How Austin Successfully Made the Financial Transition to New Practitioner Life
Austin Ulrich joins Tim Ulbrich to talk about how he and his family successfully navigated the financial transition from student pharmacist to resident to new practitioner. He discusses how they were able to become debt free while completing residency training, why and how he started a medical writing business, what it was like to finish residency and find a new job in the midst of a global pandemic and what they learned from their first home buying experience.
Summary
Austin Ulrich, a new practitioner, joins Tim Ulbrich on this week’s podcast episode to discuss four major areas of his life: paying off his student loans, building a side hustle and how he was able to make money medical writing, buying a home on the other side of the country and signing onto his current position.
Austin explains that he’s always been “allergic to debt” and obtained scholarships to pay for his undergraduate education. He did have to borrow money for pharmacy school loans but by making wise financial decisions, he and his wife were able to pay off $80,000 in loans during his residency training. Austin explains that there were some key decisions that helped them optimize the loan payoff. They purchased a home that allowed them to have a much lower mortgage payment versus what their rent cost would have been. When they sold the home they ended up making a good profit off of it and paid over $40,000 toward their student loans. He also explains that him and his wife were on the same page with finances and kept expenses down where they could.
Austin digs into his side hustle business, Ulrich Medical Writing, which helped him to pay off of his loans. Without this additional income, he would not have been able to pay off his loans as quickly. Austin also discusses how he and his wife purchased a home on the other side of the country during a global pandemic and how his relationship building and networking afforded him the opportunity for a career in a tough market.
Mentioned on the Show
- Join APhA- Get 25% Off Your Membership with Code: YFP2020
- American Medical Writers Association (AMWA)
- Start: Punch Fear in the Face, Escape Average and Do Work That Matters by Jon Acuff
- Connect with Austin Ulrich on LinkedIn
- Ulrich Medical Writing
- American Society of Hospital Pharmacists (ASHP)
- Entrepreneurs on Fire with John Lee Dumas
- The School of Greatness with Lewis Howes
Episode Transcript
Tim Ulbrich: Austin, glad to have you on the show. Thanks for taking time.
Austin Ulrich: Yeah, thanks, Tim. It’s great to be here.
Tim Ulbrich: So we’ll dabble more into this as we get into the interview, but you just finished up residency, moved from Oregon to North Carolina in the midst of the global pandemic. So what have been your first perceptions as you move across the country and got your first taste of the Carolinas?
Austin Ulrich: Yeah, I mean, it’s definitely been a big change for us moving across country with three kids. There were a lot of logistics involved in that. But there are a lot of bugs in the South that we’ve kind of discovered compared to Oregon. But you know, it’s really green here, and we like that. And really nice people and good southern food. So there’s a lot that we like about being here.
Tim Ulbrich: And kudos to you and your wife for moving the three kiddos across country. My wife and I — or at least I — have always joked that we made that move with three before we had our fourth from just Cleveland to Columbus, Ohio, only two hours. And I said, “I’m never doing that again.” So kudos to you guys for making that transition. We’ll talk about your career story, what you’re doing, what really necessitated that move and we’ll weave that into your financial story as well. So we have lots of different parts of your story that I’m excited for our listeners to hear. And you and I first connected on LinkedIn back in May of 2019. You sent me a message sharing your story regarding your financial journey, which by the way, I love getting messages like these and hearing from pharmacists across the country. And as we went back and forth a little bit, you know, as I heard about your transition from student pharmacist to resident to new practitioner, I really said, you know, you’ve got so much going on that we have talked about extensively on the show but such a great example I think of how with intentionality, you can make this transition — I will not always say with ease — but how you can successfully make this transition and really be able to have it be done in a way that will set you up for long-term success with the financial plan. So we’re going to talk about four areas of your financial plan: No. 1, paying off all your student loans; No. 2, building your medical writing side hustle business; No. 3, buying a home and what that was like; and No. 4, signing onto your current position during the COVID-19 pandemic. So let’s start with tell us a little bit about your journey into pharmacy, where you went to school, when you graduated, and ultimately, how you chose the residency path that you did.
Austin Ulrich: Yeah, so I’m originally from Ogden, Utah. And that’s a small town that’s north of Salt Lake. But I did undergraduate at Weaver State University there in Ogden and did pharmacy school at University of Utah. And so I graduated there in May of 2018 and then after that is when we moved out to Oregon, where I did a PGY1 residency at Providence Health and Services and then finished my PGY2 residency in ambulatory care and academia at Pacific University and Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Center.
Tim Ulbrich: So where did your interest in ambulatory care come from?
Austin Ulrich: You know, I’ve really always been interested in ambulatory care since starting pharmacy school. One of the first pharmacists I shadowed was an ambulatory care pharmacist. And at the time, I didn’t know that that was really a career option being fairly new to pharmacy. But I was really impressed how he was able to interact with physicians and with patients and have a lot of influence in how the patients were treated. And so throughout pharmacy school, that was one of my areas of focus and specifically during those years of 2014-2018 while I was in pharmacy school, I saw a lot happening where there seemed to be a shifting focus even more so toward ambulatory care within the pharmacy sector. So you know, it just felt right as far as economic opportunities in the future as well as I love talking to patients and getting that face-to-face interaction. And then the hours really fit well with the family lifestyle. So all those things are some of the things that I love about ambulatory care.
Tim Ulbrich: And in order to get there, like many pharmacy students and residents, you had to take on some debt to do that. So I want to talk about your student loans. I mentioned in the introduction part of the journey is paying off all of these loans. And we’ll talk about how you did that, but first, I’m sure as many of our listeners are wondering, what was the amount? What were you dealing with? What were you working with? Were you able to keep that low because of scholarships or other opportunities? You mentioned the in-state tuition piece. So tell us about your student loan debt, specifically as you went through pharmacy school.
Austin Ulrich: Yeah, so I’d like to preface this by saying I feel like I’m fairly allergic to debt and student loans. I have really bad reactions to it. So in my undergrad, I was pretty diligent about getting a scholarship to cover all that. But with graduate school and pharmacy school, that’s not really possible unless you have some sort of large sum of money fall into your lap. But so over the course of four years of pharmacy school with in-state tuition, I acquired — I guess I should say — $80,000 in student loans. And that’s with interest. That’s the full amount that would have been paid off.
Tim Ulbrich: OK.
Austin Ulrich: So that was the amount of student loans that I had coming out of pharmacy school. And you know, I would say that my wife and I really worked hard on making wise financial decisions, even though — I mean, we both knew that we didn’t want a lot of student loans. And so she worked as a nurse during pharmacy school and put a lot of hours into that. That was definitely something that was really helpful. And I worked as well as a pharmacy intern. So kind of our two part-time incomes put together helped keep that burden down as well as I was fortunate to receive a few scholarships that helped keep the loans down. But one of our philosophies was that we wanted to borrow as little as possible while still being able to maintain, you know, a decent amount of savings and a good quality of life. And we had purchased a home right when I started pharmacy school. It actually ended up being a really great investment. But that’s kind of the how things went with the student loans.
Tim Ulbrich: And so as you know, as our listeners know, $80,000, while it’s still a lot of money, it’s about a half — a little less actually, than half of what we’re seeing graduates in 2020 come out with on average. And so you mentioned a little bit about some scholarships, but I also heard a lot of intentionality around trying to minimize what you’re able to borrow through work and getting that bill down. But I also heard something that I want to dig in a little bit deeper when you said you’re allergic to debt. And I think that really gets to maybe some of the mindset, which drove the actions to keep that amount as low as you could. So tell me more. Tell our listeners more about what you mean by being allergic to debt and where that comes from.
Austin Ulrich: Yeah. So I think it was kind of engrained in me from childhood because my dad’s a financial advisor. And so he would always teach us these principles about, you know, keeping — staying out of debt and only buying what you can afford. And I guess I never really verbalized that into a financial why until really I started listening to the YFP podcast. But when I verbalized it, you know, I had student loans at the time. So I just, reading the statement here, I have an unquenchable desire to become and live debt-free. And so you know, just I guess as part of my financial why, the reason that I’m allergic to debt and I really want to stay away from it is I feel that being a slave to money is not a good way to live. I want to be in control of my money rather than let my money control me. I think that comes from a Dave Ramsey book somewhere.
Tim Ulbrich: It does. I think he says that often. And I want to prod a little bit more there. When you read your why statement — I’m hearing it for the first time, so I’m guessing our listeners may wonder as well, like when you say a desire to be debt-free or not to be a slave to debt, take us one step further. What does that mean for you specifically in terms of freedom? Is it that those payments that would normally be going to debt could go otherwise? Is it being able to free up money for other types of goals or lifestyle? What does that mean practically? If you don’t have debt, you can do what?
Austin Ulrich: Yeah, so I mean, I have a couple other lines here in my financial why that I had drafted that I think would answer some of those, really providing the basic level. It’s providing a sustainable living for my family where money is not a worry. You know? So I think that’s kind of our basic goal of we’re not drowned in debt, we’re able to do things as a family. We’re able to really provide — I can provide for our basic needs. Some of the other things that come from not having debt and building wealth over time would be I want to take my family on vacations around the world. We love vacationing, and we love trips. And they’re not free usually.
Tim Ulbrich: Right.
Austin Ulrich: So money that’s not going toward debt and paying interest or paying someone else you can use to accomplish your own goals and your own dreams. Some of the other things is owning an investment property or vacation home, you know, giving is a big part of my financial why. And that’s actually been really a core principle from the beginning for us, ever since we started making any sort of money, including throughout pharmacy school, paying off student loans, we always have been giving money. So we give tithing to our church, and that’s been something that’s very important to us, and we feel that we receive blessings from that. So those are just some of my kind of the building blocks of my financial why and really what being debt-free I feel like can allow me to achieve.
Tim Ulbrich: That’s awesome, Austin. I appreciate your willingness to share, and I promise to our listeners, we didn’t have that in the script. I didn’t have that in the notes, but when you had said you had something written down, it was great to be able to prod further and even hear more of what’s behind that. A few things I heard from there as you were talking, you know, beyond the concept of being able to be financially free from a paycheck, giving, diversifying your income through real estate, investing, life experiences with family, being able to care for, provide and support for your family, and so I think all of those are great. And for our listeners, maybe some of those resonate with you, maybe it’s other things. But I think ultimately, taking time to set your vision, set your why for your own personal financial plan can really help month-to-month when it comes to executing certain decisions related to the plan. So Austin, as I understand it, you will have paid off or did pay off $80,000 of student loans over two years of residency. And we before we just talk for a moment about how significant that is considering what we all know is a limited income in residency, I want to go back to one thing you had mentioned is that you were able to be successful in terms of limiting your student loan debt that was accrued, but I assume also in paying that down through making wise decisions. Tell us more about what was the Ulrich playbook when it come to — when it came to minimizing debt and ultimately paying down that debt. What were those things in terms of making wise decisions?
Austin Ulrich: Yeah, so I mean, I would say the linchpin or the key factor in that was really our house purchase. So like I mentioned, in 2014, we decided to buy a house because we knew I’d be in pharmacy school for four years, so we figured that we didn’t want to throw money away to rent for that long and maybe build up some equity. And it actually created a bit of a commute for me — or maybe more than a bit. But I had to drive an hour each way to school for four years.
Tim Ulbrich: So it was pre-Zoom pharmacy school, right, with COVID?
Austin Ulrich: Right. Yeah. So we did have to sacrifice a little bit, you know, as far as commute time. But it was in a place — it was actually in Ogden that we owned a home. It was more affordable, and we had a pretty low house payment. We were able to put some money down on it. And so when it was — when I finished pharmacy school and it was time to move for residency, we actually debated keeping it as a rental property. But when we had looked and, you know, really, we were thinking then, it’s getting close to time for a recession because they seem to be cyclical, but of course, it didn’t happen quite at that point. But in any case, we figured the value had increased so significantly that it would actually b ea good time to just sell the home, so we did make a very decent profit on the sale of the house, probably more so than any other investment we would make in the future. But I guess who knows? But that allowed us to pay off over half of the student loans. So that was definitely a big — the biggest driving factor as far as volume goes to get the cash to pay off the student loans.
Tim Ulbrich: So building up that home equity in that property, being able to sell that, throwing it at the student loans, obviously a big dent. And for our listeners that are hearing that and they’re like, ah, dang it, I don’t have a home with a lot of equity that I can sell and pay off my student loans, so what else was the key to success for you guys in terms of budgeting, working together, keeping expenses down — we’ll talk in a moment about being able to increase some income through a side hustle — what else was sort of the recipe for success as it related to your debt-free journey?
Austin Ulrich: Yeah, so you know, of course my wife and I, we definitely had to be on the same page as far as making these financial decisions. And everything that we’ve done, we’ve done together. And so it’s been a lot of kind of late night discussions and talking through things. And it’s not always easy, but I think that as we work through things, we end up on the same page and we figure it out. So some of the things that we did to keep expenses down during pharmacy school, I think the house purchase was a big one because we actually paid less on our house payment than we did in rent. So you know, there’s some money there. We also — and I know this is not something that’s available to everyone — but we had family nearby as far as childcare. So we had our first child was born the summer before pharmacy school, so we had kids all through pharmacy school. But we had family nearby that we were able to swap babysitting days with and so we actually did not pay $1 in childcare as far as working or school goes to get through pharmacy school. So you know, things like that were pretty significant I think in contributing to helping us keep expenses down.
Tim Ulbrich: What a blessing that is, and I appreciate your comment about you and your wife having to be on the same page. And I know how difficult that can be. I mean, you guys have three young kiddos at home, you’re transitioning from pharmacy school to residency to now obviously even a new opportunity, new location. And it’s hard with three young kids to have any length of conversation, right, without being interrupted. And so sometimes, you’ve got to work hard to piece it together and you’ve got to be persistent, and sometimes it means some late-night conversations, so love to hear that intentionality. I want to talk about your side hustle for a little bit. One, because you know, the YFP community knows, we love a good side hustle for many reasons. I think it helps accelerate the financial goals and the plan, I think it can often help provide a creative outlet and release for something that one is passionate about. And so I think you have a great example with what you have built with your medical writing business, Ulrich Medical Writing LLC. So tell us a little bit about how this came to be, why it came to be, and what the work is that you’re doing right now.
Austin Ulrich: Yeah, this I think is one of the most interesting things I would say I’ve done, really didn’t have a clear path or clear plan. But I would say it really wasn’t about — until about halfway through my PGY1 residency year I was thinking, you know, I know that theoretically at that point, I should be making decent money as a pharmacist, but you know, why not do something to increase my income now? Not that I wasn’t busy enough. But just kind of thinking outside the box. So I mean, I tried a number of things as far as kind of getting a side hustle to generate income. So I’ve tried lots of different things: taking email surveys, transcribing recordings, which I actually didn’t do because my transcribing wasn’t good enough. They paid like $5 an hour, but I couldn’t quite get hired on there. Probably a good thing.
Tim Ulbrich: Oh, wow.
Austin Ulrich: But I did some tutoring on Chegg, some online tutoring, I taught piano lessons. And then I did a bunch of reading about online business.
Tim Ulbrich: OK.
Austin Ulrich: But really, when I happened upon medical writing, I had no idea that it has existed before, and it just felt right with my pharmacy experience. And medical, I guess for those who may not be as familiar, it’s really just writing about any sort of medical topic, and it can any sort of format. These could be blog posts, they could be continuing education modules, slide decks, regulatory documents for pharmaceutical companies, all of that falls under the umbrella of regulatory writing. So really, what I found is that I just needed a little bit of training and a little bit of education to kind of steer my skills in the right direction to be able to provide value in this setting and be able to do some freelance and contracting work in that area.
Tim Ulbrich: And how do you as a new medical writing business, obviously you have the PharmD, you have the clinical training, so that helps in terms of credentials and expertise, but you know, there’s other people in this space. How do you build credibility, how do you build relationships, how do you find clients? What were some of those initial steps that you take and even some of the struggles that you had along the way?
Austin Ulrich: Yeah, so I would say it did take me a long time to get started. So I actually did research for about four months — I guess long time relatively — but I did research and I was building a website in the background, which is nothing fancy, but it kind of does the job. It’s more of a portfolio. But what I would recommend and what worked for me is digging around on AMWA.org, so that’s the American Medical Writers Association. And you basically have any resources that you need about medical writing, they have education there, it’s been a really great community be a part of as I’ve been growing my business. I went to one of their annual meetings last year, and so really doing some networking with people that were also members of AMWA, I read a couple books on medical writing to really just kind of get me started. And then as far as finding clients, there’s the cold email strategy. Sort of like cold calling, but you send them an email and basically when people hear that you’re a pharmacist in the medical writing space, there is a certain understanding that they have that you know about medications and if you’re a writer, you must be able to write about them is the hope. And that reminds me, I did read some books about writing as well too because you do need to know how to write and enjoy it to some extent to be able to do medical writing.
Tim Ulbrich: Sure.
Austin Ulrich: Sometimes you have to grind away, but all of those were pieces that went into building that business to the point where I launched the business and I had a grand total of 0 clients. So then I started my finding process.
Tim Ulbrich: Yeah.
Austin Ulrich: But AMWA, the American Medical Writers Association, actually has a great place to post freelance opportunities, job opportunities. So a number of companies and agencies will post there periodically. So I’ve gotten a few clients that way, I’ve gotten a few clients through just direct emailing. And so just kind of a combination of different approaches has been how I built that up.
Tim Ulbrich: What has the side hustle, what has the medical writing business meant to your financial plan? So how has it either accelerated your goals or perhaps even opened up some new opportunities?
Austin Ulrich: So paying off my student loans within two years of residency would not have been possible without the side hustle. You know, that’s very clear to my wife and I that that was such a big player in that. You know, and though it did mean some early mornings and late nights for me and weekends, it’s not just something you get all of this money for doing nothing. You have to put in the work. So it’s still a trading your time for money type thing. But you know, it’s been really one of the things that I would say I’m the most proud of that I’ve been able to get that moving and actually see some success. You know, the first project that I landed I was almost in disbelief because it’s like, I’ve never done something like this before.
Tim Ulbrich: Yeah.
Austin Ulrich: And you just kind of go with it, and you do your best and make it happen. So that’s what entrepreneurs do.
Tim Ulbrich: Absolutely. And that’s awesome. And kudos to you for taking some risk getting it started. I’ve shared on this podcast before, one of the books that was so instrumental to me in getting started with YFP was “Start” by John Acuff. And I think it’s just such a good resource on the mindset of when somebody has a new idea — and it could be a new business, it could be a new service at your place of work, it could be anything that you’re looking to begin or start, that there can be so many different steps that need to be done and it can be overwhelming, there’s so much to learn. And often you can get lost in that maze of what do I do next? Where do I go? And often, there’s obviously paralysis that prevents that next step. And I think what I took away from that book was you’ve just got to start, right? You’ve got to start. You take a step forward. You do your research, but you move forward. And you may look back in two years and say, “What was I doing with that website or that first step?” But that’s not the point. You know, you’re really getting toward that larger vision and being able to move something forward. So before we transition to talking about your most recent home purchase, Austin, where can folks go to learn more about what you’re doing with your medical writing business?
Austin Ulrich: Yeah, so I think the best place to connect with me would be on LinkedIn. So just Austin Ulrich on LinkedIn. I’ve got my profile set up as a clinical pharmacist and also a freelance medical writer. And then you’ve got my website, and anyone’s welcome to take a look at that. So it’s UlrichMedicalWriting.com.
Tim Ulbrich: Awesome. And we’ll link to both your LinkedIn profile as well as the website in the show notes for those that want to go back. And again, you can go to YourFinancialPharmacist.com/podcast, find this episode, and you’ll see those show notes listed. So you finish up two years of residency in Oregon and you move in across country for a new ambulatory care position. So tell us about this new job, what you’re doing, what you’re working on, and how ultimately you came to find it and how difficult or maybe not it was in terms of navigating that home buying and job position finding during a global pandemic.
Austin Ulrich: Yeah, so I think starting out with the job, you know, of course during the latter half of my PGY2 residency year, I think as all PGY2s are, you’re looking for a full-time position. So I’d been looking and had a number of opportunities and positions available I was applying for. And about that time, COVID hit, you know, early March. So I started to see positions disappearing, you know, I had a few phone interviews. And things just weren’t really moving forward with what I was looking for for positions. But so I guess one thing I would say about this is other than possibly being the worst time in history of the U.S. to get a job, unemployment rates really sky-high, but you know, it impressed to me the importance of going to conferences and networking in person because a lot of the people that I interviewed with, it was all remote, and it was all phone. Maybe I just interview poorly that way, who knows? But the company that I work for is called Upstream. And I had actually met them at ASHP Midyear in December.
Tim Ulbrich: Oh, cool.
Austin Ulrich: So I had met them in person, and it just so happened that I saw a posting that they had a position open. And that was — I think that was in May, early May that they had posted that. So I reached out to the people that I had met and we set up an interview and got a job offer not too long after.
Tim Ulbrich: That’s awesome.
Austin Ulrich: So you know, it’s really interesting how things materialize that way and are just — meeting people in person I think is not to be underestimated.
Tim Ulbrich: Yeah, and I’m so glad you brought forward that networking/professional organization piece. I think from my experience, the benefits of a network and I think really building genuine relationships, I think sometimes networking can imply sort of this cold relationship where you’re using people for connections and other things. And I think so much of networking is genuine relationship-building and doing that continually, making that a part of what you do every day because you genuinely care about people and genuinely care about collaborating and sharing with others. And the fruit of that will come to be and most often will come to be in a time where you may not even expect it. And I think here is a great example. But waiting until that time of need to try to build that network I think is where folks can get in trouble. So not only were you searching for a job in the midst of a global pandemic — and I saw the same thing here with many of the residents that I work with in the Columbus area where job positions were falling off, people were pulling back, trying to conserve resources during this unknown time period. But you also were trying to purchase a home during a global pandemic, which doing that alone from West Coast to East Coast would be difficult enough, let alone trying to do that in the midst of obviously the challenges that were brought forth by COVID-19. So tell us about that experience — and I think the piece, Austin, I’m curious to hear from you knowing this isn’t your first time going through the home buying experience, was there anything that you learned from that first time that you applied and did differently when you bought this home here in 2020?
Austin Ulrich: Yeah, so I think the thing that was most important for us is we wanted to actually see the property before buying. It was really important for us to get into the right area or a good area for our family. But on the other hand, how do you know what is the right area when you’ve never been somewhere? We hadn’t even been to North Carolina before. And I guess to contrast that with our home buying experience in Utah, we knew the area very well that we wanted to live, and we actually ended up finding our house on it may have been Zillow or some sort of real estate network. But we basically found our house and called whatever realtor was listed on there. It was probably an easy job for them, but you know — so that was definitely differences. We didn’t really know where we wanted to be, and we’d had some not-so-good experiences with that realtor and also our realtor selling the house. So one of the important things for us was to get a realtor that would actually do a good job for us because we knew that they’d need to be — we were going to take a trip out and we had three days to find a house and make an offer. And so that realtor needed to be available and needed to do a good job, so you know, we asked for recommendations and one of the people I work with had mentioned someone that they used that was an awesome realtor. And so we went with her, and she put in a lot of hours those three days when we were out there, and we did too. But having a good realtor was really important to us, and of course having all the financing lined up is an important piece of that as well so that you’re ready to act because what we found is there were actually three or four houses we were considering offering on, and they were gone.
Tim Ulbrich: Yes.
Austin Ulrich: About the time — I mean, within one day. We looked at it in the morning and by the evening, it was gone. So part of that was getting our offer in fast enough before the house we’re in was gone. I would say those are some of the things that we kind of carried over from our previous experience but really different experience for us because we just didn’t know anything about the area. But I think by the end, we had a pretty strong feeling of where we needed to be.
Tim Ulbrich: And I’m glad you mentioned those two things, Austin, as I think of Jess and I and our transition buying a home for the second time here in Columbus, those two things really stand out to me as well. Having your financing in order and having a good realtor on your team and how important they are. And I think they can certainly make all the different, especially when you’re dealing with a situation such as what you guys are doing, moving across country but also in a market where things are moving quickly and properties are coming off the market quickly and needing to be ready to act. So you’re in North Carolina, you’ve gone through a lot of transition in the last four or five years, obviously you’ve made incredible progress, you’ve got a young family, lots of competing priorities for your finances, so how are you feeling in this moment about your overall financial health? And talk to us a little bit about some of your financial goals going forward.
Austin Ulrich: Yeah, so I think about my goals fairly often now, I think since crafting my why, which has been really helpful of having things that I’m looking to achieve. But of course our big goal is to buy a house, that was something that’s important for our family. And I know that may not be part of everyone’s financial plan, but that was something that was important to us is to build the equity and maybe it was due to our really good experience with our first house, but I think in general, we don’t like the idea of throwing money down the drain to interest. But you know, in any case, our next steps for financial goals really are to make sure our savings is solidified. We were able to get some what we feel like is pretty favorable financing where we didn’t have to completely destroy our savings and emergency fund to purchase the home. And so just building that back up is going to be the first step and then looking to kind of flex up our investments and then eventually down the road, I think we want to get into real estate investing. But I think we’ve got kind of more to learn and more capital to acquire probably before stepping into that of what we’re thinking that we want to do there.
Tim Ulbrich: Yeah, and you’ve put yourself in a great position to have that as an option going forward. And so I’m excited to see what the future looks like for you and your wife. And as I listen to your financial journey, I know — it sounds like it, certainly — that your intentionality with your finances during school and residency has really set you up for a lot of success in the future. And I think really sharing your story, I’m hopeful students listening are inspired by this, those that are in the midst of residency and feeling how daunting that can feel in terms of both the intensity on your time as well as the strain on your resources as well as those that are making the transition and looking to build that solid foundation, I think there’s a lot of wisdom that you shared throughout this episode, so Austin, my question for you here is what advice would you have for, you know, students that are listening to this episode saying, ‘I’m going to put myself on the path that Austin has taken where a couple years out, I can be on solid financial footing and really be looking toward the future to optimize the plan.’ What would you have for students and some actions that they can take in the moment?
Austin Ulrich: Yeah, so I think honestly, one of the biggest things I would recommend is remember to enjoy the journey because it can be easy to think, oh, after I graduate, after my student loans are paid off, after this, after this, once I have enough money, then I’ll be happy, then I’ll enjoy life. And I think that’s a little bit of a trap that people can get into because in some of the way, it’s really about the journey, those nights being up with the kids three or four times and getting up at 5 a.m. to go to school, those are times to look back on and now those are great times and we’ve got a lot of great times ahead of us. So I think that’s probably my No. 1 piece of advice that I would give as far as an overall standpoint is keep that in mind as you’re looking to accomplish your own goals and meet your own financial why. But I think one of the most important things for me was for sure working during pharmacy school. I was a pharmacy student, I personally recommend that to everyone. Just the opportunity to implement the knowledge you’re getting in pharmacy school, it makes you a better student and you get paid for it, so it puts you in a better financial position. So I mean, I don’t think that anyone should overstress themself by getting a job, but it’s certainly something I recommend. That would be one of my biggest other pieces of advice as far as the finances go.
Tim Ulbrich: Great stuff. And we know the YFP community is hungry to learn more in addition to what they’re hearing on the podcast, so do you have a favorite book, podcast or other resource that you have found to be instrumental in your own life as it relates to your finances?
Austin Ulrich: Yeah, so I was thinking about this and, you know, I think a lot of the books that you mention here on the podcast are ones that I’ve read, a lot of them actually at recommendations I’ve heard on YFP. But as far as podcasts go, I think some of the things that I learned as far as my side hustle, which was a very important piece of the financial plan and still is, there are a couple of business podcasts or entrepreneurship podcasts that kind of, they get you motivated really well. And I haven’t listened to those in awhile, but Entrepreneurs on Fire by John Lee Dumas and then School of Greatness as well, Louis Howe is that one. So those are some great kind of — they have some key episodes that are good kind of pop-up entrepreneurship and get you in the mindset to go and take some action, like you said, and just do something to start moving forward and then let that momentum build.
Tim Ulbrich: Great recommendations, Austin. And I appreciate you taking time out of your busy schedule with all that you have been going on with the move and the new job to share your financial journey. It’s been an inspiration to me. I’m confident it will be the same to our community and certainly appreciate your contribution to the show. And to the YFP community, if you liked what you heard on this week’s episode, please do us a favor and leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts or wherever you listen to the show each and every week. And if you haven’t yet done so, I hope you’ll join us in the Your Financial Pharmacist Facebook group, over 6,000 pharmacy professionals all across the country committed to helping one another on their individual path towards achieving financial freedom. Have a great rest of your week.
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