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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YFP 235: One Pharmacist Couple’s Journey to Financial Independence


One Pharmacist Couple’s Journey to Financial Independence

Josh and Shannon Pukl discuss their journey towards achieving financial independence and the strategies they have employed along the way.

About Today’s Guests

Josh and Shannon Pukl began their pharmacist career paths after graduating from Duquesne University in 2012 and ’13 respectively, but their financial journey didn’t evolve until 2015 after Shannon was diagnosed with breast cancer. Suddenly, life “guarantees” seemingly evaporated into questions, confusion, and unplanned expenses. Working through recovery, relocation and job changes a shift in focus began to sharpen their life ambitions – to be financially independent.

From sifting through several blogs and forum threads, listening to countless podcasts, and devouring financial books Josh and Shannon moved towards making money work for them. After creating an intense budget, dollar-cost averaging into index funds, and putting windfalls to work in the market this disciplined and blessed approach loosened the financial restraints allowing Shannon to be the first to set off on her encore career in entrepreneurship.

As a result, the Pukl’s intend to continue their path to 100%, true financial freedom for both husband and wife to pursue their truest callings and be the best stewards of what they’ve been gifted whether monetarily or otherwise.

Episode Summary

This week, your host Tim Ulbrich had the opportunity to sit down with pharmacists and leadership coaches, Shannon and Josh Pukl, to discuss their journey towards achieving financial independence. This episode is jam-packed with valuable insights, not only relating to mindset and vision casting, but also regarding actionable processes and steps you can take to ensure your financial independence and early retirement! Hear from Shannon about how her 2015 diagnosis with breast cancer changed her outlook on life’s guarantees and how she turned this very difficult situation into a source of motivation to become financially independent. We also discuss some of the strategies that Josh and Shannon have employed and found success in on their journey to becoming debt-free and, finally, what Shannon is doing in her encore career since retiring early from pharmacy. The discussion touches on setting up those passive income streams that will make all the difference, how budget and lifestyle changes allow you to enjoy the things that matter, and even how to prepare for the moment the upswings we’ve been enjoying in the current bull market drop. This is one conversation you don’t want to miss, so tune in now to hear it all today!

Key Points From This Episode

  • Shannon and Josh start us off by sharing why each of them got into pharmacy.
  • Shannon runs us through her post-school debt and shares gratitude that it wasn’t higher.
  • Josh expresses relief for the financial support provided by his parent’s foresight. 
  • Where they worked after graduation; and a smart move that worked out well!
  • How Josh found out about financial freedom by accident and how he got to his ‘why’.
  • Shannon shares her history with cancer and the hugely expensive treatment costs. 
  • How the financial strain created a motivation towards achieving financial independence.
  • Josh explains how his faith played a big part in keeping a positive mindset. 
  • Learning the valuable lesson that money isn’t the most important thing; time and joy are. 
  • Paying off her student loans as quickly as possible from the moment they came due. 
  • Top tips and lifestyle changes that the Pukl’s advise for financial independence!
  • Setting up their passive income and the importance of having different income streams.
  • Shannon talks us through their work with universities around healthcare leadership.
  • Your Breast Life; Shannon’s blog to help and support women going through a similar journey.
  • Getting her real estate license and considering potential investment opportunities. 
  • Hear about the ways that Shannon and Josh balance each other out in everyday life. 
  • Living in a bull market and evaluating where you want to be when the downturn hits.
  • Josh casts a vision for their future in growing leadership in pharmacy.
  • The Pukl’s each share some parting advice you definitely want to hear!

Highlights

“Something I would encourage all pharmacists to consider is long-term disability insurance.” — Shannon Pukl [0:08:10]

“How do we live a life that we truly enjoy, day in and day out, and that we’re giving back every talent and every gift and every ability that we can to further whatever passion that we may have?” — Josh Pukl [0:12:04]

“We had to switch our mindset away from a scarcity mindset to a mindset of plenty.” — Josh Pukl [0:13:44]

“There is more to life than just your diagnosis. Diagnosis doesn’t define [you].” — Shannon Pukl [0:18:27]

“I think it’s really important to use whatever vehicles are available to you. One of my favorite quotes is kind of simple and it’s kind of silly. It is: ‘When is the best time to plant a tree? It was 20 years ago, but the second best time is today.’” — Josh Pukl [0:26:43]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode

Episode Transcript

[INTRODUCTION]

[0:00:00.4] 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 to sit down with pharmacists, Shannon and Josh, to discuss their journey towards achieving financial independence. A few of my favorite moments from this episode are hearing from Shannon about how her 2015 diagnosis with breast cancer changed her outlook on life’s guarantees and how she turned this very difficult situation into a source of motivation to become financially independent.

We also discuss some of the strategies that Josh and Shannon have employed and found success on their journey to becoming debt-free and finally, what Shannon is doing in her encore career since retiring early from pharmacy.

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 240 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 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. Okay, let’s jump into my interview with Shannon and Josh.

[INTERVIEW]

[0:01:22.6] TU: Shannon and Josh, thank you so much for coming on the podcast.

[0:01:24.9] JP: Awesome, thanks so much for having us, Tim.

[0:01:26.9] SP: Excited to be here.

[0:01:28.3] TU: Shannon, you emailed us back at the end of October about finding YFP in your journey to financial freedom and early retirement, which allowed you to move into an encore career and give in to exactly what you’re doing there.

We knew we had to bring you on to the show and I’m excited to have the opportunity to share your journey with the YFP community. Before we dig in to the financial journey, let’s back up to what drew you both to pharmacy school, where you went to school, and when you graduated? Shannon, why don’t you just start us off?

[0:01:57.3] SP: Yeah, absolutely. For me, pharmacy school was really about helping people up until I was a senior in high school. I wanted to be a teacher, I had a great family friend talk me out of that. I stumbled upon pharmacy school with my family, kind of history of cancer. It just really pulled at my heartstrings and so I ended up going to Duquesne University in Pittsburgh.

[0:02:16.6] TU: Awesome, Josh, how about you?

[0:02:19.0] JP: My story is a little bit different. I guess I was kind of late to the game, I was a senior in high school, not quite sure what I wanted to do. I was a late admittance to Duquesne University. My parents actually brought it to my attention that pharmacy school seemed like a pretty good career, they have this good finances to it as well, sign-on bonuses at that time, and that was in 2006, whenever I was graduating from high school.

That’s kind of my story with it. It was more somewhat of an interest in that science type of field but then it also had a pretty good return on investment.

[0:02:48.7] TU: I share that with you, Josh, I went to a 06 direct entry program in Ohio Northern University. Actually, I was down between Ohio Northern and Duquesne. Great school, Duquesne. Came down to really just scholarships to be frank. And similar path, I was like, “Hey, this sounds interesting.” I was 18 years old, six years to be a doctor, good return on investment. Certainly glad it worked out but big decision to make at a young age for sure.

[0:03:09.5] JP: 100 percent. Now I’m with you exactly the same way. I was like, “Six years, six figures and a doctor, I’ll do it.”

[0:03:15.5] TU: Shannon, tell us more about your financial position after graduation in terms of student loan debt that had been accrued and how you felt about the debt at the time.

[0:03:25.1] SP: Yeah, I was blessed in that my parents had helped me some. They had saved for my college. When I came out of school, I had about $50,000 in debt, which compared to others, that’s not a substantial amount in that regard. But still, it’s quite a bit when you’re getting out and starting to make those payments.

[0:03:42.5] TU: Yeah, I think and Shannon, we’ve become somewhat numbed to these numbers, right? Because I think anyone if you look at the national average of indebtedness of a college student, I think it’s in the high 30s but in pharmacy where we’re used to $150,000 or $200,000. When we hear numbers below a hundred, I think our reactions sometimes is like, it’s not very big but it’s still a big number that we have to work with. Definitely noteworthy.

Josh, what about on your end, with any debt?

[0:04:04.5] JP: Actually not. I’m very blessed in the sense that my parents had funded a 429 all through my childhood, all the way up until graduation, and then my sister actually didn’t partake in that. I had pretty much a 429 fund that was set for two different individuals but my sister actually didn’t use it. That kind of rolled into my college education. Very blessed there.

[0:04:29.1] TU: It’s funny you say that, Josh. My wife and I have talked about, with our four boys as we’re saving for their college. What if one of them decides not to go to college or two of them and the other uses more. Is that something they’re going to say, “Hey, what about my money, right? Where is that going?”

[0:04:41.2] JP: Yeah, it’s definitely something that you have to think of as well, right? It reminds me of a biblical passage too as well, where one son goes and kind of does whatever they want with their wealth and the other one says at home, right? It’s the prodigal son type of story.

[0:04:54.6] TU: Absolutely. Tell us more about the career journey post-graduation. Shannon, what happened next after graduation, where did you work and what did that look like?

[0:05:03.0] SP: Yeah, Josh and I both went to school in Pittsburgh, there’s a few pharmacy schools there so not as many opportunities so we were open to relocating for our positions initially. We moved to Buckhannon West Virginia. I started first at CVS as a staff pharmacist and then about eight months in, I became a pharmacy manager at Walmart when really kind of launch my career from there.

[0:05:25.7] TU: CVS as a staff pharmacist, Walmart pharmacy manager, pretty early in your career, and Josh, what about you?

[0:05:30.8] JP: I actually had my whole pharmacy career with Walmart and that’s where I am currently. And I find it to be a really awesome firm and place to work. I love the environment and then the opportunities that they provide me as well. I started as an intern, then grad intern, staff pharmacist as a part-time hourly floater. Then again, when we graduated in 2012, people were still recovering from the recession, and so that’s where we decide to get licensed in West Virginia.

Kind of goes at some of those places that, people really didn’t want to be and lean into those opportunities and then that’s when we moved to Buckhannon, and then our careers really started to flourish at that point. 

[0:06:04.8] TU: Both pharmacy managers early in your career and Josh, you shared with us before hitting record that you found out about financial freedom on accident. Talk to us about how that happened and what life events solidified your why behind wanting to work towards achieving financial freedom?

[0:06:21.4] JP: Tim, I’m so happy that you asked this question to be honest. Because, I don’t think I give enough credit to Mr. Money Mustache and Pete in his site that he created, it has all this great information about the shockingly simple math to financial freedom.

That’s kind of where I started with it. Realistically, it was in one of our moves that, we were going to relocate for work and I was trying to figure out how much of an expense should a mortgage payment be on your net or your gross income in your family?

I couldn’t quite figure out or find out how much is the right amount to spend, it was one Google search led to another until I found this guy’s site. Started reading through it and then I was like, this all makes really good sense, this math is pretty simple. My goodness, as a pharmacist and she’s a pharmacist too, as well, we really have a blessed opportunity here to potentially retire early.

[0:07:12.8] TU: Absolutely. We’re going to link to that article and Mr. Money Mustache in the show notes. Great stuff, great content that he has and obviously, it sounds like that might have inspired your initial learning and journey in the financial independence, retire early, the fire movement. And so great resources to share.

Shannon, tell us about, in your story you mentioned before, a family history of cancer. Tell us more about your experience, obviously a very difficult situation in terms of being diagnosed with cancer, and how you were able to process that and ultimately turn that into a motivation towards achieving financial independence.

[0:07:48.8] SP: Yeah, I was a year out from pharmacy school and I had just started at my new employer. This was about six months into that role when I was diagnosed with breast cancer. It was just before my 25th birthday. Certainly unexpected news and that really kind of put our financial position in perspective for Josh and I, because your income’s not guaranteed, right? 

With that too, something I would encourage all pharmacists to consider is long-term disability insurance, so that wasn’t something that we did and thankfully I didn’t need to use it. But there’s often a waiting period and so it’s pretty inexpensive, it can be a huge benefit because a lot of times, we don’t think the worst is going to happen to us, right?

That’s where there’s the security blanket. With my cancer diagnosis, I had a lot of additional expenses that ended up coming into play, so we had a high deductible insurance plan. So you’re going to hit that deductible every year.

That’s pretty much guaranteed as you’re getting some of those expensive treatments. Then we had to consider fertility preservation, we hadn’t had kids and weren’t sure if we wanted to have kids but to even have that opportunity, we needed to look at that and that’s not something that’s covered by insurances.

Thankfully, we’re blessed and got some support from the Live Strong Fertility Foundation but there were other expenses that we still had to pay as part of that. I had a great oncologist and she’s really passionate about giving me my best chance of disease-free survival being so young at diagnosis. She wanted me to take PERJETA but I didn’t fit the indications a hundred percent at that time and so we really weren’t sure if that was going to be covered and so that would have been $36,000 for those six treatments.

Just a lot of additional expenses that started to come into play, and so that’s where we kind of took a step back and really reassessed where we were financially, and how we could work towards that financial independence.

[0:09:34.7] TU: Shannon, as you’re talking, I would say, based on many people we’ve interviewed on this show, that the financial situation for any pharmacist can be stressful as a new practitioner. We look at the debt loads, competing expenses. They are out there, the pressures to save for retirement. Perhaps young family expenses, lots of other things as well.

Even with a good six-figure income, I feel like there can be a lot of financial stressors there in a normal day, in a normal week, normal month, normal year. As you’re talking about some of these things with high deductible health plans, obviously the cancer diagnosis needs to have money saved for hospital bills, the instability, and questions around the income.

I hear through that, a very powerful mindset that says “Hey, we’re going to choose to look at this as an opportunity to really be in the driver’s seat, in terms of taking this difficult situation and ultimately making the most that we can out of it.” But I think it also would have been certainly – not necessarily accepted but it would have been okay, and folks would have maybe looked at it and said “Yeah, that’s a really difficult situation, we understand that you’re kind of frustrated through that and may not be able to achieve these goals and do those things.”

I’m curious to hear from you and Josh, what led to that mindset to say, “Hey, we have got this difficult situation in front of us but we’re going to do everything that we can to make the most of it.”

[0:10:52.1] SP: I think a big thing for me, once you get out of school and you’re a pharmacist, you’re making a pretty significant income for the first time after you’ve just been accruing debt, right? It’s easy to kind of have that lifestyle creep. Thankfully, early on, we had that realization that money and things aren’t necessarily what makes us happy, right? Still living at a comfortable level but not necessarily just seeking to spend all of our money.

[0:11:17.6] TU: Josh, anything else to add there in terms of just the mindset and the approach that you guys took through that difficult situation?

[0:11:23.7] JP: I think that’s a hundred percent accurate. I also think too, just being a Christian too as well and having a different frame of mind and understanding that a lot of this is temporal and then you can choose to be bitter or better out of a situation too as well. I think a lot of times, we look at money as being the answer to everything, even security. But you don’t have the security sometimes that you think from finding it, and things like that. 

It really helped to put us back into perspective and understand what is most important. And a lot of times, that can be time, right? We’re all given 24 hours within a day and so how can we set ourselves up to a point that we can be where we only want to be at those times. 

That’s the kind of the financial freedom journey too, as well as how do we live a life that we truly enjoy day in and day out, and that we’re giving back every talent and every gift and every ability that we can to further whatever it is and whatever passion that we may have.

[0:12:17.0] TU: Tell me more, Shannon, in terms of the student loans that we discussed earlier, tell us more about that journey of getting them paid off and when ultimately those came to an end?

[0:12:24.6] SP: Yeah. Thankfully, for whatever reason, I don’t really know where this came from but it was just very minded to start paying those debts down originally, as soon as they started coming due. Before we really got a new car, do it anything else, we just focused on the debt and it took us about a year or so to completely pay those off.

[0:12:43.5] TU: Okay, 2014, we’re debt-free from the student loans, 2015, we obviously have the difficult situation, the diagnosis with cancer. Josh, tell us more about the financial freedom journey since 2015. Have you guys achieved FI status, financial independence, are you still on the journey there? What changes have you guys made to your lifestyle on this journey and any tips that you would share with other pharmacists looking to embark on this journey?

[0:13:07.4] JP: Awesome. One tip is obviously using resources, especially like-minded people, like the YFP Podcast. I think that that’s a wonderful place for people to start and get that content too as well. Then, just finding it, that someone that resonates with you and their journey and just kind of devouring as much so you can. Our journey has changed a little bit based off of what it had been years previously.

Years previously, we had a very tight budget, expenses were very limited, very much like Mr. Money Mustache and some of those, different characters that are out there. And then we realized, “Well, we still want to live life, we still want to enjoy life, we still want to give too as well and do a lot of these things.” And so we had to switch our mindset away from a scarcity mindset to a mindset of plenty and plentiful and of bounty.

How do we build ourselves a way that we can get more passive income and not just save and then live off of savings, or live off of the returns from our savings, but start to build passive income so that that can be our way to have financial freedom?

[0:14:07.7] TU: Tell us more there Josh, passive income, it’s something I hear often from folks of “Hey, I want my money working for me.” I’d love to have some passive income, what does that look like for you guys specifically?

[0:14:16.5] JP: Yeah, I think that’s a great callout. One of the ways that we’re set up right now – I have to joke about it. I feel like I’m asset-rich and cash flow poor. What I mean by that is, I’ve used a lot of those index fund vehicles that are available, to be able to build up equity and then be able to live off of just dividend investments or off of its return, something like that. Very, very much like the financial independent retire-early community. 

You’ll find that information ubiquitously. That’s nothing that’s really new. The problem then becomes is, of course, you have downturns in the market, you have long bull markets that we’re in and we’re blessed to have right now, but there is not a lot of consistency out of that, right? I wanted to be outside of a place where my money and my income is going to be based off of what can I withdraw out of the account, regardless of what the market is doing, without having that psychological feeling of, “Is this a good time to pull money or should I allow those dividends to reinvest?” 

Passive income has switched away from allowing that to come from equity and index fund returns and start to look at building businesses and building side hustles, I guess is more appropriate for what our terminology is today. And building those types of different income streams and not just focusing on one income stream. 

[0:15:31.3] TU: Yeah, I think that’s really interesting, you mentioned it, Josh – it’s something my wife and I have felt. I suspect many pharmacists especially that have been saving consistently for a period of time, eventually, that money is going to compound. It is going to grow, compound interest will do its thing but folks may find themselves in a situation where they’re working towards or are asset rich but they may feel like they are cash-flow challenged. 

What are some alternative ways to diversify the income streams perhaps in addition to outside of traditional retirement accounts, which of course becomes very important for folks that might be pursuing early retirement? Shannon, I want to shift gears for a moment and talk about your encore career and I love this phrase that you started at the age of 32 from your early retirement from pharmacy and when we talk before, you mentioned that choice was a big ‘why’ behind pursuing financial freedom for you. 

Talk to us about what you mean by choice, and then walk us through your journey to early retirement and what you’ve been working on in your encore career? 

[0:16:25.9] SP: Yeah, absolutely and so one big thing with work is that we wanted it more to be a nice-to-do rather than a need-to-do, right? It’s not necessarily just to be financial independent and say, “Hey, that’s it” but we still wanted to bring value. And so, once we hit that goal number that we had in mind earlier this year, it gave me the opportunity to step back and work on some things that I’m still super passionate about. 

Just like the YFP community and we have that realization that pharmacists aren’t taught finance or some basic accounting skills in pharmacy school curriculums, there is a huge gap there for them. It’s very similar with leadership, right? Josh and I, after we were pharmacy managers, we had the opportunity to be promoted to district managers and so between the two of us, we’ve had over 80 different facilities. 

We’ve noticed that there is a gap, and, in some instances, the curriculum gets glossed over from people management and leadership skills. And so, we really want to take what we’ve learned and help pharmacists apply that in their practices to make their days better. 

[0:17:24.3] TU: That is some of the work if I am following correctly, that you’re doing with universities around healthcare leadership. Is that correct? 

[0:17:30.0] SP: Yes. So we actually developed a continuing education program with our alma mater, Duquesne University, so it’s the Healthcare Leadership Course. It’s 17 hours of continuing education and it’s really taking some of those experiences that we’ve had in our working environments, and then also taking some of the theories behind why motivation works and helping pharmacists apply it directly to pharmacy. 

[0:17:52.0] TU: Very cool. So I know that since retiring from pharmacy, I guess retirement – you’re doing lots of work so “retirement” – in August 2021, one of the pieces you’re doing is that continuing education around health care leadership. What are some of the other things that you guys are working on? 

[0:18:05.3] SP: Yeah, another big one is Your Breast Life. It’s a blog all around my cancer journey. And going through that at a young age, I didn’t necessarily have hope beyond what was right in front of me, and so I had to make some really tough choices. And some of them were more radical, as I wanted to just have my best opportunity to continue on. So helping women understand that there is more to life than just your diagnosis. Diagnosis doesn’t define.

[0:18:32.1] TU: Okay, so we’re going to link to that in the show notes as well, so folks can check out that blog and I think there’s another piece here around real estate, is that correct? 

[0:18:39.3] SP: I got my real estate license as well, yeah. That was a fairly recent – once I stepped out of my corporate role, I ended up getting my real estate license and so that’s something that Josh and I have been talking about doing, is potential investment opportunities as he mentioned with the passive income. Looking at some syndications and various things. 

[0:18:56.5] TU: It sounds like you went from a busy career to maybe a busier retirement, right? You’re doing a lot, so that’s exciting. 

[0:19:02.7] SP: Yeah, so I mean the transition – I wasn’t expecting to have less time. But it’s all been things that I want to do and that’s something that’s just so enjoyable, to have those opportunities. 

[0:19:12.3] TU: Shannon, was there an “aha moment” when you knew that you were at a position that you could leave your traditional job? 

[0:19:18.0] SP: Josh and I definitely balance each other in this. I do a lot of the day-to-day budgeting and accounting in that and then Josh does a lot of the future planning and long-term investments. 

[0:19:28.3] JP: I guess I was more of the one that said, “Okay, now we’re okay that we can do this” right? Shannon is very good as far as the accounting side of it and I handle I guess more of the finance and the planning portion of it. But again, we’ve had such a long bull pull in market and been super fortunate and blessed with our income and just the ways that we’ve been able to use that income, and then put it back into the market and see those returns. 

Then understanding too that, “Hey, I still like what I’m doing.” I’m still enjoying leading people at different levels and different degrees. I’m going to keep doing this but yet, let’s also build a future too for ourselves and something that’s going to add value at a greater level than where we’re at now. 

[0:20:05.5] TU: Yeah and I think Josh as you’re talking, I graduated in 2008 and so, outside of the dip of course, that significant dip that happened in the recession in 2008, I’ve only lived through a bull market, right? Here we are on kind of that 13 year-ish run and so I suspect many folks might be hearing this thinking, how are you looking at that in terms of the investments that you’ve built and perhaps some volatility that may or may not be ahead. 

Obviously, we’ve been on kind of this upswing period that inevitably, we might have that downturn at some point. How are you looking at that? 

[0:20:38.5] JP: Yeah, 100 percent. I’m glad you actually asked the question because it comes back to looking at different income streams and different ways that you can actually isolate yourself away from those market downturns. I don’t want to necessarily be built upon a pedestal that’s only on one foundation, right? I want to look at different ways that I can have income coming from different directions so that I could be safe and secure. 

It is basically planning out different contingency plans to ensure that no matter what cycle and no matter what market, no matter what is going on within the world that there is still going to be some type of revenue. And it is kind of interesting too because we even think back to real estate and how stable it is a lot of times for income, right? “People always need a place to live” we always hear but then when we had the eviction moratorium that came up and that extended for a very long time, we had small-time landlords that were not getting any income. 

But yet, they were still on the hook for the mortgages too as well. So you have to really diversify your mindset and then understand, “Well, where else can I be able to generate enough revenue to be able to be safe in any circumstance in any situation?” That’s probably been another major mindset for us too as well is that you’re probably not as much as I want to stay as efficient as possible, you are probably not going to get your entire passive income from one revenue stream. It is just not as likely and not as common as what you think. 

[0:21:57.5] TU: Yeah and I think the FIRE community does a great job of talking about that examples that are out there. We’ve had a couple podcast episodes we’ve talked about on financial independence, retire early. FIRE for folks that are hearing that. For the first time, we’ve got a couple of blogs on that topic as well, we’ll link to in the show notes. And then the most recent book that we published by Jeff Climber is focused on Fire RX and that pathway towards achieving financial independence as a pharmacist. 

Josh, cast a vision for us for Josh and Shannon over the next 10, 15, 20 years. What’s really ahead for you guys in terms of big ideas? Obviously, you’re still very, very early age-wise in terms of career and opportunities that are ahead, so what are some of the plans that you guys are looking forward to? 

[0:22:38.2] JP: Awesome. I think for myself, I still enjoy the corporate life and I still enjoy the W2 position, so I want to continue to grow. I think that I can still lead at different various levels too as well, so I want to keep propelling along that path, learning, and growing, and then being able to motivate, inspire and lead at higher levels throughout organizations in my career. 

I think about Shannon and myself together – I’d like to see the healthcare leadership certificate begin to impact a lot more pharmacists and also across different medical disciplines too as well, get that in front of people so that they can have better days because we know that a lot of times, people leave managers and bosses. They don’t leave jobs, right? How do we get that into the hands of pharmacists that are brilliant people that just need a little bit more guidance in helping them? 

Then I think about YBL, that Your Breast Life and just expanding that out to have a broader sense of community across young cancer survivors in that breast cancer community. So I want to get to a point soon that where all of these different projects are completely just extra, right? That passive income that’s coming into us and then be able to give a lot more generously, I feel like the Lord has blessed us immensely with a lot of gifted abilities. 

Just like in the Biblical sense that they were given ten talents, they went and made more, I would really be able to go and just give more, so that’s our big vision is, how can we continue to draw in to be able to make a bigger impact to others that we encounter and add value back to others.

[0:24:06.2] TU: Josh, as you’re talking what really resonates with me for you and Shannon, is one of the things I say is when people feel like they might be stuck, right? That could be financially, that could be in their career, I know for me individually when I get to that point where I feel like I’m stuck, I often have to go back and say, “Is the vision, is the Why clear enough? Is it strong enough?” 

I think what you just shared there really highlights to me that the motivation, the why, the vision, the plan that you guys have, you spent time thinking, dreaming about that vision, and obviously that has a significant impact I suspect in terms of what you guys are doing to execute each day, each week, each month. Great stuff on the vision casting, something that we believe firmly in here at YFP of spending time to really articulate the vision and begin to believe in that vision for what can be possible going forward. 

I am curious to hear from you guys and Shannon, I want to start with you and then Josh, I’ll ask you the same question. You know, we’ve got many people I suspect that are listening at different points in their career, perhaps some students or residents that are at the very beginning of their journey, maybe folks that are out seven or 10 years who are kind of coming at the end of that new practitioner phase and then more seasoned pharmacists that have been at it for 15, 20, 25 or more years. 

I think this concept of financial independence regardless of stage of career is going to get a lot of people excited and thinking and perhaps that they have some goals around achieving financial independence and perhaps give or take, the retirement early piece. What advice would you have for those listening that are thinking that they would like to strive towards achieving financial independence? What would be a piece of advice that you would share with them, Shannon?

[0:25:39.0] SP: For me, I think the biggest thing would be a budget. If you are not already doing a budget, I 100 percent recommend you doing it. That was something that Josh and I did very early on in this kind of progression for us, and as he mentioned earlier, initially it was very kind of strapped and it almost became a game for us. When we both got promoted to district managers, we were making the most that we ever had, but it was how little can we live on, right? 

It was kind of fun in that sense. Then like he mentioned, as we got further along, we really wanted to be more sustainable so that we could do additional things that we enjoyed. I like traveling, he likes cars, giving is important to us. So we wanted to make sure we were incorporating that into the budget. Kind of like the Tim Baker episode that you guys did with the RV and the depreciating asset, we love that, right? 

You’ve still got to have some fun in there and so that was huge but just having a budget and being able to see where every dollar goes is so valuable, you know? I was overspending quite a bit on groceries because we could make the argument you need to eat, right? But had a lot of waste there and so it just gives you visibility into how you’re spending your money, which is so important. 

[0:26:41.8] TU: Great stuff. Josh, how about for you? 

[0:26:43.4] JP: I think it’s really important to just use whatever vehicles are available to you. One of my favorite quotes is kind of simple and it’s kind of silly, it’s “When is the best time to plant a tree?” And it was 20 years ago but the second-best time is today, right? If you’re listening to this at any stage of your career and you’re not contributing to a 401(k) company match plan, you need to do it. It’s tax-deferred and so you’re not going to pay taxes on it. 

It is going to be your full income of gross coming into it and then your company is going to give you some income as well with it. Using company matches that you have too, whether it’s for stock and equity options that they have. If you have children, using 429 plans. There’s tons of different options and things out there that I really want to encourage people to just read, and just to do a moniker of research on their own to be able to find that there are different vehicles out there. 

People are scared of the market. “I don’t know what to invest, stocks go up and down.” Buy the whole market. Buy VTSAX, Fidelity has a zero expense ratio plan that’s out there now, index fund that is available for people that would just be coming into it now. Look at those different things so invest as much as you can, live on as little as you can, and be as grateful and gracious as you can. 

[0:27:52.7] TU: Great stuff Josh and I really appreciate you taking the time to come on the show, to share your story, to be an inspiration to those that are listening. Really excited to see where your journey goes ahead. As I mention, you’re just on the starting point of, I think, a really exciting time in many, many years ahead, so looking forward to following your journey as well as the work that you’re doing with the various side hustles, business and some of the real estate endeavors as well. 

Congratulations on the success you guys have, looking forward to following you in the future, and thanks again for coming on the show. 

[0:28:20.9] SP: Thank you so much for having us. 

[0:28:22.2] TU: Thank you, too. 

[0:28:22.9] SP: We love the YFP community, so thank you. 

[0:28:24.8] JP: Thank you. 

[END OF INTERVIEW]

[0:28:25.8] 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 of 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 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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