on her favorite team, plan travel, and ironically loves great food but does not enjoy cooking at all. She volunteers in her community as part of the Chambersburg Rotary. Kelly believes that there are no quick fixes to financial confidence, and no guarantees on investment returns, but there is value in seeking trusted advice to get where you want to go. Kelly’s mission is to help clients go confidently toward their happy place.

Christina Slavonik, CFP®

Christina is a Certified Financial Planner™ located in Texas and has over 15 years of financial planning and industry experience. She received her Certificate in Financial Planning from Southern Methodist University.

Christina is passionate about helping clients live their best lives now while not losing sight of the future. She enjoys the collaborative approach of creating a custom financial plan with her team at YFP.

Episode Summary

YFP Co-Founder & Director of Financial Planning, Tim Baker, CFP®, RLP®, is joined by Kelly Reddy-Heffner, CFP®, CSLP®, CDFA®, and Christina Slavonik, CFP® to discuss various retirement scenarios and how to handle a large cash position in this YFP Planning Case Study. Tim Baker introduces the fifth case study, examining the fictitious couple, Jane Smith and Tyra Lee, from Westchester, Pennsylvania. Jane, age 59, is a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist, and Tyra, age 60, is a pharmacist working part-time. Jane and Tyra also have two teenage boys, Thomas and Robert. During the discussion on this case study, listeners will learn about the couple’s plans to retire in three to five years, earlier than previously expected. Tim, Kelly, and Christina discuss options for care and long-term care insurance concerning Jane’s elderly mother, college plans, and a recent car purchase for their children. The discussion leads to considerations for how the couple might handle their massive cash position and whether or not to pay off debts with their reserves. Tim, Kelly, and Christina talk through the couple’s housing situation as they transition to retirement, their plans for purchasing a cabin or potential forever home, and how that may impact the financial plan.  

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode

Episode Transcript

[INTRODUCTION]

[00:00:00] TB: You’re listening to the Your Financial Pharmacist Podcast, a show all about inspiring you, the pharmacy professional on your path towards achieving financial freedom. 

Hi, I’m Tim Baker and today I chat with two important team members at YFP planning Kelly Reddy-Heffner and Christina Slavonik, both CFPs.

In this episode, we discuss our fifth case study of a fictitious couple Jane Smith and Tyra Lee, and their teenage kids Thomas and Robert. Jane is 59 and is a certified registered nurse anesthetist while Tyra, age 60, is a pharmacist working part time. We cover a bevy of topics that include in retirement in three to five years, where we model out different scenarios using our financial planning software. We chat about long-term care insurance, how to handle their massive cash position, and whether they should pay off some debt, their housing situation as they transition into retirement, college planning for the boys, and potentially how to handle care for Jane’s elder mother.

[INTERVIEW]

[00:00:58] TB: What’s up everybody? Welcome to YFP planning case study number five. So, I am joined today by Christina Slavonik and Kelly Reddy-Heffner, two of our CFPs on the YFP planning team. So, Kelly and Christina, welcome.

[00:01:14] CS: Thank you, Tim.

[00:01:15] KRH: Thanks, Tim.

[00:01:17] TB: So, we are recording this right before Thanksgiving. So, excited to get this recorded in the books and then enjoy some time off with family. I just would like to say that we are very thankful for all the listeners out there, thankful for the community that we’ve built, thankful for the two of you, Christina and Kelly being part of the team. And yeah, just really excited for the upcoming holiday season. Let’s jump into it.

So today, we are exploring a couple in Westchester, Pennsylvania, Jane Smith, and Tyra Lee. So, Christina, you’re going to take us through the first part of the fact pattern, Kelly is going to get into goals. And then, I’m going to talk about the wealth building, wealth protection tax and some of the miscellaneous stuff. And then we are going to dissect this client case study and see what are some planning opportunities? What are the things that should be discussed with the client, that we should really get in front of to make sure that they are on track with their financial plan? So, Christina, if you please kick us off on Jane Smith and Tyra Lee.

[00:02:18] CS: Sure. So, the clients we’re looking at today are Jane Smith, who is a CRNA, aged 59, makes about 194,000 a year and Tyra Lee, who’s a part time pharmacist, age 60, salary is 65,000. They are married filing jointly. They have two sons. I have Thomas, who is age 17, and is currently a student, and Robert, who was 14 and currently a student as well. They reside in Westchester, Pennsylvania, annual gross income is 259,000, which breaks down into monthly around 22,000, and then net after taxes and whatnot, 15,000.

Expenses for these people are fixed at about $5,977 a month. Variable expenses are the 4,500 a month, and the savings of about 4,400 or so. Their current living situation is they’re in a five-bedroom, single-family home outside of Philadelphia. They apparently have a great first floor master. And if Jane’s mom had to move in, they could accommodate her as she is ill and cash resources are currently limited.

[00:03:37] KRH: Complicated, right? This seems like a scenario that we’re seeing a little bit more of with some of our like pre-retiree clients, just that intersection between nearly adult children, but not quite adult and parents kind of having some needs as well. They both would like to retire over the next couple years. But they are thinking through making sure the children are taken care of, parent needs are also taken care of. They have a fairly large cash position and are not sure if they should leave it in cash or pay off some things. They have that home in Philadelphia that they like, it’s functional, but they’re not sure that this is the forever home where they want to stay indefinitely.

With the kid’s college tuitions, one tuition has is about to start, I think based on the age. One is a little bit further in the future, but they kind of want to see what the 529s are going to cover, and what they can maybe do out of pocket and what they simply can’t do. They’ve asked about long-term care insurance, kind of understanding the premiums and how those could change in the future. They might want to buy a lake cabin, maybe that could be the forever home or the primary residents. If they wanted to retire earlier, they had started at age 65. Could they do it like 62, 63? They’ve got a little bit of debt. They have a car note for their own vehicle, 1.9% interest rate. There’s three years left on that note. They also bought a car for the teenage children, so there is a payment of 545 per month, interest rates 2.25, three years also left on that. Obviously, they made those purchases prior to our current interest rates, or it would be much higher. They also have a reasonable interest rate on their mortgage at 2.75. But it is a pretty recent purchase. So, the amount left on the mortgage is pretty high and that monthly payment is 2,858. So, early in that, and that’s one of their questions.

[00:05:58] TB: So, picking up on the asset side of the of the ledger, Kelly had mentioned that they do have a good amount of savings tucked away. So, 143,000 in a joint savings account, 3,000 in check in, and then another 9,000 in an HAS that’s Jane’s. From a 401(k) perspective, looks like Jane is putting in 11%, which is the max for 2022, 20,500 into her fidelity 401(k) through her employer that’s invested in a target date fund for 2030. Tyra also has a 401(k). She’s putting in 31.5%, which is also max amount of 20,500.

Now, for the two of them, one of the things we’ll talk about that you have a catch up available if they want to do that, but she’s also her Vanguard, she’s in a Vanguard target date 2030. Jane has a Roth IRA. This is from a previous employer. It’s invested in a Vanguard 2030 fund. She’s not contributing anything to that presently. Tyra has a SEP IRA from her previous consulting work as a pharmacist. It’s 100% in the S&P 500. So obviously, there’s some little bit differences there in their allocation. And then they also have a taxable account that they’re putting in about two grand a year, $167 a month into a Vanguard target date 2060 fund.

So, it looks like this is going to be maybe a retirement fund, maybe for the boys. We have to kind of get some clarity on that. They do have a primary home that’s valued at 920,000 versus the 683,000 and change that’s left. And then, looking to potentially, maybe buyout another property that they could transition to. We’ll talk about that in a bit.

Overall, you’re looking at total assets, about 1.9 million, total liabilities of just over 725,000. So, net worth is about $1.25 million. We look at the wealth protection stuff. Jane has an individual policy, 1.5 million that expires at age 65. She also has a group policy through employer which is one-time income 194,000. Tyra has a $750,000 policy that also expires at age 65. And then she also has a onetime group policy through employer which is 65,000. They both have short term and long-term disability through their employer that pays out a 60% benefit for short term and long-term disability. They both have their own professional liability policies. And the estate planning documents are up to date.

But one of the things that they’re not sure of is if Jane’s mother has anything, which obviously can affect their financial plan. From a tax perspective, they use YFP Tax. So, thank you very much for that. They’re concerned about their pretax retirement investments and when Roth conversions might be helpful, so obviously there could be time where they’re maybe sunset into retirement, so they might be in a lower tax bracket. So, it might be beneficial to convert some funds over to the Roth. And then Tyra is willing to work more over the next several years if both can retire early. They’re wondering if they should pay off their debt based on the interest rates, and they also want to make sure that they are maximizing the FASFA for their sons.

So, a lot of stuff to talk about. What are the big things, I guess for you, Kelly, that jump out, that you would want to tackle first with regard to Jane and Tyra?

[00:09:07] KRH: Probably the first two is just like the taxable account, the cash position, like having a good understanding of what they have those in place for. Is it a future expense that’s very short term? Is it something more intermediate where we could do a little bit more with those resources? I do think for the wealth building, probably three of the investments are okay-ish, like the target date funds of 2030. I would want to just double check what’s in those funds, make sure they’re close to the right asset allocation, but the SEP IRA for retirement is a little bit more aggressive than it should be for their age, and I suspect the Vanguard target date 2060 potentially could be as well. That seems to make it seem like it’s for retirement, if it’s in the target date fund, but something that I would agree should be confirmed, for sure. But also, what Jane’s mother’s need is, I think, if some of the cash has been earmarked towards helping with some of her care, that would make a difference in kind of the recommendations for how to best put it to work, short term, midterm or long term.

[00:10:27] TB: My thoughts on the on the estate plan documents. I definitely would run out would want to run those to ground. We had some content about a book about how your parent’s estate planning or lack thereof can really affect your own financial plan. “Mom and Dad, we need to talk.” We can link that into the show notes. But I think that’s a vulnerability, and we want to make sure that that’s lined up. So, we’re not having to sue for conservative ship or do things that, if those documents are in place, are really going to put us in a bind later on.

From an asset allocation perspective, Christina, how would you broach this subject? Because obviously, there’s, Kelly’s point, digging in to fidelity 2030 target date fund, Vanguard target, not all target date funds are created equal. We have one that 2030 is probably a little bit – we’re going to be a little bit more conservative than the S&P 500, or the 2060. So, what would be your process to kind of get them in the right model right now, three to five years from retirement, they’re probably going to want to be the most conservative that they ever want to be. Because if the market dips now, it’s very hard to uncover, and that’s where we have to start having conversations of potentially pushing retirement age back, which is not a fun conversation to have. So, from an asset allocation perspective, how would you tackle that with Jane and Tyra?

[00:11:46] CS: Sure. So, first thing I’d want to look at is taking a deeper dive, like what exactly is built into these target date funds? How are they allocated? Mostly looking at the ratio of equities to bonds. So, someone who’s about three to five years out, they can be a little risky, but we want to see more of the bond exposure. Things starting to dial back, their savings years, so maybe looking more at a 60% equity, 60% to 70%, equity 30% to 40% bond allocation for them. And yeah, and then revisiting the S&P 500, for sure, since that is definitely a lot more aggressive than we would want them to be invested at the moment.

Also, another thing to consider too, Tim is we got to get people thinking too, what does my cash needs? What are those going to look like, as I’m getting closer to retirement? So, yeah, we might have some money earmarked that we could be investing, but we still need to have money set aside for emergency fund. Maybe, as you get closer to the retirement date, like have at least a year or so of cash saved up, that is one thing that we’re considering keeping it in a money market, or high yield savings type of environment as well.

[00:13:06] TB: Yeah, for sure. I mean, I think really looking at our processes to really look at the investments by approaching the client with a risk tolerance and seeing what comes out there. And then kind of comparing that to what we think their risk capacity is. So, risk capacity being like, what is the risk that they should be taking? The risk tolerances, what is the risk that they want to take? And they should be taken to your point, Christine, a lot less risk, because we want to really protect that principle. We don’t want to lose anything, and potentially have to push back the retirement or do something different because of where the markets are going.

So, I think foundationally, making sure that that’s there is going to be really important. And to Kelly, your point, 143,000 in cash money savings is a good chunk of change. Christina, you mentioned like, you didn’t say the bad word, but the bad word would be like, what is the budget had been through retirement, which is going to shape the emergency fund. It’s going to shape a lot of things, what’s the retirement paycheck going to look like? The clarifying questions I would want to have is like, what is that 143,000? Is that to pay Thomas’s tuition next year? Do we run that money through the 529? I don’t see a 529 on the balance sheet. But the benefit that PA residents get from a state tax deduction is pretty generous. I think it’s 16,000 per beneficiary, 30,000, 32,000 per filing jointly.

So, if you can shelter some of that, that would be great. But what is the savings account for? What’s the taxable account for? Is the taxable account, is that earmarked for retirement? They’re in a position right now where I’m assuming Jane, if she’s not beyond 59 and a half, she will be sued. So, all of these 401(k)s, Roth IRAs, SEPs, like they can be accessed and used for whatever purpose so we can use some of that money for things that are other than retirement, but I would just want to clarify, what’s the savings account for, what’s the taxable account for, et cetera, before we kind of get into how to deploy these accounts, and again, making sure that, we need an emergency fund, let’s not invest it in a risky way. But we want to get that yield. I think, high yield savings accounts are now at 3%. You can get CEs at 4%. Even the eye bond is still attractive. I think it’s 6.8% plus a fixed rate at point 4%. So, there’s some liquidity issues there. But that might be a good place to park some dollars. You can put up to $10,000 a year there.

So, Kelly, if they’re asking, are we on track for retirement? How do we best answer that question? I’m a visual learner. So, are there things that we can show the client to kind of model that out a bit? What’s that look like on your end?

[00:15:50] KRH: I think these are very, very good questions that we do get from clients. And we ask clients to work on uploading and linking documents to eMoney. So, it’s a software tool that we use, that can be very helpful and looking at where things are at. Even to answer the question about the 529, they’re not listed on their spreadsheet. But they do have –

[00:16:17] TB: Oh, they do have. Okay, good.

[00:16:19] KRH: – do have them. And actually, they don’t pull across on a balance sheet either. So even when we’re working with eMoney, because they’re technically assets for the beneficiary. So, there are the two 529s in place. And you’re right, that Pennsylvania is quite 529 friendly with the rules. But when we get that question, like, good, not good, like we do a nest egg calculation, but then we can also go in the eMoney and look at goals, just to see overall. I’m going to pick one of the scenarios that they were kind of asking about the retire early. The baseline facts is like, based on now how things look towards retirement, and they originally had an age 65.

So, we’ve got the 65 in here, this 95% would suggest like, looks pretty good for being able to retire at that age. We have a couple expenses embedded in. We’ve got college costs, but we can add in college, I mean, we could probably spend the whole rest of the day and Thanksgiving, turkey dinner, talking about things we can do in eMoney. But just to give a high-level overview, we can enter education as like only the 529s cover that expense or do they want to pay out a cash flow a certain amount to help with that goal. We can enter specific school, so they wanted to see public school, public state school, and they wanted to see a private school just to have a comparable.

So, we’ve added in both of those. From here, I like to look at some cash flow reports, so this gives you a like, this looks reasonable and doable. Even the retire early like looks pretty reasonable, but then it is good to see the layers just to make sure things are input pretty well to reflect what the client wants to accomplish. Do the expenses. Tim, you’re right, spot on, are the expenses accurate for what the client is looking to do? So, we entered in living expenses, their liabilities, going to be the mortgage. They have some other expenses added in so they have car purchases every couple years. This is the 529 expense coming across.

So yeah, we do like to take the information that the client provides. Our data is only as good as what accounts are linked. But then we can go back in and run some of those scenarios too. Can they buy the lake cabin? Now, it’s entered as an additional property, not instead of their primary residence. This is less successful. We do like to see above 80%. I guess, I probably on the conservative side like to see 85 to 90. I think when Christina and I look at scenarios, because there’s things that can happen in between that really do impact. Like this really does not include Jane’s mom. Does a certain amount need to be embedded to help Jane’s mom and what is that amount per year? But we can add that? Is it an extra $1,000 a month for her care? Is it 500? Is it something different? But those are important combo situations like what do Jane and Tyra collaboratively think they can do? The conversation is really important with both of them. They have to be on the same page about what they’re willing and able to do and maybe make tradeoffs about to help in that scenario.

[00:20:19] TB: Yeah. So, for those of you that are listening to this, maybe in the car, don’t necessarily see the visual, if you’re not watching us on YouTube, on our channel, what Kelly is really presenting here is an illustration of what ifs. If we buy a lake house to retire early, what is the probability of success, if we have to use these monies for different goals that we have? Are we still going to have money at the end of our plan?

So, what the tool does is that it uses simulation, it uses 1,000 randomly generated market returns and volatility, called trial rounds to say, okay, 95% or 950 times out of 1,000, there’s going to be money leftover of the plan, and anything above the threshold of 80% or 82%, is good. And typically, if it’s lower, we’re going to adjust the plan as we go to make sure that there is money left over. So, the idea is to keep, there is money, between now and then when you when you pass away.

So, the nice part about this is it allows us to kind of toggle on and off different scenarios, to see how it affects the overall nest egg, so to speak, and provide some math behind it. So, the nice part about this is that, you can kind of talk to the client, and you can talk to Jane, you can talk to Tyra and you say, of all these different things that we’ve extracted from your goals, whether it’s a cabin, or being able to take care of your mom, or retire at this age versus this age, what’s the most important? And then basically turn those on and off to see, okay, once we get to this threshold, then the plan might be in jeopardy and we can adjust from there.

But I think this is great, and a visual perspective, and this is the way I learned. I think, like from a client impact, I think, this is huge. Yeah, this is great modeling Kelly. Christina, when you look at this particular client, at least from some of the models that we’re seeing, are there things that you would want some additional information, whether it is Jane’s mom, or maybe more additional information on what is the goal for the education planning? Is it the put the boys through four years of school? Is there a certain percentage? Are we using some of that? Are we counting on scholarships? Are we counting on debt? What are some of the approaches that you would take with the client to kind of refine this out a bit?

[00:22:39] CS: Yeah. So again, just digging more into the weeds. And to your point with the education. Yes, are they going to be relying strictly on loans? Or are there scholarships involved? Or is it a combination of all three? Are they going to be funding, maybe a third of it, from their cash flow? Some from the 529, others from scholarships?

So, we’d like to see some diversity, so to speak, when it comes to funding college needs, especially if 529 is not going to carry the weight. And then looking at savings and withdrawals for the education expenses, as is it does look like there is going to be a shortfall. So, having more of those conversations, again, what is the 143,000 saved for? Is part of that going to help Thomas and Robert. But then again, looking back at what they had given us with the 529, how is it invested? Kelly, when you had shown us that it looked like it was probably just in the money market at the moment, and I would be more curious to see, well, A, is it linking properly. But B, is it indeed invested? You have to have a good solid allocation in there, if you want that money to work for you, over the period of time they have left.

[00:23:53] TB: And probably a good chunk of that money for Thomas, who’s the 17-year-old should be for a money market. It’s almost like you were saying like you want, maybe, like a year’s worth of cash for retirement. That might be true for the first year or so for tuition. But then the balance of that should be invested. I think Thomas had 45,000. So, a good chunk of that should be either in a balanced fund or something like that. For Robert, who is 14, and he saw us four years until the first year, we probably can be a little bit more aggressive. And then, as we get closer, same thing with retirement, we’re having more of a bond allocation, less of an equity allocation. The money mark is going to do well today just because of inflation, but you’re also being killed by that purchasing power that’s kind of being eroded every year.

So, what Kelly is showing right now on the screen is kind of the shortfall, the projected shortfall for the education expenses and it basically showing us what percent is underfunded, which is not necessarily a bad thing. We kind of talked about the rule of 33% and where we want, if we’re saving for a kid, a kid’s college, and we don’t really know what our goal is, it might be okay, we’re going to try to get x amount into a 529, pay x amount from , in that year, that’s the salary in that year for college. And then maybe the last third comes from scholarships, student loans, et cetera.

So, this is kind of showing us what has been underfunded so we can kind of plan for that and know what to do, so great stuff. Kelly, can you shift back to the case study real quick, I want to have a discussion that we really haven’t had much discussion on. We talked about Social Security in the past, I think, again, pulling their statements is going to be really important to see where they’re at. But I really want to talk a little bit more about the long-term care, and then Medicare decisions. So, walk me through, how would we approach those? Obviously, these are two things that, I think, there’s a lot of kind of negative press around long-term care insurance. It shouldn’t be something that we sell fund. What is long term care insurance? Why do I need it? So, I guess, let’s start there, how would we approach this particular risk that Jane and Tyra have to their financial plan?

[00:26:12] KRH: I will admit, it is a little bit newer territory for us, like typically, with our client base, we’re not having a ton of conversations about an immediate need. So, we have done some work recently, just to be better educated and to kind of get up to speed on some of the products. So recently, talking through kind of two products. One is a pretty traditional, like, pay a premium, get a policy, and it covers a certain amount of care per day, calculated out on an annual basis. And one of the biggest issues with those policies is like premium goes up. We had some education that I found to be very concerning, and enlightening, just so we know the premiums can go up. But with state regulations, there’s not a ton of regulation on how much the premiums can go up. So, that’s one of the challenges is like, if you buy a policy, you have it for like 10 years, your age 75, and the premium goes up and it becomes unaffordable. Pay 10 years into it, but you have to stop, that’s a concern.

So then, there’s a hybrid product that has some insight into that premium piece, but also provides a death benefit. Because the other concern is you never need the long-term care. You’ve paid for this premium, you have, unfortunately, a death event, without any care happening, and all that money has not been allocated anywhere else. So, there are some things out there. I think that’s kind of one of the things we’ve been working through, is understanding those policies, and then write the comparable, like many insurance products, is like if you paid for it out of pocket and funded it yourself. So, kind of running some scenarios like, that’s one of the things we started to build out, and that eMoney scenario was, if you take the premium and put it away, like how much could that grow? Because it seems like the premium, happy medium timeframe is like age 60 to 65 to start a premium then.

But again, a lot of things that we are learning about too, because there’s been a lot of movement. I think there used to be the person that was talking with us about it, like thousands of long-term care providers, like insurance providers, and it’s down to a very small quantity now, so a lot has changed.

[00:28:46] TB: Yeah, when I was first getting into the industry, it was that and it was tons of providers, premiums going up. I think the industry didn’t have enough information, because this is kind of a newer product, and some of these policies were priced, not correctly. They were – I think it was like low interest rate environment, which makes it makes it tough for them. People are living longer, or they’re alive longer with conditions that pay out a policy, because our medicine is better. I think though that, we’ve kind of gone through the burst of the bubble. I think a lot more of these policies have stabilized. I think you can still see increases I think the hybrid model is good in a sense that there are – it’s guaranteed, so your premium is fixed. Whereas, that’s not necessary for long term.

To back up, for those that are thinking like what are we talking about, long-term care, really what it is, it’s a broad range of skilled custodial and other types of care that’s provided over an extended period of time, due to things like chronic illness, physical disability or some cognitive of impairment. And the scary number of this is like roughly 60% of Americans are going to need some type of like long-term care in their life, and I think that number is continuing to go up. So, this is where, I think, a lot of people think of like nursing home, and that’s not we’re really talking about. I think the idea behind aging in place and keeping you in the home, as long as possible. 

So, if you are getting older, and you’re starting to have problems bathing or dressing or with personal hygiene or eating, you would have someone come in and help and aide. For a lot of people, it’s a family member, or it’s a spouse, which can take a toll on their own mental, physical and financial health. I think, my perspective on this is evolving, but I think that studies have shown that couples, when they look at this type of care, are willing to spend, on average, in the range of $2,500 to $3,000 per year to get some type of policy, and you can get pretty decent coverage by doing that. I think it’s establishing a baseline at least to cover like home care. So, to have somebody come into the house and 80% of care that is provided through these policies, is homecare.

I think conversation, is what really what we need with Jane and Tyra. I think it’s to kind of demystify it a little bit, maybe not make it as scary as I’ve been led to believe or has seen. Because this is a major risk, like if you can – this can be a major drain on the financial plan if you don’t have that large reserve of cash or investments, or a policy in place. So, I think it’s important to kind of get in front of it, and just have a have a good conversation and at least have a baseline policy for homecare, I think would be a good starting point. And then see like, what are the social like, is Thomas, is Robert, are they going to be a safety net? Or my dad always says, “Just put me on the ice float and give me the Eskimo retirement.” That’s kind of what he’s looking for.

But I think, some of the social networks that you have, in terms of talking through this is going to be important as well.

Christina, how about Medicare? What’s your take on this? Obviously, they’re a couple years away from enrolling in Medicare. But how do you approach this with Jane and Tyra in terms of how that works?

[00:32:21] CS: Yeah, so I think it’s just giving them a high-level approach to what to expect like a year in advance. So, when you reach age 65, the window opens up three months before their 65th birthday, and they have until three months after their 65th birthday. So, in essence, is a seven-month period. You can go in, enroll your Part A, Part B, if necessary. Most of times, it will be, because if you’re retiring, you’re going to be off of your employer’s medical plan, and you may not have to worry about correlating benefits at that point. So, it’s really not that scary. And then, on an annual basis, once they are involved with Medicare, there’s ways you can change up your plan or your drug plan as you need to, and there are resources and people to help you with that.

[00:33:12] TB: Yeah, the enrollment period is going to be super important, right? It’s typically three months before you’re 65, and then three months after you turn 65, so it’s like a seven-month enrollment period for initial. You want to do that so you’re not penalized later, that can happen, so you don’t want to blow through that enrollment period. I think that you get a ton of mailers for that to remind you.

But I think the big decision from there is like do I do Original Medicare A and B? Or do I do a Medicare Advantage plan which is a kind of more like private insurance HMO that Medicare reimburses for on a per participant basis? There’s I think, hundreds of plan Ds, which is the prescription. Do you get a Medigap policy with Original Medicare? There are so many things that go into this. And that’s going to go into like, what’s your view on, do you want convenience? Most providers will accept Medicare insurance, but it’s not necessarily as simple as maybe like a Medicare Advantage. If you’re going to be a snowbird, like if they decide, “Hey, we’re going to buy this cabin, but we also want to buy a place in Florida.” Having care coordinated between those two, if you’re in a Medicare Advantage is more like an HMO. So, if you’re out of network, that can be problematic.

There’s lots of different things that go into this. At the end of the day, this is probably one of the bigger concerns, I think, that people have is like, what does this look like? If there is a gap, if they decide to retire before age 65, what do they do? Is that something like Cobra? Does the employer offer anything that’s becoming more and more of a dinosaur feature of late? The other thing that we didn’t mention that, Christina, we were talking about off mic was like, even long-term care insurance, I think we’re seeing that show up on an employer benefit. So, really taking a look at that and what’s provided there. The big things with long-term care, just to circle back to that is like, when we’re looking at this, what is the monthly benefit that we’re targeting? If we are trying to cover home care, you can – Christina was telling me about this awesome calculator that you can find at your state, this is what it costs. So, it’s 5,000, it’s 6,000, like, we’re going to target that. What’s your deductible period? So, that’s the elimination period or the time you have to wait before you have benefits. So, a lot. It’s just like disability insurance, a lot of them are built as 90 days. How long is the benefit going to pay out? And then like, do you want an inflation rider?

So, to circle back on those things, those are the conversations we’re going to having concert of like, what do we do with Medicare? If there is a gap in Medicare, what do we do, et cetera? But I think Kelly, the only other thing that we probably should discuss briefly, that the client brought up, I think this is the one thing that I have outstanding here is the debt. So, one, is should they be concerned about the amount of mortgage debt? Should they use some of that cash set savings for the car note and pay it off? Obviously, interest rates have moved a lot, over the last year or two. So, what would be your answer to that question? Obviously, we probably need some more context with what’s going on in different parts of the plan. But how would you approach that with them?

[00:36:07] CS: Right, so it is interesting, like, I think just baseline, high level, the mortgage, usually, it’s more desirable to not have a mortgage in retirement to have the cash flow be less. But I am intrigued by like, this is not the forever home. It’d be nice to know, well, like how long? When would the transition take place to either a smaller home or to that cabin? We see a lot of people talk about being expats too, which is kind of interesting, depending on what happens with Jane’s mom and the kids in college, is that on the radar as well? 

So, like the mortgage, I feel like normally would be a priority to not have on the table. But in this case, I don’t have as much of a concern about it, if there is a potential for a transition that we can talk through, to see what is affordable. Is the 2858, is that affordable in retirement with the rest of the expenses? The cars, I would say that interest rates are lower, which is good. I wonder if maybe the kiddos would like to contribute and pay off if they’re going to eventually take ownership of the car. I feel like having the kids have some type of responsibility, some piece of the puzzle that they have to take care of, whether it’s paying part of their car insurance, definitely upkeep, maintenance gas. I personally think it’s an important piece for them to feel some type of responsibility. So, I guess I’d be curious as to their student jobs and the college, and can they help take care of the one vehicle. I guess, I’d be inclined to maybe pay off the other depending on what the other goals with the cash flow is.

[00:38:03] TB: Yeah, mathematically, I wouldn’t be in a rush to pay off the notes if you can get 3% in a high yield and both these notes are 1.92, 2.25, doesn’t necessarily make sense. But some of that is just kind of peace of mind to clear the balance sheet on the liability side. But the mortgage is I think the bigger one, the bigger shoe that we’d have to figure out, like how it’s going to drop because there’s some equity in the primary home, what it’s valued at, versus the mortgage. My big thing is if they buy the cabin, they would have essentially two mortgages, that if they sold the primary house, they could pay off the original mortgage and maybe apply some of that back to the cabin. It’s just a matter of like, what’s their comfort level in terms of carrying a mortgage debt into their 70s, 80s, et cetera.

So, there’s nothing concerning about, I think they’re on a fixed rate for the mortgage, so it’s not like it’s a variable rate or an arm or anything they have to worry about, but it’s just kind of the comfort level and then how is that, to your point, that 2858 go into play on a fixed income when we’re talking about generating a paycheck from Social Security, from the retirement assets and maybe any part time work or whatever they’re doing, so that would be the main concern.

What did I miss guys? I feel like we covered a lot of ground here. This was great. This is a great case study. Did we did we miss any question?

[00:39:30] CS: FAFSA, Tim, which is –

[00:39:31] TB: Oh, yeah.

[00:39:33] CS: I mean, it’s mostly income in the formula and probably like that cash might be a little bit of – if you’re planning to use it for college expenses, like running it through the 529. Yeah, I guess if they retired, there’s the two-year look back period. So, at least Thomas would be pretty well through school. I think by the time, if they retired, but they might have an impact on Robert’s last year or last two years. But we get questions about maximizing the FAFSA and again, with the income being the biggest component, we don’t know what the kids’ assets are, those aren’t entered in the eMoney, usually don’t ask about those. But I guess I’d inquire about those too, make sure if they have an UGMA and UTMA that they spend those down first before the 529s, since they count different in the formula.

[00:40:34] TB: I think one of the things that I would say is I think some sometimes people are, because of the formula, they detract it from putting money into the 529. But I think, having that pot of money there that’s grown tax free, if it’s used for education expenses, is more valuable than I think not doing it because you think that the FAFSA equation is going to change.

So, just like, what we talked about, sometimes people do weird things that are out of character because they’re trying to like save on taxes. If going to college is a big part of the plan for your kiddos, the 529 is going to be one of the best – it’s depending on your state, but it’s going to be one of the better vehicles to do that and I wouldn’t let the FAFSA formula detract anybody from doing that. But I think, yeah, probably looking at some of those assets. I know you can also put assets in. I think grandparents’ name, and I think that doesn’t necessarily capture in the equation. So, definitely something that we want to look at as we’re tackling the other parts of the financial plan, so good stuff guys. I appreciate the chat here. I think very, very productive. And yeah, just look forward to doing more of these in the future and thanks for lending your opinion and how this client is shaping out. So, enjoy the holiday.

[00:41:55] KRH: Thank you.

[00:41:56] CS: You too. Thanks.

[00:41:57] TB: All right, take care.

[OUTRO]

[00:41:58] TU: As we conclude this week’s podcast, an important reminder that the content on this show is provided to you for informational purposes only and it is not intended to provide and should not be relied on for investment or any other advice. Information in the podcast and corresponding materials should not be construed as a solicitation or offer to buy or sell any investment or related financial products. We urge listeners to consult with a financial advisor with respect to any investment. 

Furthermore, the information contained in our archived newsletters, blog post and podcast is not updated and may not be accurate at the time you listen to it on the podcast. Opinions and analysis expressed herein are solely those of Your Financial Pharmacist unless otherwise noted and constitute judgments as of the dates published. Such information may contain forward looking statements, which are not intended to be guarantees of future events. Actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements. For more information, please visit yourfinancialpharmacist.com/disclaimer. 

Thank you again for your support of the Your Financial Pharmacist Podcast. Have a great rest of your week.

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On this episode sponsored by First Horizon, Tony Umholtz talks through the current state of the home buying market and interest rates, how to navigate the home buying loan options available, considerations for all types of buyers, and unique lending considerations.

About Today’s Guest

Tony Umholtz graduated Cum Laude from the University of South Florida with a B.S. in Finance from the Muma College of Business. He then went on to complete his MBA. While at USF, Tony was part of the inaugural football team in 1997. He earned both Academic and AP All-American Honors during his collegiate career. After college, Tony had the opportunity to sign contracts with several NFL teams including the Tennessee Titans, New York Giants, and the New England Patriots. Being active in the community is also important to Tony. He has served or serves as a board member for several charitable and non-profit organizations including board member for the Salvation Army, FCA Tampa Bay, and the USF National Alumni Association. Having orchestrated over $1.1 billion in lending volume during his career, Tony has consistently been ranked as one of the top mortgage loan officers in the industry by the Scotsman’s Guide, Mortgage Executive magazine, and Mortgage Originator magazine.

Episode Summary

This week, YFP Co-Founder & CEO, Tim Ulbrich, PharmD, welcomes Tony Umholtz, a mortgage manager for First Horizon, back to the show to discuss cracking the code on home-buying loan options. In their discussion, Tony and Tim talk through the current state of the home buying market and interest rates, how to navigate options available to all types of buyers, as well as some unique lending considerations based on commonly asked questions from home buyers. After a discussion on the current state of the market, Tony shares his comparison of the current state to where we were at the start of 2022 and makes some predictions for the rate and refinancing markets in the coming year based on the surprising results of the 2022 Consumer Price Index. The discussion then moves into the myriad of financing options available when making a home purchase and how to evaluate all of the options available. Tony shares a straightforward three-step process for home buying and then dives deep into the intricacies of home-buying loan options, their pros and cons, and which products are best suited to each situation. Tony shares various loan types and the down payment requirements for each. Tony also covers a general overview of the Pharmacist Home Loan product from First Horizon and addresses considerations for unique lending home purchases above the conventional lending thresholds, buying land or building a home, and house hacking.

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode

Episode Transcript

[INTRODUCTION]

[00:00:00] T. ULBRICH: Hey, everybody. Tim Ulbrich here, and thank you for listening to the YFP Podcast, where each week we strive to inspire and encourage you on your path towards achieving financial freedom. 

This week, I had a chance to welcome back on the show Tony Umholtz, a mortgage manager for First Horizon, formerly IBERIABANK. During the show, Tony and I’ll talk through the current state of the home buying market and interest rates, how to navigate the numerous lending options that are available to purchase a home, and some of the unique lending considerations, including those home purchases that are above the conventional lending thresholds, those that are buying land or building a home, and those that are looking to house hack, occupying one unit and renting out the rest.

Now, before we hear from today’s sponsor and jump in on the show, I recognize that many listeners may not be aware of what the team at YFP Planning does in working one on one with more than 250 households in 40-plus states. YFP Planning offers fee-only high-touch financial planning that is customized to the pharmacy professional. If you’re interested in learning more about how working one on one with a certified financial planner may help you achieve your financial goals, you can book a free discovery call at yfpplanning.com. Whether or not YFP Planning’s financial planning services are a good fit for you, know that we appreciate your support of this podcast and our mission to help pharmacists achieve financial freedom. 

Okay, let’s hear from today’s sponsor, and then we’ll jump on to my interview with Tony Umholtz. 

Does saving 20% for a down payment on a home feel like an uphill battle? It’s no secret that pharmacists have a lot of competing financial priorities, including high student loan debt, meaning that saving 20% for a down payment on a home may take years. We’ve been on the hunt for a solution for pharmacists that are ready to purchase a home with a lower down payment and are happy to have found that option with First Horizon, previously IBERIABANK/First Horizon. 

First Horizon offers a professional home loan option, aka a doctor or pharmacist home loan, that requires a three percent down payment for a single-family home or townhome, has no PMI, and offers a 30-year fixed rate mortgage on home loans up to $647,200. The pharmacist home loan is available in all states, except Alaska and Hawaii, and can be used to purchase condos as well. However, rates may be higher, and a condo review has to be completed. 

To check out the requirements for First Horizon’s pharmacist home loan and to start the pre-approval process, visit yourfinancialpharmacist.com/homeloan. Again, that’s yourfinancialpharmacist.com/homeloan. 

[INTERVIEW]

[00:02:34] T. ULBRICH: Tony, welcome back to the show.

[00:02:36] T. UMHOLTZ: Hey, Tim. Good to see you. Thanks for having me.

[00:02:39] T. ULBRICH: Really excited to have you as always. Really appreciate your perspective and your insights on the home buying market, on financing, on lending, and really supporting our community with the many questions that often come around this very important topic. So here we are, towards the end of 2022. It’s been a wild year, wild year all around, but especially in the home buying market. Hard to predict this one, right?

[00:03:03] T. UMHOLTZ: This was a tough one. Yeah. This has been a wild year, for sure. It really has. Interesting year. It really is. 

[00:03:09] T. ULBRICH: What are some of the trends? Obviously, our listeners are very well aware of what’s happening with interest rates. Right now, on the climb, obviously, there’s some uncertainty economically. A different day brings different headlines of what we may expect. Obviously, we just went through an election. That had some potential impacts as well. What are you seeing on the ground, as we get ready to wrap up 2022 and some of the trends heading into ‘23?

[00:03:34] T. UMHOLTZ: Well, we went – From the beginning of the year, we saw record low interest rates, and the Fed was determined, obviously, we’ve talked about this in previous podcasts, to stop inflation. That was the key driver of cycle is to kill inflation. By killing inflation, you got to slow the economy down, and that’s definitely slowed housing. There was record demand for housing. We still see good demand, and it’s interesting, though. We may have seen something shift. 

So last week, we did have the election. But the bigger data point for the economy may have been the CPI report, okay? So the Consumer Price Index came out last Thursday, and that reading was lower than economists had expected. Okay. Big shock, right? When we saw the stock market rally, we saw bonds rally, rates have improved since Thursday. We’re giving a little bit back today, but I think we could be in a trip now. 

One report does not mean, “Hey. We’re out of the woods, guys. We’re already out of the woods. It’s ready to go. Everything’s going to rip more going up.” But I do think if we continue to see this trend into 2023, rates are going to slowly fall, and we’re going to see better times ahead for the rate market. I really believe that, and we have a lot of demand on the sidelines. I’ve gotten a lot of clients reaching out to us. “Hey, we decided to rent the beginning the year because we didn’t want to get in a bidding war. We want to buy next spring.” I mean, as rates get better, you’re going to see more people come back to the housing market.

[00:05:06] T. ULBRICH: That’s what I’m interested in seeing, Tony. It feels like there’s naturally some pent up demand, and people that have been sitting on the sidelines, both on the buyer and the seller, right? You think about people who maybe they didn’t have to move but would like to move, and they’re sitting on a three percent, high twos, low threes rate, and they’re like, “Hey, I really don’t want to trade that for high sixes, sevens, wherever rates may be.” So I think there’s some pent up demand on the seller side, obviously, the buyer side. So it’ll be interesting to see where that shift is.

Our listeners know all too well the impact of those rates. Many people listening to this show, first time homebuyers or perhaps second home as well. But just a year ago, we are sitting at rates, 30-year fixed rates, hovering around three percent. Obviously, we’re now hovering closer to seven percent, a little bit north than that. Just for some round numbers, what that means is today, you can buy a $300,000 home for approximately the same monthly payment, principal and interest, that you could get a $500,000 home about this time last year. 

So a lot of people, of course, because of other financial priorities, are looking at what that monthly payment would be, and many of our listeners also looking at student loan payments perhaps starting back up in the New Year. At least lease, that’s what we know now. There’s a lot of activity in that space as well. So those are going to get folded back into the monthly budget. There’s just a lot of intersecting things coming together at one. So it’ll be interesting to see where things head into ’23. 

Tony, what makes me think, though, that if we do see and, again, obviously, we can only predict so much of what will happen, and we’ll all keep an eye on this. But if we do see rates come down some in ‘23, maybe even perhaps in the second half of ’23, I got to believe that the refinance market may pick up again. Is that fair for everyone that’s been buying here over the last six to nine months?

[00:07:02] T. UMHOLTZ: Oh, absolutely. Yeah. I anticipate we’re going to see quite a few people who have bought in the last six months be in a position where they can. I think you’re going to see rates trending better. It’s hard to say exactly where they’ll fall. But it wouldn’t surprise me by the end of next year if we see that 30-year fix closer to five percent. So if you bought a home and you’re at seven, I mean, you’re going to be able to get a two percent spread on that. I think we’ll know more as we go into the year. 

There are, and I guess some of the news here, I mean, consider one sector that’s been getting hit a lot of job cuts is the tech sector, right? It really did well during the boom there, and you’re seeing a lot of job cuts, a lot of layoffs. My industry has had a lot of layoffs. I mean, some publicly traded mortgage companies have cut like half of their staff. It’s amazing. So it’s been very tough in the real estate and mortgage industry. But at the same time, I hate to hear job losses, but those are the things that if we get into recessionary environment, the Fed will have to let off a little bit. 

The other interesting thing to look at is I’ve seen four inverted yield curves in my career. So this is 20 years I’ve been in the lending business, and we have a nice wide inverted yield curve. What that means is short-term treasury bonds or short-term bonds are yielding more than a long-term bond. So if you go to the Treasury site to buy a Treasury bond, for one year, you’re going to get 4.5 or greater today, and your Treasury is about a half point below that, maybe even more for a 10-year bond, right? It doesn’t always make sense to lock your money up longer with a lower rate. So typically, when I’ve seen that, again, nothing’s for sure. But you typically see lower rates in the future when you see that type of curve. I think that that’s going to lead to better things to come. 

But when the Fed is raising rates, and they still have a couple more – They’re going to be aggressive. We got to see what these reports come out to be because we could still see 200 basis points two percent % move higher in the Fed funds rate. What that may do, though, is widen that. Widen that inversion more. So we will see more Fed rate hikes and just what’s going to happen on the long end of the curve, and that’s where mortgages are priced. It’s more on the long end of the curve. 

I’ll add one more thing, just because some people may want to understand this. But we also have record spreads right now of mortgage bonds above treasuries. What that means is the spread that historically has been there is higher than normal. So if the 10-year Treasury is four percent, and mortgage rates are seven, they really should be [inaudible 00:09:49] to six, right? But a spread involved because the servicing value in a mortgage is no longer there. So if you’re faster, you’re not going to say, “I’m not going to pay for this right now because the odds are it’s going to refinance off my books,” right? 

So the market is dealing not only with higher rates but higher spreads. Once this stuff all comes down, we’ll get it more normalized.

[00:10:15] T. ULBRICH: Yeah. It’s interesting. Thinking a year ago, as we had a similar conversation, I don’t think either one of us would have predicted that, hey, we might see people refinancing in ‘23 at five percent, right? I mean, it’s just kind of crazy. We, obviously, saw historically low rates. Because of rates where they went up, the refi market largely dried up, and I think it’s going to be an interesting trend to watch in 2023. 

So today, we’re going to focus on the myriad of financing options that are available when making a home purchase to make sure that we’re evaluating all of our options. Of course, being informed as a buyer so that we make sure we’re getting the most bang for our buck. So I want to walk through, Tony, how you tend to think about the home buying process and getting to that point of the right loan for the right buying situation. I think this is really important, as we’ll talk about throughout the discussion whether it be rates, whether it relate to credit score, amount of down payment type of purchase decision. At the end of the day, we want to make sure we’re working with a lender that’s helping to identify and has our best interests in mind to identify a solution that’s the best fit for us. 

Step number one is we have to first know what’s the timing for the home purchase, and what’s the projected budget for the home purchase, right? So before we open up the box of the lending options and begin to work with a lender, when are we looking to potentially purchase, and what’s the budget, right? Because that’s going to help us inform what are the options that are available, of course, but also percent down payment, as we get into the different lending options, and, of course, how this fits in with the rest of the financial plan. 

Once we do that, and we’ve talked about that before on the show, so we’re not going to go into a whole lot of detail there, then we move to step number two, which is getting pre-approved. That’s the process we want to make sure that we’re, obviously, going to be eligible for a lending solution for that purchase. Tony, I think this is a place where we see folks get confused about prequalification, pre-approval, when to do this. So just tell us a little bit more, if folks are navigating this for the first time, what is pre-approval, and how is that different from the qualification process?

[00:12:27] T. UMHOLTZ: Sure. So there’s – You’ve heard of the pre-approval and the prequalification. Basically, the prequalification is just a basic – We’re running numbers, right, just based on your income level. Okay. I say proposed because we haven’t validated them with a credit report. So a prequalification is very easy. Let’s say you make $5,000 a month, and your current expenses, your car payments and your student loans, are $1,000 a month, well, then that’s your current income and debts. Now, you add the mortgage in there, and let’s say it’s 2,000 a month. Well, in that scenario, your debt-to-income ratio would be too high anyway because you’re 50% of your income. Okay. 

So a prequalification does not validate income with documentation or credit with credit report. A pre-approval is going to be – We’re going to validate your income with a pay stub or a tax return, and we’re also going to review your credit report. What mortgage lenders do is we run what’s called a tri-merge report. So a lot of consumers will say, “Hey, I’ve got a Credit Karma account, and I can see my experience score.” Well, that doesn’t always show or reflect what a lender will see, okay? So lenders pull all three bureaus, TransUnion, Equifax, Experian, and they look at all three, and they use the median score, okay? So a pre-approval is going to have your median score. We’re going to use that. We’re going to review all your debts and liabilities on the credit report to validate your income. 

It carries a lot more weight than a prequalification, and a lot of these realtors know that, and they oftentimes will not let you sometimes see the house or work with you until they have that in hand.

[00:14:06] T. ULBRICH: Typically, a pre-approval lasts for how long, as people are thinking about, “Is this something I should get?” Now, even though I might not be looking seriously for another 15, 30 days, how long does that pre-approval typically last?

[00:14:18] T. UMHOLTZ: Typically about 90 days, 90 to 120 days. One other thing too that we’re starting to do, and I think some others in the industry are doing, is we’re doing some soft polls on credit, where they don’t have a hard inquiry. So that’s something else, if it takes longer to – 

The one thing I do, and I just had this conversation this morning actually with a client, is it’s just such a big decision. I wouldn’t leave it to chance. When you’ve got a lot riding on, you slam dunk, and there’s no issues, and you have margin in your life, margin between what you’ve taken as income and what your liabilities are. It’s probably fine. But in this case that I had this morning, it was tighter than it should be, right? You should definitely make sure it’s worth the inquiry to have peace of mind and know what direction you’re going.

[00:15:07] T. ULBRICH: So at a high level, Tony, prequalification, essentially, self-reported data, pre-approval is validated information based on submitted income, paychecks, credit scores, and so forth. Okay. So if we assume that someone has done the diligence to know what the budget is and that it fits within the context of the rest of the financial plan, I always encourage folks, on the pre-approval, sometimes, especially first-time homebuyers that have been in this situation, you go from, hey, I’m just browsing to like I’m really serious. That can happen very quickly, right? I mean, it’s an exciting time. It can be an emotional time. So if you feel like there’s a high likelihood that that transition could happen quickly, then the pre-approval really allows you to be in that position to make an offer and be competitive in the market. 

Okay. So once we evaluate the purchase at the budget, then we get pre-approval. Step number three, Tony, is then we find the best loan. This is where I think folks may have heard of terms such as conventional loans, versus FHA loans, versus jumbo loans, lots of different options and solutions out there. The end of the day, though, it’s about working with the lender to determine which of these is the best fit for you based on perhaps credit score, based on down payment, based on rate. So help us understand at a high level what these options are and then, ultimately, how you as a lender are working with someone to determine what the best solution is for them.

[00:16:34] T. UMHOLTZ: Sure. So everyone’s situation is unique, right? Every application is unique. That’s one thing about lending is there’s really not too many cookie-cutter scenarios. I mean, there’s a few but there’s very – Everything has some sort of detail we have to work through. So let’s say we do the pre-approval, Tim. Once we go through the pre-approval, we’re going to determine is it – Look, are they trying to buy a jumbo loan? Do they need a jumbo loan? Are they a pharmacist or a physician or an attorney? Something that will allow us to do a unique product. First-time homebuyer program, how much cash do they have to put down? We look at all of those things, and we’re going to recommend the best product. 

When we evaluate that pre-approval, we’ll give the client, “Hey, here’s your best options based on a payment rate and down payment,” because everyone has a certain threshold. Some people, it’s, “Hey, I want the least amount of down product to avoid PMI.” Or your credit score might be in a situation where you don’t qualify for all the products, but you can – There’s another option out there that fits your needs. Then some people say, “Hey, I have all this cash to put down. I just want the best rate available.” So that’s part of the analysis of the pre-approval. We’re going to work through that, and we’re going to determine what is the best option. 

I can talk a little bit about some of the programs that are out there. There are – A lot of people have heard of FHA loans. There’s conventional loans, which are through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. FHA and VA loans are through the government. They’re also called Ginnie Mae loans and GNMA. Those loans are backed by the federal government. Conventional loans are also backed to some decree by the government because Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are basically nationalized entities. Government-sponsored entities is what they’re called, and those loans are backed as well by the government. 

Then we have what’s called portfolio loans, which can be unique to a bank. Portfolio loans just mean that the bank holds that loan on its balance sheet as an investment. It’s not being backed by a government entity. So those are really the main types of loans that are out there. We look at – Again, nothing’s a bad loan. It’s just every – It’s whatever is the best match for that client need.

[00:18:50] T. ULBRICH: I think that’s just a really important point, Tony, because I think as folks are finding the right fit and solution of the lender they’re going to be working with, to me, this is a really important discussion of what are the options that are out there. What’s the best option available for me and that we’re not just necessarily looking at one option, whether it be because of that’s what they’re familiar with or because of how fees may be assessed on that product. But are they really understanding me as a pharmacist with this credit score, with this purchase price in mind, with this option to put down. Okay, with those chips on the table, what’s the best fit for me? Then let’s work with that, so I can get the best rate. Obviously, depending on the desire for how much they want to put down, make sure there’s alignment there. 

Now, I think one of the things I hear a lot, Tony, is pharmacists, especially first-time homebuyer pharmacists, are often leaning in an FHA loan or think that may be the best option for them. I think that’s typically because of either a lower percent down or, in some cases, they may have a lower credit score. I think that probably is a less likely scenario for pharmacists. But it may be certainly for some. But it’s typically the low down payment that they attribute to an FHA loan that they think that might be the best option. So tell us a little bit more about what are the down payment requirements and why that product typically might draw the attention of pharmacists. Perhaps it’s a fit for some. But many, it may not be the best option, despite them thinking it is. 

00:20:21 T. UMHOLTZ: That’s right. So FHA loans are extremely popular with first-time homebuyers and clients that are seeking less money down. It’s been – I’ve wrote hundreds of them in my career, and there are good programs, nothing bad about the product. I would say that most lenders, that’s what they’re going to offer, right? If they don’t have a loan like, for example, our company does because with less down, it’s not FHA. But FHA loans are excellent for no money down because it allows 3.5%, and you can get in with very little down. Rates are usually pretty good, and it’s also flexible on credit score. So for a credit score, it might be a little bumpy. It’s going to have some flexibility there and will be a good fit for some people. 

The other thing where I’ve used FHA quite a bit this year is for clients buying a multifamily. I want to touch on a few things with this. But like for a three or four-unit property, the specific county – Now, FHA loans have loan amount maxes, so there are maximum loan amounts on a county-by-county basis, and that’s throughout our country. So loan amounts are determined by that in metro area. That MSA, for example, okay? Around New York City, it’s going to have a higher four-unit threshold than maybe Columbus, Ohio, right? But you’re going to – But every area is going to be different. 

Now, so I’ll give you an example. This client bought a four-unit property. I think they spent 660,000, and they put 3.5% down and lived in one unit, okay?

[00:21:55] T. ULBRICH: Rented out three. Yeah.

[00:21:57] T. UMHOLTZ: Yeah. They had great credit. They could have qualified. But see, to do a conventional loan, right, you have to put 20% down. Okay. Now, they did have PMI. But they took 3.5% down on a four-unit property. So that’s where FHA is a great tool, right? The downsides of FHA that I find is that you’re typically dealing with PMI that can never be pulled off, okay? The loan is going to have PMI for life. That PMI is high too. So no matter what that rate is on FHA, it’s a big premium added to the monthly payment. 

The other thing is a loan limits, right. Some counties, the loan limits are going to be below. It might be 380, and you’re trying to buy a house for 475. So it’s going to limit you in what you can purchase. So those are the downsides of FHA, and that’s why we always look at the whole situation because conventional loans or it’s HomeStart loan through Freddie Mac, there’s all sorts of things that we look at. Of course, if you’re a pharmacist professional, you’re going to have options with no MI with three percent down. So there’s going to be more flexibility there in that product.

[00:23:07] T. ULBRICH: That was really my hope with this episode is that personal experience, I kind of went down this path, and I see a lot of folks come to us with questions that I think they’re often thinking conventional 20% down or FHA 3.5% down. Maybe there’s an awareness of the PMI, and maybe there’s not. But that those are the only two options that are out there, and that’s really the take home point of this episode is often there are more options, especially for pharmacists that are listening or depending on the loan size, and there may be some limitations. Yes, that low down payment of FHA loan is attractive. 

But, Tony, as you said, and I live this firsthand, our first home we bought with an FHA loan, for the exact reason that we’re talking about here, first-time home purchase. We were itching to kind of get into that home, weren’t at a place to save up to that 20%, saw the 3.5% option that was presented to us by the lender as the preferred option. I did know a PMI and what it was, but I did not know it was PMI that could not go away. I specifically remember getting a loan-to-value ratio. I think we’re – As we started to pay it off after five, six, seven years, we got that down into the mid-70s, 75%. 

I remember calling the lender of like, “Hey, all right. Time to get rid of PMI,” and it was like not so much. By the way, you paid the PMI upfront, and I was like, “Oh, okay.” So lesson learned, but I think that’s a really important takeaway that not all PMI, private mortgage insurance, is the same. Of course, the PMI rates can be different. Correct me if I’m wrong, on a conventional loan, if someone doesn’t put down 20% and they have PMI, there is an option for that PMI to fall off, but not an FHA loan, correct?

[00:24:52] T. UMHOLTZ: That’s right. Yeah. Conventional is very flexible. So if you’ve paid it for two years, you can actually have your house reappraised. If you think it appreciated and you paid down the equity, you can get the PMI pulled off. The other interesting thing too is let’s say you were to use a conventional loan and you put five percent down, you have PMI, but you sell your home, let’s say, and you get 15%, or you have additional equity, and you can put that down that same year, you can a lot of times get it pulled off immediately. There’s a lot more flexibility with conventional mortgages, for sure. Yeah. 

[00:25:28] T. ULBRICH: Just quick definition on PMI, for those that are going through this for the first time, so PMI, private mortgage insurance, is essentially allowing the lender to feel – You’re paying an insurance premium as what I’ve always interpreted as a foreclosure risk, right? So if I only have 3, 5, 7 percent down, it’s not a full 20% that you’d see in a conventional loan, then I’m a higher risk to the lender, if something were to happen that we were unable to make a payment, that I’m going to have to pay insurance for not having a larger down payment. Is that accurate, Tony?

[00:26:02] T. UMHOLTZ: That’s exactly right. Yeah. So there’s a set – Like conventional mortgages, for example, they have a set amount that the lender is – So up to 80% LTV, as an example. But above that, that additional equity is uninsured. So the lender could lose that, right? The investor can lose that. That’s why they have IP. 

With FHA, it’s a government-pooled program, but they collect that premium to pay for it. Frankly, they have some of the most highest losses in the industry. So that’s why that premium is charged to help keep the program going.

[00:26:38] T. ULBRICH: The other thing, Tony, I don’t know if this is just my experience, but we’re going to go sell our home, our first home, and we made the move to Columbus. We did it for sale by owner. I’m not sure I’d ever do that again, by the way. The buyer was using an FHA product, and it felt like the inspection requirements. I remember specifically the person who’s doing the inspection, and they wanted to come back and look at something. They referenced the fact that because it was an FHA loan, it was a more rigorous inspection requirement, and that was kind of annoying to deal with as a seller. 

So number one, is that an accurate statement? Two, is that a potential barrier for a buyer in a competitive market? If I’m selling a home, and I’ve got five competitive offers, and four of those are not an FHA loan, and one of those are, that I would rather deal with one of the non-FHA loans.

[00:27:29] T. UMHOLTZ: That’s a great point, Tim, and that’s exactly right. FHA loans are definitely more stringent on the inspection. But the appraisal is much more in depth. The other thing too, if you’re a seller, this is great for sellers, is that report on that appraisal. So let’s say your buyer applied for an FHA loan and he decides, “You know what? I’m not going to buy this house.” The appraisal that was done, that case number that was opened, any other client that comes to buy, any sort of potential buyer that comes to buy, they have to use that appraisal for six months.

[00:28:05] T. ULBRICH: So you know it.

[00:28:06] T. UMHOLTZ: Yeah. There are some things that get – FHA does have some downsides. VA can be even more stringent, veteran administration loans. As far as protecting the veteran, there’s some closing costs called non-allowables that the veteran cannot pay. So if you’re a seller, these are just things you should know and ask your real estate agents about. But also, the roof has to be in very good condition, government–backed loans. So there’s little nuances like that as a seller that you have –

[00:28:34] T. ULBRICH: Yeah. Certainly, not to say there’s not a place for FHA loans. You mentioned you’ve written many of them. I think I’m harping on it because it’s one that I experienced that I didn’t know there was other options out there like a pharmacist home loan, and it’s a question we commonly get. So I want to make sure that folks are aware of the options. 

It’s interesting, you mentioned one of the more strategic uses of that loan, which we’ve heard of as well, which is when it comes to buying something like a triplex or a quad, someone who’s looking at doing a little bit of real estate investing, while also living in that triplex or quad, that you can use an FHA loan. Get into an investment property with as little as 3.5% down. We’ve talked about that before, that concept of house hacking on the podcast. I would point people to episode 130. We had Craig Curelop on from BiggerPockets. I think that’s a really interesting concept for many pharmacists, they might want to consider. 

Tony, let’s talk about the pharmacists home loan product because despite the work that we’ve done over the last few years, I still find a lot of folks that are maybe not familiar with what that is, or they hear the terms doctor loans that are out there and have searched for those and come to find out that pharmacists are excluded from that product. So what is the pharmacist home loan product that is offered through First Horizon in terms of who’s eligible down payment and how it differs from the options we were just talking about?

[00:30:01] T. UMHOLTZ: Sure. So the product for pharmacists is – In a loan amount, it will likely change a little bit. Currently, right now, we’re writing them up to about 700,000. But that that could change in the New Year. But that’s currently where we’re writing up to. So it’s not something you could go buy a $2 million house on, but it does give you some bandwidth there. But basically, it’s a limited down payment option, still with strong rates. If you’re a first-time homebuyer, a pharmacist could put three percent down and have no PMI. If you’ve owned a home before, you can put five percent down. That program is allowed on single-family homes, townhomes, and condominiums. It’s able to finance across the property types that are out there, even do a duplex up to – It’ll do 15% down on a two-unit duplex, and it’s typically 20% down for a three or a fourplex. That’s why that FHA loan can be better for someone that’s looking to buy a multifamily. 

The other thing that I find that’s unique about it is a lot of times, my clients are putting 20% down who are not pharmacists, get a little worse rate than 5% down pharmacists. So anyway, that’s not to say rates change all the time. I mean, you are very cautious about talking about rates. But that is one trend I find as pricing still very good. There is no prepayment penalty as well. So if the market does shift, and it’s in a more favorable position in a year or two, you can always refinance without a penalty. 

Also, there’s not steep reserve requirements, and that’s significant because a lot of these programs out there for doctors, attorneys, professionals, they require you have reserves, and not having reserves is a big piece. So you could – If you have your five percent down payment and just enough for closing costs, you really don’t need to have a steep amount of reserves on hand to qualify, where some programs require six months of mortgage payments, which is pretty hefty.

[00:32:05] T. ULBRICH: So three percent down, no PMI, first-time homebuyer. Five percent down, no PMI, if they’re not a first-time homebuyer. I like to think about this, Tony, as kind of the best of both worlds of an FHA and a conventional loan, in terms of not having to put 20% down but trying to get rates that are competitive. If you were – Or you mentioned in some cases may even be more competitive and currently available in all states, except Hawaii and Alaska still, correct?

[00:32:34] T. UMHOLTZ: That’s right. That’s right. Haven’t spun for the licensing area. 

[00:32:38] T. ULBRICH: We’ll get there. 

[00:32:39] T. UMHOLTZ: Maybe soon.

[00:32:41] T. ULBRICH: Credit score is one thing we didn’t mention. Minimum credit score is 700. Or has that changed?

[00:32:45] T. UMHOLTZ: It’s still 700. That’s correct. That’s correct.

[00:32:48] T. ULBRICH: Again, another option here to put in the mix. Many pharmacists we see, obviously, as you mentioned, there is a maximum loan amount. So if you’re looking at a million, 2 million dollar home, obviously, this product may not be the right fit. But I would say for the vast majority of pharmacist homebuyers, often wanting to get into the home, maybe aren’t yet at that point of 20% down, I would highly encourage you to check out this product. You can go to yourfinancialpharmacist.com/home-loan. Again, yourfinancialpharmacist.com/home-loan. You’ll see more information there, where you can learn more and get connected with us, and we’ll make sure you get in touch with Tony. 

All right, let’s shift gears and wrap up by talking about specific scenarios or I guess some of the common questions that we get, where folks may be wondering, well, what about this, right? Once of those is coming off the pharmacist homeowners, “Hey, Tony. I’m a pharmacist interested in that pharmacists home loan product, but I’m looking at a purchase price that’s north of 700, 715, whatever that requirement may be at.” So at that point, what options are you typically evaluating for pharmacists that are above that lending threshold?

[00:33:56] T. UMHOLTZ: Great question. Again, everybody’s situation is different. So we’ve had – There’s a myriad of programs available for loans above that threshold, and some have as little as 10% down, which can be a good fit. I find that a lot of – It’s interesting right now, Tim. A lot of the contracts I’m getting have been above a million lately. It used to be split and I don’t – We seem to be getting quite a few of those. 

Now, a lot of those folks have money to put down, so a lot of them are doing 20% down. But there are options with 10%. For medical doctors, will do nothing down to a million five. So it just depends on who you are and what your occupation is. But just for someone that doesn’t have a – Let’s say they’re a pharmacist or just a business owner. We could still do 10% down, typically up to $2 million. So options out there for that. 

The other thing too is depending on where you’re buying, the Fannie Mae loan limits, for example, Freddie Mac loan limits, in different parts of the country vary. So there are some areas that are almost $900,000 for three, five percent down right. Conventionally, that was mostly in California, New York City area. There’s that, but Northern Virginia. But you’re getting a – We always look at the loan limits because there could be just normal conventional products that can be a fit. 

But we have quite a few jumbo programs. We have jumbo programs we hold on a balance sheet, and that’s a bank, right? So where banks who can hold – We do have jumbo loans [inaudible 00:35:29] balance sheet. Then we have loans through other institutions too, mortgage REITs that we can write as well. So there’s a lot of different options out there.

[00:35:38] T. ULBRICH: Again, another example of kind of find that lender that will help you look at multiple options that are available. Tony, next question I think that may be coming up is I’m looking at the current market of interest rates. We had a discussion at the beginning of the show of perhaps we see those come down in 2023. So some folks might be thinking about does this time period warrant looking at an adjustable rate mortgage. I think that when rates were where they were a year ago, this may not have made a whole lot of sense. But is this option becoming more viable? What is an ARM product, if you could explain that a little bit further, and how folks can evaluate this?

[00:36:20] T. UMHOLTZ: Sure, sure. So right now, with this inverted yield curve, ARMs are making more sense. Now, ARMs are – ARM programs, I’ll talk about this, and I’ll talk about qualifying for them. So the most common ARMs that you have out there are really, truly hybrid ARMs. They’re not adjusting to the market right now. Most funds we offer doing are not – You’re not in the market, adjusting on a monthly basis right now. You are actually fixed for 3, 5, 7, or 10 years. Those are typically the most common in the industry, and that’s what we offer. So a 3-year ARM, 5-year ARM, 7-year ARM, 10-year ARM. 

What that means by 3, 5, 7, and 10 is that the rate is fixed for that period of time. So a three-year ARM is rate fixed rate for three years, and then it can adjust after that, and it’s still a 30-year loan. These are all 30-year loans with a 30-year amortization. But they’re going to adjust after that fixed period. So typically, a 3-year ARM will have a better rate than a 10-year ARM because you’re only locking for 3 years to 10 years. 

These loans are great because I think most buyers are not in their home 30 years anyway. Especially in the 10-year, it gives you flexibility. The rates are better than fixed rates. So there’s a lot of good things with the ARMs right now, and we are seeing an influx of them. We’re writing. Especially on the higher-end buyers, I find that a lot of them want the ARMs versus a fixed. The downsides of the ARMs are they typically aren’t going to be available through any conventional product, right? So Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, FHA, VA, there’s no ARM to speak of. The secondary market has shut them off. So the only way to get an ARM product is typically through a bank. They’re going to hold on their balance sheet. Okay. So you’re not going to be able to get that through a government sponsor. But ARMs are great. I really do like them. 

Now, I will say – I’m going to mention this because no one knows for sure in the future, right? There’s a lot of people floating out there, this 2-1 buydown. If you really pull this 2-1 buydown apart, you’re paying for all this buydown interest. So you’re paying for it. There’s a good chance you can refinance anyway, and long-term fixed rate is higher than what you could get if you just locked in a fixed rate. So you got to be really careful and understand the fine print that’s out there. So I’m seeing a lot of those out there right now.

[00:38:46] T. ULBRICH: Can you explain that one a little bit further, Tony, the 2-1 buydown?

[00:38:49] T. UMHOLTZ: Yes. So what’s happening now is a lot of lenders are offering what’s called a 2-1 buydown. So let’s say they offer you a 30-year fixed rate at 7%. But what they’ll do is they’ll charge you interest to buy the rate down by two percentage points. Let’s say you’re paying 5% year one. Year two, you’re paying 6%. Then the life of the loan after that, you’re paying seven. But you’re paying the interest, right? Either they charge it – Most of the time that I see it, it’s being charged to the client directly. The other times, oh, the seller will pay it. Well, you’re still paying it, right? The seller would lower the price of the home if you ask them. 

That’s usually how it’s worked. I’m not a huge fan of it because you can probably get 6.625 on a 30-year fixed versus seven, if you just lock the 30-year in for life. The only reason I say this is what if rates don’t go down? You never know. We think and based upon history. It looks like it’s going to happen. But what if it’s stubborn, right? Inflation goes back up. It takes a few more years or whatever. That would be the benefit to that, and that’s good to have the fixed rate. So just something to consider. The 2-1 buydown is very common out there right now. It’s marketed a lot by mortgage companies, and you just have to understand the fine print.

[00:40:09] T. ULBRICH: Great stuff. Thanks for the explanation. Then finally, anything unique. So if somebody is thinking about building a home or buying land to eventually build a home on, any unique considerations from a lending perspective that they need to be thinking about?

[00:40:24] T. UMHOLTZ: Yeah, definitely. So there’s a couple ways that works when you’re building a home. You either go buy a lot that a builder owns, and you sign a contract with the builder, you give them a deposit, and they build it, and you close when the home is completed, right? So a lot of the national builders, that’s how they work. You give them a 10% deposit, and you get a loan approval. I just issued one this morning for a client. They’re going to take nine months to build. They’re going to put 10% down, and we’re going to write a higher loan to value, and they’re going to actually going to get some of that money back when they close. 

That is a typical – That’s called as an end loan, right? The builder will build it on their credit line, and then you just close when the home is completed. Okay. That’s the first option. The second option is what’s called a construction to permanent loan. What that is, you’re actually building the home. You’re constructing the home with a loan. This is a much more complex transaction. It requires a much stronger borrower because, typically, you’re putting down at least 20% down in that scenario, and you’re buying the land, and you’re building. 

Sometimes, you buy the land first, you got to get a lot loan, and then you have your plans and specs and your agreement with the builder. You’re combining both of those together to build a home, and that’s called a construction to permanent home loan. It’s typically the only way to build a custom home on a lot that you picked out or you own, okay? So that’s something that is much more complex, but it’s something that we do a fair amount of it. It’s just a – So basically, in that situation, Tim, you’re going to pay incremental interest on draws paid to the builder, okay? So if the builder says, “I’m going to need five draws to build your home,” each time the lender pays a draw to the builder, there’s going to be interest calculated, simple At the end, you just convert to your permanent loan. 

We lock the rate up front. Some lenders do. Some don’t. But that’s basically the premise of how it works, and you want a construction to permanent loan because it’s a single one-time close. 

[00:42:25] T. ULBRICH: Tony, another example of where the value of the relationship comes in with the lender and, obviously, someone who’s been down whatever path you’re going down. I think that’s what excites me so much about our collaboration and relationship over the last few years. If you’ve worked at a lot of pharmacists and a lot of scenarios, first-time home buy, non-first-time home buy, investment property, house hacking, buying land, building their own property. It’s someone that we can put a face to a name, and we have an opportunity to connect with and ask questions, which I know many of our listeners do. 

So super grateful, as always, for your time and your contribution to the community. Again, folks can learn more about First Horizon, our collaboration, and get in touch with you by going to yourfinancialpharmacist.com/home-loan. I would also point people, we’ll link to this in the show notes, just a couple of months ago, Tony and I did an FAQ episode on financing options, commonly asked questions. That was episode 271, for those that are going to be going through this process here in the near future. 

Tony, as always, thanks so much. I really appreciate your time.

[00:43:29] T. UMHOLTZ: Yeah. Thanks for having me, Tim. Great being with you. Have a good one.

[00:43:33] T. ULBRICH: Thank you. 

[END OF INTERVIEW]

[00:43:34] T. ULBRICH: As we conclude this week’s podcast, an important reminder that the content on this show is provided to you for informational purposes only and is not intended to provide and should not be relied on for investment or any other advice. Information in the podcast and corresponding materials should not be construed as a solicitation or offer to buy or sell any investment or related financial products. We urge listeners to consult with a financial advisor with respect to any investment. 

Furthermore, the information contained in our archived newsletters, blog posts, and podcasts is not updated and may not be accurate at the time you listen to it on the podcast. Opinions and analyses expressed herein are solely those of Your Financial Pharmacist, unless otherwise noted, and constitute judgments as of the dates published. Such information may contain forward-looking statements that are not intended to be guarantees of future events. Actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements. For more information, please visit yourfinancialpharmacist.com/disclaimer. 

Thank you, again, for your support of the Your Financial Pharmacist Podcast. Have a great rest of your week. 

[END]

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YFP 284: Monetizing Your Clinical Expertise with Dr. Jimmy Pruitt


Dr. Jimmy Pruitt, an emergency medicine clinical specialist and entrepreneur, discusses what led him to start the Pharmacy and Acute Care University, how he monetized his clinical expertise through developing masterclasses, workshops, reference libraries, community forums, and webinars about the effective use of medications in the management of critically ill patients, how he has balanced the start and growth of his business while working full-time, and the role his business has played in helping him achieve his financial goals.

About Today’s Guest

Dr. Jimmy Pruitt is originally from Orlando, FL, and is a combination of nerd and gym funky having a background as a division 1 cornerback then turned Doctor of Pharmacy from Presbyterian College School of Pharmacy in 2017. He completed a PGY-1 Pharmacy Residency at Florida Hospital Orlando, and then went on to Grady Health System in Atlanta GA for his PGY2 Emergency Medicine Residency. Dr. Pruitt is currently an Emergency Medicine Clinical Pharmacy Specialist at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, SC.

Dr. Pruitt was honored with the Excellence in Diversity from MUSC College of Pharmacy, Presbyterian College School of Pharmacy (PCSP) Alumni of the Year, and keynote speaker for the 2021 PCPS graduation. Dr. Pruitt’s professional interests include cardiac arrest, shock syndromes, trauma, hosting the #1 Emergency Medicine Pharmacy Podcast “Pharm So Hard” and operating his new pharmacy academy called Pharmacy & Acute Care University.

Episode Summary

This week on the YFP Podcast, YFP Co-Founder & CEO, Tim Ulbrich, PharmD, sits down with emergency medicine clinical specialist and entrepreneur, Dr. Jimmy Pruitt. They touch on what led Dr. Pruitt to start Pharmacy & Acute Care University, how he has scaled the business, and how entrepreneurship has moved him forward in his financial plan.

Dr. Pruitt started by answering questions presented to him by other clinicians, often looking for resources for himself and other pharmacists. Jimmy decided to start Pharmacy & Acute Care University, meeting a need in the community while monetizing his clinical expertise by providing pharmacy-related content from a pharmacist with experience. To date, Jimmy has developed masterclasses, a reference library, workshops, community forums, live seminars, literature reviews, and webinars about the effective use of medications in the management of critically ill patients. One of Dr. Pruitt’s goals for the platform is to be inclusive of healthcare providers outside of pharmacists. 

Tim and Jimmy close the interview with a conversation about balancing entrepreneurship with competing responsibilities. Jimmy shares the first steps he took to build his business, how he has formed his team behind the scenes, and how he overcame some early challenges of expanding the PACU and its offerings. Lastly, Jimmy shares some personal insight on how Pharmacy & Acute Care University helped him reach his financial goals and reframe his view of retirement.

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode

Episode Transcript

[INTRODUCTION]

[00:00:00] TU: Hey everybody, Tim Ulbrich here and thank you for listening to The YFP Podcast, where each week, we strive to inspire and encourage you on your path towards achieving financial freedom. 

This week, I had the opportunity of sitting down with emergency medicine clinical specialist and entrepreneur, Dr. Jimmy Pruitt. During the show, we discussed what led him to start the Pharmacy & Acute Care University. How Dr. Pruitt has monetized his clinical expertise through developing masterclasses, workshops, reference libraries, community forums and webinars. How he has balanced the start and growth of his business while working full time. And the role that his business has played in helping him achieve his financial goals.

Before we jump into the show, I recognize that many listeners may not be aware of what the team at YPF Planning does in working one on one with more than 250 households in 40 plus states. YFP Planning offers fee only, high-touch financial planning that is customized for the pharmacy professional. If you’re interested in learning more about how working one on one with a certified financial planner, who may help you achieve your financial goals, you can book a free discovery call at yfpplanning.com. Whether or not YFP Planning’s financial planning services are a good fit for you, know that we appreciate your support of this podcast and our mission to help pharmacists achieve financial freedom.

Okay, let’s jump into my interview with Dr. Jimmy Pruitt.

[INTERVIEW]

[00:01:20] TU: Jimmy, welcome to the show.

[00:01:21] JP: Oh, thanks for having me on. It’s definitely a pleasure to get started with this and talk to you guys a little bit more about in Your Financial Pharmacist.

[00:01:31] TU: Yeah, I’m really excited to share with the YFP community about how you’ve been monetizing your clinical expertise, a topic we’ve been talking more about on the show over the past couple of years. But first, before we get into all of that, tell me what drew you into pharmacy, where you went to school, and when you graduated?

[00:01:47] JP: Perfect. I was fortunate that in high school, I had a chemistry professor that really challenged me to think more outside of sports, because my plan A was to go to NFL, and get lucky and went to a pharmacy school that had a football program. It was great. So, I went to undergrad at Presbyterian College and went to pharmacy school at Presbyterian College, and I was fortunate that I was able to live up two my passion with pharmacy and football and really, gave me the background to want to connect with a team, to be a team leader, and to just produce something more than what I’m used to. So, that was really my background and just being good at chemistry, being good at math, and a special interest to the medications.

[00:02:29] TU: So, you graduate from Presbyterian in 2017. Tell us about the career path since then, post-graduation, residency and the initial clinical work that you’ve done.

[00:02:39] JP: After pharmacy school, I went to AdventHealth Orlando, and was able to get a very good foundation at that very large program. It’s one of the top five largest programs in the nation. From there, I really solidified me enjoying the acute care side of things, and particularly, the emergency department. Then from there, I went to Grady Health Systems in downtown Atlanta where I got to see and do more than I can ever imagine and that was just phenomenal. And more particularly, being able to see and manage those critically ill patients in a manner that most pharmacists and the laws don’t really allow them to do.

So, I really got hands on with those patients and really working with physicians, nurses and things of that nature really helped me understand my expertise. And then from there, my first job outside of residency was at Augusta University Medical Center, which is another large academic medical center that has a level one trauma center, really got my hands dirty there, and I was also still working at Grady Health Systems on my off time. So, I’ve worked quite a bit that first year and a year and a half. And as of lately, I’ve went to the Medical University of South Carolina, which is another again large center and trauma center as well, where I’m also part of the faculty at the School of Pharmacy and teaches on the acute care side of things.

[00:03:55] TU: Well, no wonder why you’re busy. Before we hit record, I asked you, “Hey, how are things going?” He said, “Busy.” It makes sense. You’ve got a lot going on and we’ll talk about the business in addition to the full time work here in a moment. But I’m going to brag on you for a moment because a lot has happened in a relatively short period of time. So, you graduated pharmacy school 2017. You did residency training, as you mentioned, PGY 1, PGY 2, and you’ve had quite a large amount of success as a new practitioner. You were honored with the Excellence in Diversity from MUSC College of Pharmacy. You were the Alumni of the Year from your alma mater, also the keynote speaker for their graduation in 2021. You’ve started a podcast, Pharm So Hard, we’ll link to that in the show notes. We’ll talk about, here today, Pharmacy & Acute Care University is really the business that you have been building to help clinicians that are wanting to improve themselves as it relates to that area of practice.

So, let’s jump into that. Tell us about when you decided to start pharmacy and acute care University. We’ll link to that site in the show notes. But it’s, pharmacy-acutecareuniversity.com. When you decided to start it and why you started it? What was the genesis and the origins for doing that?

[00:05:06] JP: Absolutely. So, the precursor to Pharmacy & Acute Care University was a thing I used to call a blog called pharmacy frothy pearls. And what it was initially, that was just a short form, a handout, it’s using front and back that really summarize a disease state or a particular topic, and many people really enjoyed that, and I was fortunate to win an essay, who’s got talent for that, but people want a little more. I kept trying to make pharmacy pros larger or more in depth, but it really didn’t – it really wasn’t what people wanted. And as I continue to build websites and continue to get more involved in the podcast, I wanted to see if there was a way for me to monetize some of this, so I can build these platforms. And really, the next step for me was to figure out a way to, okay, build something people want and go from there.

So, about last year, I was able to really go about doing things where I planned out, what would this look like? And that step for me was to be able to go for it and create a university or academies where I can build things that not only myself, but other preceptors that individuals can be a part of, and it really was something that was I just figured out, if you want a topic, let me know and I’ll ask people what they wanted. I looked online to figure out what are the disease these people are interested in, and what, I think, they’re missing, and I really start to build upon that, and it really was the thing I want to separate, being able to give people things they need from our free standpoint with my podcasts and pearls, but then be able to get a little bit more in depth and provide some more value.

[00:06:35] TU: Critical care is certainly not my area of expertise. Emergency medicine, critical care. But I know enough within the profession that this is a topic that certainly there are groups within pharmacy associations. There are large critical care organizations outside of pharmacy that are well respected, and certainly ones that clinicians go to for resources. So, what was the gap that you saw? What was the opportunity that as you looked at those other “competing resources” that were out there, that you felt like, you know what, there’s a gap here that we really have an opportunity to build something that can supplement those resources?

[00:07:09] JP: Absolutely, Tim. So, one of the things that I noticed was that, unfortunately, when you get so big that a lot of the resources are really catered to a large percentage of practitioners. And what I want you to do is figure out what are the things that I need on a day to day basis that are necessarily not there. So, some of the times, I spent a large percentage of my time collecting resources, collecting and organizing resources. And I really wanted to figure out if there was a way for me to have all that in one click, that would save me hours of time. And also, I thought about as a resident, I spent even more time trying to figure out what is actually useful? What do I actually need to read?

So, that was the first thing that came to me with the reference library within PACU, was figuring out what do I need that’s not currently there, and what I spend the majority of my time on as a resident, and then now as a preceptor. So, I started going through different aspects and figuring out is there an easier way, or a more convenient way to organize these resources? And that was like the first step to this. And then I thought myself, how can I make this more all-inclusive, so I don’t have to go to five different websites? Because what I noticed was, I would consume a ton of content, but I had to go to five or six different websites to get that information, or I had to spend a significant amount of money each time I got those things, when I only really wanted one topic or so.

So, that was the basis for me creating a platform that included all of these things, and really helped me understand that maybe there’s a niche there for me to be able to go in and talk about the things that I do, and emergency medicine as being one of the newer specialties, and really build emergency medicine outwards, and go from that, to critical care, to internal medicine. And really, I thought about all of acute care pharmacy, there are certain things that we can build for them that they’re needing, and a lot of the content I build is based off what people send me questions on and things they say that they need. So, that was really the niche that I picked up on.

[00:09:08] TU: Yeah, so valuable information to hear there. It’s one, you’re living it, as a clinician, you went through the training, you feel the pain point yourself, and then I think you mentioned a great point there as well that something that resonates with me at YFP is questions that come in. You start to see themes and repetition, you start to pick up on okay, what are the pieces of content? What are the resources that would be helpful to serve people in the community?

When I take myself back Jimmy to being in pharmacy school, which was a while ago. I graduated 2008 and I remember going through rotations and like critical care was overwhelming. It’s quickly rising, it wasn’t for me. But I remember working with a lot of critical care practitioners and I can see why the resource you’ve built is of such value to them. And you mentioned one thing already that there’s so much information, different resources that are out there, so maybe not something about well as succinct as it could be. And obviously, you’re trying to address that pain point in the academy.

I also, when I think of critical care, I think of the confidence level that’s needed among the practitioners and just the amount of information, the urgency of some of the care situations, time management, just the overall competence of the practitioner. Are those other things that you’re seeing in the community where folks that are interested in your model might be struggling with some of those areas as well?

[00:10:26] JP: Absolutely. And those ways that I’m trying to address that through our community forum, and just be able to have a conversation, because a lot of times where depending on what your practice or depending on where you’re doing your training, you may not have people that you can talk to that’s been through the scenarios that they’re training you on. The patient population may not be big on that. So, a lot of the time, we’re having mentor sessions, and we’re having one of the things I’m working on for next month, is given a class based off resources to use to save you time and organize yourself.

So, all these things, we’re looking at ways and where we can create content for people, not just on the clinical side of things, but also on the site where they are able to organize and to be able to be a little bit more confident, and maybe having one on one conversations with myself, maybe have a one on one conversations with others, and that’s where I think that we’re unique, because we’re small enough to take the needs of our clientele and say, “Okay, what else do you need?” And then I can go and use the podcast. I can go out and use all the other social media platforms that I’ve been successful on to find these people and to give them what they need.

[00:11:34] TU: When I look at your mission, Jimmy, you mentioned to empower healthcare providers with the knowledge and skills they need to provide evidence based safe care for critically ill patients. So, that terminology, healthcare providers, suggests it’s broader than pharmacists. Are you building an interprofessional platform? Is it mostly pharmacists? Tell us more about the demographic of your audience?

[00:11:53] JP: Absolutely. As of right now, the majority of our audience is going to be a pharmacist base. But again, we do have a few nurses, we do have a few physicians. And the ultimate goal is to be inclusive of everyone who utilizes pharmacotherapy to treat patients. So, the big goal, I want this to be something that everyone can use. And we have some different plans for the end of the year in early 2023, where we can provide certain solutions to a medical residency program. There’s an interesting component to where they have, at least for emergency medicine, they have a pharmacotherapy or pharmacology section within their training that needs to be marked off.

As of now, there is not a standard of how to satisfy that. So, the more and more I teach within a residency program, I have a standing position where I teach once a month to our medical residents, I’m noticing they really value that. And what if your residency program doesn’t have a pharmacist? What if you don’t have an EM pharmacist in your program? Eventually, we can get to the point to where we can provide some resources for those practitioners as well. The same thing I get from the NPs and PAs, they want more pharmacy related content from pharmacists actually practicing at the bedside. Now, I think that’s the unique component of where we’re trying to take the platform and grow this to where it can be everyone, but again, we provide you what you need, and create it in such a way that is suitable for that particular person at their time, in their training.

[00:13:20] TU: I think it’s a really interesting niche, the medical residency. Again, you’re living it, you’re teaching and working at a large academic medical center, you work with medical residents, right? So, you can design and customize curriculum and experiences in a way that you know, will be meaningful that have been tested. But to your point, not every medical residency program has access to a pharmacy practitioner. Especially, if you’re looking at something like achievement of goals and objectives within a residency program, it’s a really interesting opportunity. And to further that point, one of the unique aspects as you look at potentially marketing products and services out to residency program directors, is they’re a pretty well-defined market. You can figure out who they are and begin those communications and the network of those folks is relatively small versus blasting out the service more broadly. 

So, tell us more about Pharmacy & Acute Care University. What do you offer? You’ve mentioned a couple things with the reference library, community forum. What are the core offerings of Pharmacy & Acute Care University?

[00:14:23] JP: Absolutely. So, we have a few. Our main ones I’ve mentioned before is the reference library where again, we collect this content and save you time by putting it to where you have a quick review. So, we not only give you the guidelines and a primary articles, we can give you review articles and something that other places and other platforms haven’t included, is the podcasts and blogs that are out there, that are also pretty useful. We get all those things together because we know that our residents, we know that our physicians and PA, NP, are using those blogs. So, why don’t we look at those, examine and see if they’re useful and provide them with something that they’re going to use as well.

[00:14:59] TU: That component of that can be our master classes. This is our traditional course. I think this is something that most people are familiar with, where you go through some modules, you answer a few questions, there are some videos and different multimedia. Again, you can do on your own time, on demand class. The most popular of our platform is going to be the live seminars, and that’s basically you have a live event to where I open this up to everyone, and we can get some continuing education credit for it as well, and we those at least once a month, and that’s again, open to everyone. And then from there, if you want to get access to the slides, you want to get access to recording or continue education, that can be available inside our membership.

And lastly, something that’s new that our audience ask for was literature review. So, where we examine an article every other week, and we’re going to continue to expand this, and we break down an article based on our review. So, we read article, we provide our analysis of what it is and how to utilize that within practice, and we send you a summary of that to your email. So, if you can listen to the five to 10-minute spiel on it, you can. But if you just want to get to the bare bones, and add that to your knowledge, we have a handout that we send you every few weeks that you can just get continually updated information that’s out there in literature.

Lastly, for our more advanced practitioners, and really everyone can use this, is our patient case questions. So, we can provide you information up front, but how do you know if you really know it? Or you think I’m an advanced practitioner, I know these different things. Well, how about you test that knowledge and see if you really do and see if you can do some space retrieval and bring back some things that you highly haven’t studied in maybe a couple of months or even years. So, that’s one of the things that we’ve added on to where – this is why I call, pack you a complete, an all in one platform is simply because we can teach you something, you communicate within the community forum, but you can also test yourself and get continuing education. So, you don’t really have to leave outside of that ecosystem that we’ve created to get almost anything else. And if there is, again, I made it to where we have a wish list within our forum, to where you can put in what you want, and I work on using my network to build those things.

[00:17:10] TU: I love it. It’s such a cool example of how you’ve been able to monetize the clinical expertise, but also be able to fill a gap that’s out there and be able to serve other pharmacists and healthcare professionals with these resources. I want to dissect a little bit of what you’ve done, because I think for many that are listening that say, “Hey, I think I could monetize my clinical expertise.” And that could be building something like you’ve built it, or I’m also thinking about, a shout out to Kelley Carlstrom, at Kelley C., PharmD that has built an incredible community for oncology practitioners. Or it could be somebody that is thinking, “Hey, I want to contribute to a community that already exist.” One like Jimmy has built or one like Kelley has built. But that can be overwhelming to think about building something.

So, I’m looking at your site and you’ve described all of these products and offerings. You’ve talked about a reference library, a masterclass, community forum, live seminars, a membership feature. You’ve talked about literature reviews which you’ve launched more recently. There’s a membership component to login. You’ve talked about a podcast, a blog, a social community, there’s a lot of pieces that are there. And so, the question is not just the time investment, but also, where do I start? Where do I start?

So, if you take yourself back to the beginning of this journey, and obviously you’ve evolved and built this over time, and you have plans to continue to do so as you just mentioned, where did you start from idea to, “Hey, I just want to take one step forward on this path towards building this vision.” What were those first one or two or three steps that you took to build what is now up on the website?

[00:18:42] JP: I think the big thing, particularly when looking at Pharmacy & Acute Care University, and I call it PACU, for short. The first thing that I did was, I knew that I didn’t know much about building this platform. One of the things I did was actually reading a book called Who Not How by Dan Sullivan, and it really opened my mind. Because the first thing I did was read that book, and I realized that I didn’t have to know everything. Once I got out of that fear, it’s more of a mindset shift. So, I think the first step is just figuring out where your mindset currently is. And ask myself, “What do you want to do? Do you want to educate people? Do you want to connect with people?” For me, one of the things that I enjoyed the most was educating. It’s something that I did within residency first, with just doing the pharmacy pearls. And that was something that I just did for the Emory residence, and I just did – on a Friday, I will get a small topic and go from there. And I realized that that was something I really enjoy, and I thought to myself, if there was a way for me to bring that type of information, that feeling that I got to a wide source of people, and if I can make a business around it, would it be something I can do? And I knew at the time I didn’t know how to do that. But I read that book and it was Who Not How, then I realized, I say okay, “Who do I need to know or who knows this type of platform that I can build?” I got a podcast called The Membership Guys and they would talk about how to build their own memberships and I read a book on that. And then they walked me through step by step.

So, I think the mindset was first and then figuring out that there’s other specialists, and that’s what’s the first step for me, just reading a book. The very first step was reading a book and figuring out that I really enjoy educating. So, the book, the mindset change, and just figuring out what at the simplest level, what do you want to do? And for me, it was figuring out a way to educate and connect with people.

[00:20:40] TU: I love that, Jimmy. And the reason I asked that question, and I can remember my own journey is a lot of people will start with an idea. And if you think about this, like a visual of a roller coaster. You ride that energy high of the idea, you’ve got a solution to a problem that you see out there, and then you start to get into the weeds, right? And some people jump into WordPress, some people jump into logos, some people jump into how am I going to price my products or services or offerings, and that is typically where people get hung up, they might get lost, they might get overwhelmed. And I think the advice you give on mindset shift, and even that next step of a book, it was Who Not How by Dan Sullivan. We’ll link to that in the show notes.

But that’s one tangible step, I can read something that can evolve my thought process, it can open up my eyes to before I get into the weeds, who might help me on this journey along the way and make sure that I can keep that momentum going forward. So, my question building on that, Who Not How is as we look at PACU and what you have offered today, I’ve gotten the impression based on our conversation that it’s not just Jimmy, there’s other people that are involved in the business, whether that’s contributors, whether that’s contractors that you’ve worked with, to help you build out the site and other things. Is that fair? And if so, tell me more about the infrastructure of who’s helping you build the community that you have?

[00:21:54] JP: Absolutely. One of the things that I took my – when I first started off, I didn’t want to make this about me. Because again, at some point, I won’t be able to do all aspects of this. And it became very overwhelming when I thought I had to. So, after I read that book, I said, “Okay, who can – I need a website.” So, it’s like, “Okay, who can build a website?” I went through and looked on a free app, I looked on Fiverr, I looked at all these different platforms, and I just interviewed many different people. They got me the first person and I had a good interaction with that. So okay, how can I get more people? I did trial and error of finding different virtual assistants, finding different contributors. And I came to the point to where I said, okay, I have a basis of people who can web design and develop, and the next step was getting someone who can handle some of my more operational task. So, I hired someone on for that.

And then the next big step that I think, is not only going to help me, but I think is going to help the majority of the community is when I started getting guest writers and guest presenters to come on, and people really enjoyed that. What I start to realize is that many people, they want a platform to present. They want a platform to display what they know, because for one reason or the other, if they don’t have a certain credential, or they don’t have a certain – they didn’t go to a certain school, they may have been overlooked for these presentations, because you only have so many national conferences and ways to present, and people need it for the CV, people need it for their own conference, to be honest. So, I started reaching out and say, and ask some people on Twitter, “Hey, who will be interested in contributing to the platform?” And there’s many ways you can do it. Well, do you like to speak or not?

I noticed that there are certain people who just want to get presentations live. And then I noticed there was a group of people who they wanted to contribute, but they really didn’t want to face shown, they really didn’t want to be heard, they really don’t like their voice. I would say that, a little bit over 60% of my platform can be produced with not any voice, not with video and things of that nature, and people really took hold to that. And now, we’re to the point to where we have a rotation of probably 20 to 30 pharmacists that contribute on a platform. And that’s when things really started to take off. Because I started being more from a managerial and more operational standpoint, and being able to assign work, assign task, and really use my platform to connect with people, versus having to worry about creating the content consistently. And that’s really given me some satisfaction in my personal life. I think I’ve been able to meet more people that I wouldn’t have met if I wouldn’t have reached out to them and be contributors.

[00:24:30] TU: That’s a really important evolution in the business. Because I think that as you’re talking about here, you have 20 to 30 plus contributors, and obviously, your time is a finite resource from your sanity, as well as just hours that are in the day. But I would also argue and I think your point about, “Hey, this can’t just be about Jimmy is a really important one.” Because if you’re solving a problem and filling a need that’s out there in the market, your time was eventually going to become a rate limiting step to what you were going to be able to do in terms of the value you were going to provide to the community.

So, I think as you now building out this infrastructure of contributors, obviously, you’re able to begin to expand the work and the reach of that. Let me ask a follow up to that, and I think maybe some folks might be uncomfortable with that span and control. Yes, I get excited about the mission, and the work can move forward, and I’m not always writing them. But am I losing the potentially the quality or the span and control? How do I oversee all this? So, has that been a challenge for you? Or what have been some systems that you built to help with that?

[00:25:32] JP: Absolutely. One of the things that happened initially, I was getting some work done, and I got medical writers that can help with creating some of this content, and I noticed that it just wasn’t up to par from the advanced practitioner. And I noticed a big difference when a pharmacist create my information versus someone who wasn’t necessarily within pharmacy, or I would say, wasn’t an acute care pharmacy. And I noticed that as I’m getting ready to review this information, it was so much that I had to change and I noticed I need someone who gets it. And it’s someone who understands that and maybe the next limiting step was me editing that material.

So, one of the aspects of how I added on, I say, okay, I’m going to have to contributor who make the content, but also have a contributor who’s my editor, who edit this stuff before I see it and get it cleaner, and go back and forth from that standpoint. And that really helped quite a bit because it made me feel more comfortable with that content moving forward, versus me thinking, I had to change that, and I’m already making content as well. So, that was the big step. But it did make me feel a little uncomfortable again, because some of the things that was important to other people, other editors, wasn’t necessarily as important to me. But I realized it may be important to my audience. And that’s where it really became more prevalent that I needed to make sure I empower my editors, I empower my contributors. Because, again, they’re going to be the ones that build this platform to really be something that’s much bigger than what it currently is now.

[00:27:01] TU: So, as I hear you talk about this journey, and the work and the systems and the processes that you’re building now, I think a natural question is, Jimmy, how are you doing this? So, you’re working full time, you’re working in a large academic medical center, you mentioned a teaching component, which anyone who’s been in a shared faculty role, you know that that in and of itself can feel like more than one job. You’re teaching trainees, I suspect, medical residents, pharmacy residents, pharmacy students, medical students. So, how have you been able to balance this or maybe balance isn’t even a thing, as you’re getting it off the ground. But tell us more about the strategies that you’ve employed, to be able to work on this and move the mission forward. But also, make sure that you’re keeping yourself well throughout the journey?

[00:27:43] JP: I think one of the biggest things that came up was, I had some advice to make sure you make systems for everything. And I didn’t necessarily know what that meant, until I started building this. Because again, when you’re by yourself, you’re the system. But when you start to train other people to do a task, and you realize that you have to give very detailed instructions, or you’re going to spend more time revising things. So, I started using, again, everyone has their own productivity manager, I use the platform Click Up, and that’s where I basically have everything lived. So, everything has his own bucket. And within there, everything has their own sub tasks and different checklists to get a single task done, and I’ve worked with my assistant to where some of the more difficult tasks, I would have her go through it, but then create instructions on each step. Pictures and do think different things like that.

So, when I assign this task with someone else, they can go through and pretty easily get those things done. And once I built up a big base of that, I started using it for everything. So, even for, in my role within my course, every class have a certain lesson plan, every class have a certain setup, a certain thing that need to happen. I have made templates for emails I’m going to send. I’ve made templates for – on top of the discussions that I have. So, all these things have their own system now. And now, it’s been a couple of years where most of the – if I’ve done it two or three times, I just spend a little extra time making the system out of it, and I just use that over and over again. So now, it takes to where I can focus my time on creating new platforms and creating new systems, and all the ones I’ve done in the past, I just reuse that. It’s been phenomenal for me in saving time. And again, almost everything that I do now from the production of a podcast, from creating the conference, I’ve done it now more than once, and it’s easier for me to be able to put those things on autopilot, so to say.

[00:29:39] TU: I love that, Jimmy. I did an episode recently, 265 where we talked about – we’ll link to that in the show notes, 10 lessons learned from employed entrepreneur. And that was one of the things that I talked about, because it’s so important as you think about, again, how can this continue to grow and evolve and the question I encourage folks to think about that are beginning as a solopreneur and looking to build out some of the systems is, if you were to walk away for a month, you’re to take a break, something were to happen that you needed a month off, would the business be able to continue to go on and ideally grow in your absence? That question really forces the – okay, what are all the hats that I’m wearing, and are things documented in a manner that someone else can be trained up? And ideally, over time, people are able to take on those roles so that you can continue to move forward and grow the business.

Two books I would recommend on this concept that Jimmy is talking about here, we’ll link to these in the show notes E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber. Great book that talks about the concept that that Jimmy just outlined, and then Procrastinate on Purpose by Rory Vaden talks a little bit about this concept as well that I think folks may find helpful.

Jimmy, my last question for you is, given this as a financial podcast, one of the big upsides I see as a side hustle or a business, especially as people are working full time, is it allows them to supercharge and accelerate their financial goals, whether that be debt repayment, saving for the future, having some extra cash on hand, whatever be the case. So, my question is, how has developing PACU, how has that helped you reach or advance your, your financial goals that you’re working on?

[00:31:14] JP: Absolutely. I think one of the big things is during this same timeframe reading and develop myself for this, I’ve learned where it’s the best to place money and how to have money work for you. And the biggest things as additional income start come again, I realized that, okay, I could really look to something to where it can not only supplement income, but potentially with greater success, being able to kind of take over part of that. So, it’s really helped me – the ideal of retirement has completely changed my mind. It used to be an age, but now it’s a number.

So, when I talk to my family, and I talk to everyone around me, there’s a certain number that I had to get to per month, to where I feel that I’ll be comfortable enough to not be full time anymore. I know what that number is, for part time. I know what that number is for 0.75 FTE, and it’s really changed my mindset. So, the biggest benefit to me is understanding that not only can money work for me in other aspects that will benefit from PACU, but it also, is going to allow me more time to spend time with family, to travel, do things of that nature. So, it’s actually given me a different approach to what retirement looks like, and really, to feel comfortable in that space. So, that’s the big thing for me, is spending more time with family, and change the mindset from when to and what that number looks like.

[00:32:35] TU: It’s great stuff, and I think as you talk about, it’s a number, not an age. We’ve talked about that on the show, and one, it gets me excited for your journey is not only is it about being able to spend more time with your family and friends and enjoy the experiences you want, but also connecting to our conversation just a moment ago, because you’re building the systems and processes on where it will go, the mission of what you’re working on, because you’re going to have other folks that are involved. And so, as you’re spending more time with family and friends, and enjoying those experiences, the company, the mission, the work, can still advance, even in your absence. So, this has been awesome. So excited for you, Jimmy and what you have a future in your community. We’ll link again to the PACU website. Where is the best place that listeners can go to find you and to follow your journey?

[00:33:20] JP: I think Twitter is going to be the best place to catch me, where I’m the most active, @PharmD_intheED. That’s where I spend a decent amount of my time. Again, if you’re interested in the PACU platform, we have platforms on all the social media, so LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, all those things we have platforms there. So again, I’ll be aware of any information that’s coming into those platforms, and Twitter is probably the easiest place to catch me. Again, @PharmD_intheED.

[00:33:47] TU: Awesome. Thank you so much, Jimmy for taking time to come on the show. I appreciate it.

[00:33:51] JP: Tim, it has been an absolute pleasure. Again, we follow you guys for a while and this is something that again, it’s really, I’m looking forward to.

[00:33:57] TU: Thank you

[OUTRO]

[00:33:58] TU: As we conclude this week’s podcast, an important reminder that the content on this show is provided to you for informational purposes only and it is not intended to provide and should not be relied on for investment or any other advice. Information in the podcast and corresponding materials should not be construed as a solicitation or offer to buy or sell any investment or related financial products. We urge listeners to consult with a financial advisor with respect to any investment. 

Furthermore, the information contained in our archived newsletters, blog post and podcast is not updated and may not be accurate at the time you listen to it on the podcast. Opinions and analysis expressed herein are solely those of your financial pharmacist unless otherwise noted and constitute judgments as of the dates published. Such information may contain forward looking statements, which are not intended to be guarantees of future events. Actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements. For more information, please visit yourfinancialpharmacist.com/disclaimer. 

Thank you again for your support of the Your Financial Pharmacist Podcast. Have a great rest of your week.

[END]

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