Month: June 2025

What mindset separates high earners from true wealth builders? Inspired by The Millionaire Next Door by Dr. Thomas Stanley, Tim Ulbrich breaks down how changing his perspective on money transformed his financial path, and how it can do the same for you.

Episode Summary

YFP Co-Founder & CEO, Tim Ulbrich, PharmD explores the key mindset shift that helps pharmacists quietly build lasting wealth. This isn’t about flashy cars or overnight success. It’s about the habits, discipline, and mindset millionaires use to build wealth quietly and consistently. Drawing from both personal experience and lessons from The Millionaire Next Door by Dr. Thomas Stanley, he shares how pharmacists and other high-income earners can adopt a wealth-building mindset that prioritizes financial independence over lifestyle inflation.

Whether you’re just getting started or looking to level up, this episode will challenge how you think about money and give you the tools to create lasting change.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• The millionaire mindset (that most people don’t have)
• Why high income doesn’t guarantee financial freedom
• How to build money habits that grow wealth over time
• What these insights mean for pharmacists and other professionals pursuing financial independence

Key Points from the Episode

• 00:00 Introduction and Episode Overview
• 13:01 Building Wealth: No Inheritance or Lottery Needed
• 13:06 Consistent Habits Over Time
• 13:10 Wealth Building Without Extreme Sacrifice

Episode Highlights

“ While it’s a very important tool, income can be a vanity metric if we’re not careful. Net worth, on the other hand, is what actually sticks.” – Tim Ulbrich [1:42]

“ As I often say, a six-figure income, a good income, is not a financial plan. It’s a great tool, and millionaires, one of the ways they think differently is they really focus on net worth as a better indicator than just their income.” – Tim Ulbrich [2:28]

“ Wealthy people spend significantly more time thinking and planning for their financial future than the average person.” – Tim Ulbrich [10:42]

“ Michael Phelps didn’t win 28 Olympic medals because of talent alone. He trained harder and longer than everyone else, seven days a week for years. Sure, he had the physical stature as well. But the same is true in wealth building. You don’t need an inheritance. You don’t need to win the lottery. You need habits that are practiced consistently over time. And as I’ve already mentioned, it doesn’t require extreme sacrifice. It doesn’t require complicated investment tools that are only available to the wealthy, and it doesn’t require that you take a ton of risk.” – Tim Ulbrich [12:48]

Mentioned in Today’s Episode

• First Horizon’s Pharmacist Home Loan
• Your Financial Pharmacist
• The Millionaire Next Door by Dr. Tom Stanley
• I Will Teach You to be Rich by Ramit Sethi
• The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy

Episode Transcript

[00:00:00] Tim Ulbrich: Hey everybody. Tim Ulbrich here, and welcome to this week’s episode of the YFP podcast where we strive to inspire and encourage you on your path towards achieving financial freedom. In today’s episode, we’re diving into a topic that has the potential to radically shift your financial trajectory, how millionaires think differently.

This isn’t about quick hacks or a flashy income, it’s about mindset. The way that wealthy individuals think about money, build habits, and make financial decisions that compound over time. Inspired by one of my favorite books, the Millionaire Next Door by Dr. Tom Stanley. I’ll share how a simple mindset shift in thinking.

Help me go from feeling stuck to building lasting wealth and how you can do the same. We’re gonna unpack the core mindset differences between high earners and true wealth builders. Talk about the habits that set millionaires apart, and explore what all of this means for pharmacists who want to create real financial independence.

If [00:01:00] you’ve ever found yourself thinking, Hey, I make a good income, but I’m not sure I’m progressing as much as I would like to, or perhaps as much as I should be, this episode is for you. Before we jump into the episode, let’s hear from today’s sponsor, first Horizon. First Horizon is a paying sponsor of this episode of the Your Financial Pharmacist Podcast.

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. First horizon offers a professional home loan option, a k, a doctor or pharmacist loan.

That requires a 3% down payment for a single family home or a town home for first time. Bo home buyers, 5% for non first time home buyers has no PMI and offers a 30 year fixed rate mortgage on home loans up to 8 0 6 500 in most areas. The pharmacist home loan [00:02:00] 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 your financial pharmacist.com/home-loan. Again, that’s your financial pharmacist.com/home-loan.

All right. Hey, everyone. Excited for today’s episode. I’m gonna dive into one of my all time favorite mindset shifts. One that completely changed how I approached handling money, wealth building, and financial freedom. It all started with a single quote from Dr. Tom Stanley, the author of the Personal Finance Classic, the Millionaire Next Door.

And that quote is as follows, one of the reasons. That millionaires are economically successful is that they think differently. Lemme read that again. One of the reasons that [00:03:00] millionaires are economically successful is that they think differently. That quote hit me like a ton of bricks when I read it, and that was back in 2012.

So I graduated in 2008, 2012, about four years into my personal finance journey, post-graduation at the time, buried in student loan debt, feeling stuck, not feeling like we were making a whole lot of progress in our financial plan despite making a good income. And I really felt like we were spinning our wheels financially.

And it was really this book, this idea that sparked the beginning of a new mindset and a new approach for Jess and I and our financial plan for our family. And today I wanna talk and walk you through exactly what it means to quote, think differently when it comes to money, and how pharmacists can harness this shift.

This shift to build real wealth. Now, what does it mean to think differently? Right? What does he referring to when he says, to quote, think differently? Well, there’s several things. Let’s break them down. [00:04:00] Number one is they focus on net worth. Over income. They focus on net worth over income, right? Income to some degree.

While it’s a very important tool, income can be a vanity metric if we’re not careful. Net worth on the other hand, is what actually sticks. If you’ve never done a net worth calculation, I know we’ve talked about it several times on the show before, your net worth is your assets, what you own, minus your liabilities or what you owe.

Now again, your income’s gonna be a very important tool to be able to have your net worth be on the trajectory that we want it to be because ultimately spending less than we make so we can allocate our income towards our goals, which means paying down debt, growing our assets, all of which feed in into net worth, right?

That income’s gonna be important to allow us to do it, but if we’re not very careful, we can get lulled into the comfort of that, Hey, we make a good income and therefore we’re going to be okay financially. As I often say, a six-figure income, a good income is not a financial plan. It’s a great tool, and [00:05:00] millionaires, one of the ways they think differently is they really focus on net worth as a better indicator than just their income.

The second thing is that millionaires truly know the difference between an asset and a liability. Right. One of the books that really talks us, I, I will Teach You To Be Rich by Ramit Seti. He talks about this concept, uh, as well. I think about Rich Dad, poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki. Really drills home this point as well.

The difference between an asset and a liability. Right? And spoiler alert, your new car, not an asset. Now, it doesn’t mean we’re not gonna spend money on that car. If that’s something that is of value and significance to you and is a priority, so be it. We make it a priority in the financial plan. If not as we’ll talk about here in a little bit.

Then we’ve gotta look at cutting that expense so we can put our dollars towards something else. So what is appreciating and growing in value and has the potential to compound exponentially over time? Those are the assets that we’re thinking about, right? Whether it be investments that we have in stocks, investments that we have in real [00:06:00] estate, those types of things.

Perhaps investment in a business is something that might have a chance to compound and exponentially grow over time. Liabilities on the other hand, right? We think about. Things that aren’t necessarily truly an asset might either be depreciating in value or ultimately dragging down our financial plan.

The third thing in which millionaires think differently is they obsess over financial literacy. They just can’t get enough of learning more. About this topic, right? It’s a semi neurotic desire to learn and grow financially. You know who you are, you financial nerds listening. Now, that said, one of the other ways and habits I typically see with millionaires is that they, more often than not, are working with a professional, trusting, and objective.

Individual objective party in the form of a financial planner or a financial advisor. We’ve talked before on the show about some of the criteria that we would recommend in looking to work with someone, but they understand that despite their [00:07:00] obsession with learning and the knowledge that they’ve acquired, they understand there’s an ROI in working with someone else.

Why? Because they’re humble enough to understand their limitations. They can appreciate how irrational our decision making can be. All of us, we’re human beings. That means we’re not always making rational decisions, and sometimes those decisions can get in our own way. And they also recognize that having an objective opinion can help them really stay on track with their long term goals, while also I will say prioritizing living their rich life today.

I talk with many pharmacists, especially some that are in that DIY kind of financial nerd camp that are crushing it when it comes to their long-term savings goals, but they might be struggling a little bit with living their life today, and that can also be one of the benefits of working with someone else.

Another way in which millionaires think differently is they diversify their income. They diversify their income. So most individuals that are millionaires or multimillionaires, often what you’ll see is they’re not [00:08:00] solely reliant on a W2 income. It could be self-employment, it could be real estate, it could be other types of assets, but often it’s something beyond the W2 income or they’re just really good at taking that W2 income, especially if they’re high income earners and translating that into compounding assets.

Another way in which millionaires think differently is they understand the power of delayed gratification. Now, that doesn’t mean extreme sacrifice, right? They understand also, we need to live our life today. But they’re intentional in how they’re spending their money and they’re un, they understand that the dollar today that we’re not able to spend, especially if it’s something that maybe doesn’t have significance or meaning, is gonna be worth much more in the future through delayed gratification.

They also build tax efficiency into their plans. They understand that wealth isn’t just what you earn, it’s what you keep. And as we often say, say, when it comes to taxes, we want to pay our fair share, but no more. So they are hawkish. They are hawkish on proactive [00:09:00] tax planning, not just filing where we’re looking backwards, but how are we intentional with minimizing our tax liability and burden so that we can translate those dollars into other parts of the financial plan.

And lastly, they spend in alignment with what they value, not what others say they should value, right? They’re not in the competition game. They know what looks. Rich isn’t necessarily wealthy. That’s what the Millionaire Next Door really shows us in that great book. They spend money on the things that they care about, and they don’t spend money on the things that they don’t really care as much about.

This is what Ramit said. He talks about in his book, I Will Teach You to Be Rich with the concept of money dials. This takes vision, this takes clarity. This takes discipline. And again, it’s not about frugality. At all costs, right? We’re not here to suffer. We’re here to get intentional on what we care about, and ultimately being able to put ourselves in a position to achieve our long-term goals.

That’s how millionaires [00:10:00] think differently. That’s what Tom Stanley is talking about in his book. Now, let’s bring this closer to home, right? Pharmacists by in large are taught to focus on income. Right. We were often told the story when we were in school, whether it was said or it was unsaid, that, hey, as a pharmacist, you’re going to make a great salary.

You’re going to make a great income. And it’s true, right? Pharmacists often. Earn significantly more than the average household income in the us. The data supports that in 2025, or at least 2024 is the most recent data we have from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Pharmacists. Median pays in the mid one thirties, right?

The median household income is just above 80. So objectively speaking, pharmacists do earn a really good income. But here’s the problem, as we’ve already established, income alone does not build wealth. Right. Too often I will hear a pharmacist say, and I remember feeling this myself, Hey, I make a good income, but I don’t feel like I’m progressing, or I feel like I [00:11:00] make too much of a good income, that we should be further along.

2008. And that’s the trap. You start out with a good income as a pharmacist, right? I graduated in 2008. Pharmacists at the time, making great six figure incomes. They’ve gone up. We’ve seen that flatten out a little bit, especially if you factor in inflation. But with that strong income right outta the gates, the expenses.

Quickly fo student loans, a mortgage, car payments, childcare expenses, right? Suddenly we wake up and we’re like, wait a minute. There’s little margin and there’s not really a whole lot of financial progress. That’s why Millionaire Secret Sauce is not in the spreadsheet. It’s in their mindset. That eventually translates to the success in the spreadsheet.

Now let’s build on this a little bit further in terms of what millionaires do differently, the habits that really back up their thinking. These aren’t secrets, they’re repeatable patterns of behavior for any one of us, and that’s the good news here. I. It’s not [00:12:00] overly complicated. It doesn’t require extreme sacrifice.

We don’t have to take on a ton of risks. These are repeatable behaviors and patterns. Number one is we’ve already discussed they live below their means, right? Again, this is not about extreme frugality. It’s about margin. It’s about breathing room. I. And it’s about avoiding the trap of rising expenses that match our rou rising income and really avoiding getting to that point where we have very little margin and very little breathing room.

They operate on a spending plan or a budget or whatever you wanna call it. And obviously as their incomes go up and their financial, uh, plan progresses over time, this may not be a strict budget. But the key is they’re intentional, however, that spending plan is employed in a way that works for them.

Right. You don’t budget because you’re broke. You budget because you want clarity and millionaires will use intentionality in this process to be able to control consumption and make sure that they’re prioritizing their goals. I. What we also see in terms of the habits is they are [00:13:00] very intentional and thoughtful with planning for the future.

And again, this is where, uh, an objective financial advisor or planner can really add a lot of value as well. Wealthy people spend significantly more time thinking and planning for their financial future than the average person. It’s not random that they’ve gotten to that point. In some cases it may be through an inheritance or something like that.

More often than not, it’s intentional. It’s intentional now, the key is once you build a strong enough financial foundation, you can lift your head up above the water and have the breathing room. To look out and to play offense with your financial plan. And that’s why some of the basics are so important to allow yourself to get into this space and into this mindset.

They also really reject the status symbols, right? Millionaires care more about financial freedom than flaunting it. Most millionaires will drive, you know, use cars if you look at the data that’s out there. Or if cars are their thing, they’re intentional about that, maybe the expense of something else.

Right. They’re looking at truly building wealth and doing what we talked about before, which is [00:14:00] understanding what is an asset and what is not an asset, and finally they invest in themselves. I. Right. They invest in themselves. It can be books, it can be podcasts, it can be seminars. They are always learning.

They have that habit and hunger to learn, and they level up their skill sets and surround themselves with growth oriented environments. They’re around other people that are playing at the same level, playing at the same game, and working with a financial planner or advisor, of which many of them do. They don’t absolve themselves of learning and responsibility.

Rather, it just elevates that relationship further. One of my favorite books is The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy, and one of the quotes he has in that book is that small smart choices, but plus consistency plus time equals radical difference. That is the compound effect, right? It’s small, smart choices.

Being consistent over a long period of time is a radical difference, and when you look at how most millionaires have built their wealth. It’s a pretty boring, long-term approach of [00:15:00] consistency and staying discipline. Now, if you wanna become a financially successful pharmacist, or perhaps you’re already there, but you wanna take it to the next level, the roadmap is there, right?

Michael Phelps. I grew up swimming, so I’m a big swimming fan. Michael Phelps didn’t win 28 Olympic medals because of talent alone. He trained harder and longer than everyone else seven days a week for years. Sure. He had the physical stature as well. But the same is true in in wealth building. You don’t need an inheritance.

You don’t need to to win the lottery. You need habits that are practiced consistently over time. And as I’ve already mentioned, it doesn’t require extreme sacrifice. It doesn’t require complicated investment tools that are only available to the wealthy, and it doesn’t require that you take a ton of risk.

All of those are a myth. And remember, even if your situation is such that you feel stuck right now. Whether that be behind on retirement savings, maybe you’re buried in debt. If you’re [00:16:00] listening, you feel like you’re living paycheck to paycheck, you can think differently. Starting today. That is a choice, something that we can take responsibility for.

So here’s the challenge I wanna leave you with. Okay. Where in your financial life are you thinking like a high earner, but not yet? Like a wealth builder? Lemme say that again. Where in your financial life. Are you thinking like a high earner but not like a wealth builder? And what’s one mindset shift that you can make this week?

Maybe it’s tracking your net worth. Very simple to do, but very powerful. Maybe it’s reading one financial book, I’ve mentioned a few on this episode. Or maybe it’s cutting one expense that you determine doesn’t align with your values so that you can allocate those dollars to something else that does.

Yeah, any one of those is not gonna build wealth overnight, but it’s gonna set you on the trajectory of taking one step after another. And that’s what Darren Hardy was talking about. With those [00:17:00] small, consistent choices over a long period of time, you do not have to flip your whole life upside down overnight.

You just have to start thinking, and that’s exactly what Dr. Stanley was saying when he said one of the reasons that millionaires are economically successful is that they think differently. And the good news is that pharmacists that you can as well. Thanks so much for listening. If this resonated with you, please share it with colleagues and leave a review.

Apple Podcast. Wherever you catch your show. Your support helps this message reach more pharmacists on their own wealth building journey. Until next time, take care and I hope that you’ll keep thinking differently. Thanks so much again for listening to this week’s episode of the podcast. Before we wrap up, I wanna again thank our sponsor of the Your Financial Pharmacist Podcast.

First horizon. First Horizon offers a professional home loan option, a KAA doctor or pharmacist loan that requires a 3% down payment for a single family home or a [00:18:00] town home. For first time home buyers, 5% for non-first time home buyers. Has no PMI and offers a 30 year fixed rate mortgage on home loans up to 8 0 6 500 in most areas.

The pharmacist’s 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. And finally, an important reminder that the content in this podcast is provided for informational purposes only and is not intended to provide and should not be relied on for investment or any other advice, information.

The podcast and corresponding materials should not be construed as a solicitation or offer to buy or sell any investment or related financial product. For more information on this, you can visit your financial pharmacist.com/disclaimer. Thanks so much for listening, and have a great rest of your week.

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