How One Pharmacist is Turning Tragedy Into Triumph
Phillip Beach, Director of Pharmacy at Arkansas Continued Care, talks about his career journey, his path toward financial independence, and the start of the Harper Faith Foundation, a 501(c)3 non-profit that was founded in memory of his daughter Harper Faith Beach who was born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS).
Summary
In this episode, Phillip shares about his career path, the why behind his and his wife’s FIRE journey, and the start of the Harper Faith Foundation in memory of his daughter.
Phillip graduated in 2017 from Harding University College of Pharmacy and began working at NEA Baptist the following week with a 7 on/7 off night shift for about two years. Through networking on LinkedIn, Phillip was able to take a PRN position which led to his current full-time Director of Pharmacy position at Arkansas Continued Care.
Unfortunately, on September 11, 2018, his life forever changed. His daughter, Harper Faith, passed away due to hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS), a congenital heart disease she had been battling with for four months. Phillip shares how he and his wife grieved, how his outlook on life has altered and what their focus is on financially because of their tragic loss.
Philip and his wife wanted to help other heart families and formed the Harper Faith Foundation. The foundation supports others by promoting research, giving inpatient gift bags full of toiletries and other necessities to make long-term hospital stays a bit easier, and offers a yearly college scholarship to a high school senior with a congenital heart defect.
Phillip shares that he and his wife are moving to a FIRE approach with their finances and life because they want to have more time and freedom to do what they want.
More About Harper Faith Foundation
About Harper Faith Foundation: In January of 2019, Phillip and his wife, Tori, founded the 501c3 nonprofit organization “Harper Faith Foundation” in memory of their daughter, Harper Faith Beach, who was born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS). Their mission is to spread awareness for congenital heart defects and to help out families who are battling HLHS. They are dedicated to turning tragedy into triumph.
HFF helps heart families by doing the following:
1) Yearly college scholarship to a congenital heart disease survivor
2) Donating funds (Ronald Mcdonald house, CVICU @Arkansas Childrens Hospital, directly to those in need)
3) Giving gift bags to those currently staying in the CVICU (gift bags include the following: children’s books, newborn socks, newborn side snap onesies, pacifier, newborn stuffed animal, toiletries for both mom and dad – shampoo, conditioner, bodywash, face wipes, toothbrush and toothpaste, lotion. The bags also contain a water bottle, kleenex, individual Tide laundry packs, notebook, pen, and a binder to help organize medical documents and information.
4) Supporting research at Mayo Clinic – participation in 2 clinical studies (studying DNA, cord blood stem cell injection into the heart during surgery).
Mentioned on the Show
- YFP Planning
- Phillip Beach on LinkedIn
- Seven Figure Pharmacist by Tim Church and Tim Ulbrich
- Harper Faith Foundation
- Dr. Adam Martin, The Fit Pharmacist
- Harper Faith Foundation – Amazon Wishlist
- YFP Facebook Group
- Legal Zoom
- YFP 134: One Couple’s Coast FI Journey
- YFP 111: One New Practitioner is on FIRE
- YFP 104: Jason Long’s FIRE Journey
- YFP 083: You Know Where the Weight Room Is?: TJ’s Rise to Becoming an Entrepreneur
Episode Transcript
Tim Ulbrich: Hey, what’s up, everybody? Welcome to this week’s episode of the Your Financial Pharmacist podcast. It’s an honor to have joining me Phillip Beach, a recent graduate of Harding University College of Pharmacy and Director of Pharmacy at Arkansas Continued Care. On today’s episode, we’re going to talk about really an unimaginable journey that Phillip and his wife had had over the past couple years with the loss of their daughter Harper Faith at a very, very young age to a congenital heart condition. And we’re going to talk, yeah, we’ll talk a little bit about Phillip’s career journey, a little bit about their financial journey, but we’re going to talk most about that journey of loss, that journey of grief. What were the strategies that allowed them to come together to get through that difficult time? And we’re also going to talk about what they are doing going forward with the starting of the Harper Faith Foundation, a 501(c) not-for-profit organization that’s designed to help families and research that is related to the condition that took their daughter at such a young age. So Phillip, thank you so much for taking time to join me on this week’s episode. And welcome to the show.
Phillip Beach: Thanks, Tim. I’m very excited to be here and share our story. So thank you for having me on.
Tim Ulbrich: So let’s start our conversation with your journey into pharmacy school and the current work that you’re doing.
Phillip Beach: So I got started in pharmacy 2017. I graduated and I took a 7-on, 7-off night shift position at NEA Baptist in northeast Arkansas. And so I did night shift for a little under two years, and that was a great time. Got to work with a good friend of mine and it was a huge learning experience. So I learned a ton, got my feet wet in that role and really learned what hospital setting was all about as a pharmacist straight out of school. Currently, I am Director of Pharmacy at Arkansas Continued Care Hospital. We’re considered a long-term acute care. We’re a 44-bed facility, and I am the full-time pharmacist. We have one full-time technician with me as well. Census is typically 20-25, somewhere in that area. So we stay busy. We just implemented Omnicells about a year ago, so we’ve been getting that process down and really enjoying that over doing cart fill, which is a nice change. And as you can imagine, it is a smaller place, so I get to wear a bunch of different hats and it keeps me constantly learning. And there’s just so much to do and so much to learn. It’s been great. And the community is small, so I’m getting to know the nurses and the leadership and the physicians, everyone, way more than I did at a larger hospital.
Tim Ulbrich: So as we’re recording, we’re in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, so thank you to you and your team that are on the frontlines of this and going to work each and every day. And it sounds like as we talked about before we hit record, you all haven’t been as impacted yet, at least, right, by the pandemic?
Phillip Beach: Yes, sir. So we’re — the models currently look like around towards the end of this month, around the 26 is what we’re expecting. So we’re preparing for that, doing a lot of education on PPE donning and doffing, obviously trying to get any supplies we can get and also doing emergency preparedness with the other hospitals in this region, kind of combined forces and see how many ventilators we have and what we can do when it does come.
Tim Ulbrich: So Phillip, when I think about a leadership role at a smaller institution like you’re at — and as you mentioned, you wear lots of different hats — I think about, you know, when you’re in that size of an organization, obviously a time like this, you’re thinking about emergency preparedness types of things. But even just in not a time like this, normal operations, you’re probably wearing a financial hat, a human resource hat, operations hat. And how does one prepare themself for that? Or maybe a better question is how do you get an opportunity like that, you know, right out of school, graduating in 2017, without advanced residency training or additional academic degrees?
Phillip Beach: Well, I’ve had a lot of great mentors. So his name was Byron at my previous job, he was a really good boss. So I got to learn and watch him while I was on night shift for almost two years. And then my current boss, Charlie, has been fantastic in helping mentor me into this role and leading me on the path as a director. And then like I said, the leadership team at our hospital as well, getting to be involved and watching them and learning from people that have been here longer than me and know what they’re doing and really learning leadership styles. It’s been very helpful to watch them. But the amount of hats that you wear, really, it just comes with time doing it. So the longer that you’re in it, the more you learn. And you know, literally I am learning stuff every day and there’s just so much to improve upon constantly so that I feel like my work will never end, which is a good thing. It keeps me having new goals constantly. There’s always something I can work on, antibiotic stewardship or policies and procedures or nailing down our therapeutic interchanges, there’s just so much I can do on a daily basis that I enjoy.
Tim Ulbrich: Yeah, and as you know, once you land a position like that, as time goes on in your career, the lack of having a residency training or additional degree is going to matter less and less. And I want our students listening to hear, you know, what I heard is really two years of a willingness to learn, night shift, I’m not sure many people are willing to do night shift for two years. I definitely hear a willingness and a desire to learn, hard work, seeking mentorship, so I think all of those things are incredibly important. So thank you for sharing.
Phillip Beach: Yeah, I’d also want to — I forgot to mention networking was huge. I actually found this position by networking on LinkedIn. And I reached out to the current Director of Pharmacy who had posted like a PRN shift work, and I was just looking for additional income. So at the time when I was 7-on, 7-off, you know, I had those seven days free. I was like, hey, I want a couple days extra work. So I reached out to her on LinkedIn, and that’s how the whole ball got rolling. And so I worked PRN filling in for her for a little over a year, about 14 months, and you know, when she left the job, it opened up to me and she recommended me for the position. So it’s crazy that networking and LinkedIn, how far that can go in today’s age. So I can’t emphasize that enough too for new grads.
Tim Ulbrich: Yeah, absolutely. And ironically, it’s a reminder to me that this interview came to be because of LinkedIn. So we had connected a while back when you were in pharmacy school, you helped us do some editing for the book “Seven Figure Pharmacist.” I think you might have been a P2, P3. And then I had seen you post a few months ago on LinkedIn some updates and work that you’re doing with the Harper Faith Foundation, and I was like, “Ah, that’s right! Phillip helped us with the book.” I think I had heard from you a couple other times via email and other things. So I think it’s just a good reminder of the power of networking and staying in touch with folks over a period of time. So Phillip, you graduate from pharmacy school in 2017, obviously your career is taking off at a very young age. And on September 11, 2018, life changes really forever. Tell us more.
Phillip Beach: So Harper was born May 21, 2018. She was born with half a heart, Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome. It’s just a big word for missing half your heart, basically. So the ventral valve, the left ventricle and the left atria did not form in the womb. So that whole left side of her heart was just not functioning, basically. So for these HLHS babies, they have a three-stage palliative surgery option that hopefully can basically extend the life and give you a quality of life and hopefully, it gets you to where you’re older and more stable to do a transplant is ultimately the goal. So there is not a cure. So that’s the path that we went down. So Harper was born the 21. She had open heart surgery on Day 4, 4 days old. She did really well. She conquered that surgery and stayed on intubated and on the vent for about a month. So we couldn’t hold her for that whole first month. And it was extremely just difficult, as anyone could imagine. And we stayed in the hospital altogether about two months straight. And here I am, working 7-on, 7-off night shifts. So I did use my PTO and a week here, week there. And my wife is staying there 24/7. She was the one there all the time while I was here at work. So it was very difficult, and during those two months, she got better, you know. Everything was going good. We were able to be discharged. So we got to bring her home for a month. And everything was great. Daily weights, there was a very close monitoring program that we actually had on the iPad from Arkansas Children’s Hospital. We’d take videos daily, monitor their weight. We’re literally writing down how many mils that she’s drinking every two or three hours throughout the day. So tracking it down to the milliliter, literally, and journaling that. So while the experience to monitor to make sure that they’re being fed right and that their fluid electrolyte balance in perfect, and it’s such a critical thing in these heart babies where something as small as that fluid and electrolyte difference can make a huge impact. So that month goes on while we have her home and it’s time for heart cath, just to check her heart function. So we go to the hospital and do this heart cath, and after that procedure, her heart developed a tricuspid regurgitation, so some blood flow was leaking out of that valve. And it never recovered. And it got to be severe tricuspid regurg. So she was basically in heart failure at that point and we had to start her on continuous IV drips for her heart function. And so this was about three months of age, and we were basically stuck inpatient there at that point thinking about the transplant list. So we’re meeting with the transplant team and organizing, getting all that set up, getting blood types, getting her registered. And Harper coded multiple times. And come to find, she had undiagnosed sepsis as well as heart failure. And she passed away on 9/11/2018. So at this point, it’s really just devastating for my wife and I. It totally just changes your life. And everything that you know as a parent, your routine, your role, everything just changes instantly. So as long as — as well as your identity. So everything as a parent, you know, is gone instantly. And it’s just major shock. So going through that grief and that entire process, working 7-on, 7-off, that was very difficult spending those seven nights away from my wife ultimately. So that’s what led me to this daytime Director of Pharmacy position was to be able to spend more time with my family and with my wife. So during that grieving process, that was a key, getting to spend more time together as both of us were going through that process.
Tim Ulbrich: Yeah, and Phillip, I’m sure our listeners are thinking the same. My heart breaks for you and your wife. And just the situation as a father, I can’t even imagine what you guys went through. And I have to believe that we have one, two, 10, 100, maybe more people that are listening that are going through some type of grief or loss right now. You know, maybe it’s a similar situation, maybe it’s a job loss, maybe it’s a loss of a parent, a loss of a spouse, a loss of a child or something else. What words of encouragement would you have to share for somebody listening that is going through a moment of grief or loss right now?
Phillip Beach: Well, that’s my hope coming on here to talk to you today is that I can somehow spread a message of positivity to at least one person and impact their life and help them through whatever struggle they’re going through, to just make that choice every day to stay positive and know that these trials and things you go through will make you a better person in the end. And you never know who you can impact by choosing that positivity every day. And I’m not saying that I always win that battle. But every day, I try to make that conscious effort to be positive. And I think that is the key. And I know we talked about Adam Martin before, but he actually had a video on this I think yesterday that I saw between two different pharmacists, one choosing not being positive and the other being positive and being a great leader in their pharmacy. And I think that’s so key is making that choice daily, wanting to impact others and being a leader in that positivity to spread it to others. No one wants to be around a negative person. So I hope I can be that same light to someone that’s going through a tough situation.
Tim Ulbrich: And what gives you and your wife hope? What gave you hope through that time period of obviously losing Harper? But I sense this is something daily that you’re working through. Like what gives you guys hope going forward?
Phillip Beach: You know, really, we started Harper Faith Foundation, and that was one of the things that we could transform this tragedy into something triumphant. That was — that’s our goal to spread some hope to someone else that needs it. So we made the Harper Faith Foundation a nonprofit organization in January 2019. My wife started it up, did all the research, figured out how to do it, contacted LegalZoom, got that set up, it’s all official. And the outpouring that we’ve had from our community and our friends and our church and our support group, our family, to give back to us so that we can give out to others has been amazing. So that has been a source of hope for us. And being able to spread it to other people, that gives us joy. So ultimately, there’s nothing like giving back to other people. You don’t get that sense of joy from anything else.
Tim Ulbrich: And Phillip, one of the other things as I think through others that may be going through a situation of loss or grief would be that this topic of finance in and of itself is stressful, let alone when you’re going through a difficult situation. So talk us through for a moment about how you keep the financial plan afloat during a time of grief. Or maybe a better question is how do you give yourself permission or peace to just let it go temporarily, you know, in the midst of everything that you’re dealing with?
Phillip Beach: It’s definitely a balancing act. And I think it’s so key to live below your means in a lot of areas of your life but also realize that life is very fleeting and when you have something that you enjoy as a family to go and enjoy that and not worry about it. And realize that you have money to spend and go out and enjoy, go on vacation with your family, spend that time together, do what you can while you’re on your own because you don’t always have that time later down the road. And that’s another part of my life that I want to touch on. My dad unexpectedly passed in 2016 when I was right about to start my rotations. I was literally about three or four days from going to my first acute care rotations in Texas, he unexpectedly had a heart attack at 56. He was in great shape, he was ex-military. And that has also stuck with me and just convinced me that, you know, the balancing act and using your time while you have it because you can save for your 401k all day and all that, but it’s not a for sure thing that you’re going to live to 65 to get to enjoy it. So I definitely encourage people to be wise with their money but at the same time enjoy it and love your family and go and do the things that you like to do together.
Tim Ulbrich: Yes, such a good reminder, Phillip, of the balance of today versus the future, right? There’s responsibility in taking care of your future self but not fully at the expense of today and the needs that are around you but also as you mentioned just the experiences and the opportunities that you have of things to do. So I think that balance is so critical. So I think you answered this a little bit, you know, in that context of that balance of today and the future, but tell us a little bit more about as a guy who I sense is a financial nerd, right, you know, you’re kind of saving, balancing debt, and the questions you ask, how does money have a different meaning for you after you go through such a obviously situation of grief and loss such as that you did?
Phillip Beach: I think now, we’re more focused on giving back. And when we have extra funds, we don’t necessarily set aside a certain percentage or anything but you know, just kind of sporadically my wife will be like, “Hey, why don’t we help this family out?” Or, “Hey, why don’t we go up to Arkansas Children’s this weekend and bring them lunch?” Those are the kind of things that we like to do just on a whim. And that’s what we’re more focused on these days is giving back, doing what we can, as little as bringing someone that Chick-Fil-A at lunch in the hospital. It might not seem like much, but to them, that’s like — it’s a really big thing when these families are stuck inpatient for 3, 6, 12 months at a time. Some of these families are on the transplant list, like I said, and they literally don’t get to leave. They eat cafeteria food day-in and day-out. They’re there with their sick child and something just like bringing a meal is very uplifting. So that’s what our focus is on now is just giving when we can.
Tim Ulbrich: Especially a Chick-Fil-A meal, right? That makes anyone happy.
Phillip Beach: I know, right?
Tim Ulbrich: You know, I think what resonates with me when you said that is yes, it’s the meal. But it’s the gesture. It’s letting people know they’re not alone, that there’s a community that’s thinking about them, that’s praying for them, that’s encouraging them. And I think the meal is maybe the vehicle in which you’re able to do that. But obviously there’s a broader intention there. So let’s shift and talk about the Harper Faith Foundation, a 501c not-for-profit organization. You mentioned your wife set it up, which is awesome and we’ll talk a little bit more about that as well. But let’s just break it down. What is the mission and the work of the Harper Faith Foundation?
Phillip Beach: So our mission is to help other heart families and kind of like you said, building that community. There is — other heart families, you just have this bond with no one else has kind of gone through this situation like these people have. So you understand each other. And that’s kind of what we are making and building with Harper Faith Foundation. We aim to help out other heart families. So that is our goal is to provide some hope to them during these tough times.
Tim Ulbrich: And specifically as I understand it, you guys are doing work in a variety of different ways, including supporting families — you talked a little bit about this — supporting families, but I think there’s some other components as well with research. So talk us through the specific areas of the work of the Harper Faith Foundation.
Phillip Beach: Yeah, so we help other families through a variety of ways. One of the things we like the most is promoting research. So we were actually involved with two studies with Mayo Clinic. They took stem cells from the umbilical cord blood when Harper was born and they froze them and they were planning to use those in the Stage 2 surgery and they were injecting them directly into the heart to try to make that side of the heart stronger, the right ventricle, so that it could kind of take over some of that workload that the left isn’t doing. That’s one of our joys is to help with the research process and try to find not necessarily a cure because there isn’t a cure right now but just make advancements in this field because the prognosis is just very poor right now. And like I said, it’s a three-stage palliative operation. And that’s really all they can offer right now besides transplant. So we love to be involved in that. Sadly, we didn’t get to that Stage 2 operation to get to use those stem cells. But still, they were happy to be able to participate with Mayo Clinic in that. We also participated in another Mayo Clinic study with DNA. So my wife and I both took mouth swabs, and they’re trying to find a genetic link to see what is going on here. They haven’t exactly determined the link yet. But you know, there’s got to be something there more than meets the eye. So we’re happy to be involved in that too. Another way that we help is just by giving gift bags to the families that are inpatients at the CDICU. These gift bags include a lot of items like children’s books, newborn socks, newborn onesies, pacifier, stuffed animals, toiletries for mom and dad while they’re staying there inpatient in the hospital. There’s a water bottle, Kleenex, individual Tide packets so you can do your laundry there at the hospital. And we also put a binder in there to keep all your child’s medical information. And that’s one of our favorite parts is including this binder because you’re bombarded every day with so much medical information. And a lot of the times, you just freeze because it’s two steps backward, one step forward constantly. And when it’s with your kid and they’re telling you these diagnosis and stuff, it’s so important to have this medical information with you on paper, in a binder, somewhere where you can access it quickly just because a lot of times, it doesn’t sink in when the doctor is telling you these heavy diagnosis. So that’s one of the things we love most about these gift bags, giving those to the families. And then we also — we do a yearly college scholarship for a high school senior that’s going into their freshman year specifically to someone that has a congenital heart defect. So we’re very happy to be able to do that. And we started that this past year. And we would like to be able to increase it every year. Not only increase the value of the scholarship but as time goes on, we would like it be two scholarships, three scholarships, four scholarships, and just keep it growing. We’re just happy to be able to pay it back, and we’re so thankful that our friends and family has helped support us to be able to give back to others as well.
Tim Ulbrich: And I love what you said earlier, Phillip, you know, taking tragedy and turning it into triumph and really being able to make a difference. I think you have been tangibly — you and your wife, obviously — tangibly have been doing that. So thank you for sharing. For our listeners that are hearing that and saying, “I want to learn more about the Harper Faith Foundation,” or perhaps even give to the foundation, where can they go?
Phillip Beach: They can go to our Facebook page, Harper Faith Foundation. That’s probably the best place to get in touch with us. We have an Amazon link if you’d like to donate. And it has all of the items that we include in these gift bags to the families. So literally things like pacifier, the animals, the socks for the newborn, everything that goes in there you can get and reach out to us, connect with us, see what you can do to get involved and learn more.
Tim Ulbrich: So Harper Faith Foundation Facebook group. And we’ll link to that in the show notes for those that want to go onto the website when we publish this episode. You know, the other thing I’m thinking about here, Phil, is I sense many of the YFP community members have a desire to start a nonprofit for a variety of reasons and may look at that and say, “Well, that’s a really daunting, overwhelming task to start a 501c3.” So you mentioned your wife working with LegalZoom are really taking the lead on that process. Talk to us a little bit more — while I know you didn’t do it directly — about the intensity of doing that and hopefully an encouragement to others that, you know, it’s not something that can’t be overcome, can’t be done.
Phillip Beach: Yeah, definitely. So she — like I said, she did the whole process herself. She did all of the research and figured out LegalZoom was the route that we wanted to take. There’s a bunch of questions that you have to answer, of course, to get involved. And they basically assign you a legal team, they set it all up, and it’s a fairly straightforward process once you get it going. I would compare it to TurboTax and filing your taxes. They kind of pinpoint you questions to answer and lead you down the path, and it’s pretty simple as far as that goes.
Tim Ulbrich: Awesome. Awesome. So shifting to your financial plan for a couple moments here as we wrap up, before we had the interview, you had mentioned that you and your wife are interested or moving on the path towards Financial Independence Retire Early, the FIRE movement. We have previous episodes that we’ll link to in the show notes where we’ve talked about this. So tell me more about the motivation. Why is FIRE an area that you and your wife are interested in and pursuing?
Phillip Beach: So I like FIRE for a variety of reasons. But I guess the main thing is having more time and freedom to do what you want and spend that time with your family. Obviously it’s a long-term goal for us. My wife is still in school right now, so that is our focus right now is getting her through school and letting her accomplish her dreams, becoming a nurse and going to nurse practitioner, getting her doctorate. That’s our focus right now. But the opportunity to spend more time with your family, that’s really what we’re striving for.
Tim Ulbrich: Love the clarity of the why there. And typically, you know, student loans are the biggest barrier to people being able to achieve financial independence because you need to obviously be saving aggressively, and student loan payments, you and I both know, can be really big at times. So for your student loan situation, as I understand it, you were on a Public Service Loan Forgiveness Track working for a not-for-profit hospital but then switching to a for-profit hospital that that path changed a little bit. So talk to us about your current student loan repayment strategy.
Phillip Beach: Right, so I was on the PSLF with the nonprofit and I changed to this DOP role, and now it’s a for-profit hospital. But so still on the same loan forgiveness path, but now it’s including the tax bomb, basically, and a little bit longer of a plan. And that’s our plan for right now. And you know, with this whole pandemic and things changing daily, who knows what’s going to happen in the future? But right now, that’s what we’re doing.
Tim Ulbrich: Well right now, you’re in a pretty sweet spot. You know, we were talking before the show that obviously with the passage of the CARES Act, for somebody such as yourself that’s pursuing non-PSLF or even those that are pursuing PSLF, essentially you’re going to get six months worth of credits but have a $0 payment, 0% interest, essentially for six months, end of September. TBD after that. So at least for the foreseeable future, it’s a good place, good place to be in. Couple questions I have for you about the non-PSLF track. First one would be we often don’t talk with folks about how they’re thinking about or saving for the tax bomb. So for a moment, let me just explain for those listening that may not be familiar in that if somebody’s pursuing non-Public Service Loan Forgiveness inside the federal system, instead of 10 years with PSLF and that being tax-free forgiveness, with non-PSLF, as you mentioned, it’s longer and it’s not tax-free forgiveness. So for example, if you have $100,000 at the point of applying for forgiveness after 20 or 25 years, depending on your plan, that essentially gets treated like income that year, and you have to be preparing for the “tax bomb” that will be coming, which could be sizable, depending on one’s student loan amount and the amount that’s forgiven. So the question often comes then, you know, how do you plan for it? Do you worry about it now? Do you worry about it later? Where do you put those monies? So how are, Phillip, thinking through the preparation of the tax bomb?
Phillip Beach: So I guess there’s a lot of strategy I’ve read about online, and I’m thankful for so much content and resources from the YFP community and there’s some other physician bloggers for finances. And I guess right now, it’s a little bit of both, worrying about it now and in the future. And hopefully during this whole time period, you can set aside funds to a separate account and that is basically your tax bomb fund is how I’m thinking about it. And so when that time comes, you’re ready for that. Or hopefully it’s even a larger amount than that, and if the whole forgiveness thing washes out and you’re not — and that’s not a possibility, you have enough in that side fund to just completely pay it off. So that is kind of my long-term goal there.
Tim Ulbrich: Awesome. And while you’re in this situation that’s somewhat unique of six qualifying payments and you have to make a payment and if I remember correctly, you said your monthly payment was just shy of about $1,000 per month. So talk us through like what’s your strategy during this unique COVID-19 situation where you don’t have to make a payment? How are you thinking about utilizing those resources that would otherwise go towards student loans?
Phillip Beach: Well, you know, it’s such a fluid thing. But I’m waiting to get more information. So again, I’m thankful for your guys’ website putting out almost daily information bits on that. But we will probably hammer off some of the remaining debt that we have just a little bit left on my wife’s car. You know, that’s very tempting to go ahead and take care of. That’s probably our biggest interest rate right now. So that might be what it goes to. If I don’t have to make student loan payments for the next six months, that’s probably what will happen.
Tim Ulbrich: Yeah, it’s a time where you can be a little bit more opportunistic, right? Especially if you’ve got other parts of the plan tidied up in terms of emergency fund, credit card debt. I think it’s an opportunity to be opportunistic with those funds that would have otherwise gone towards student loans. So long-term, Phillip, there’s an interest, passion perhaps, to open up your own gym. So tell us more about that.
Phillip Beach: I’ve always been interested in maybe having my own small business one day. And I’ve been always been interested in nutrition and exercise. So that just seems like a no-brainer to me. And actually, my brother and I have always had this dream I feel like of just opening up our own gym and making that a reality one day. And the whole thought of doing something that you really love every day. And not only that, but it’s a place to help people. I can’t help but think of how much chronic illness we deal with here in America, and it’s just — it’s the cure for it basically is how I see it. Moving more, exercising more, can — it’s just the cure.
Tim Ulbrich: Yeah, and it reminds me of the episode we had with TJ Allen, who is a owner of a couple different gyms as well as an independent pharmacy owner, previously on the show. Just another example of kind of a passion for fitness, entrepreneurial type of mindset, and certainly strategic when it comes to his financial plan. So Phillip, thank you so much. I mean, this has been a great interview, certainly has inspired and I’m confident will do the same for our audience. I appreciate your willingness to come on, record this very early, 6 a.m. your time here this morning when we hit record and certainly willing for your — appreciate your willingness to share the journey that you’ve had with Harper Faith, obviously you and your wife, and more about the Harper Faith Foundation. So thank you so much.
Phillip Beach: Well thank you for having me on. And again, I hope this message can bring some positivity to at least one person and inspire them to keep going and get through those trials in their life. So again, thank you for having me on and thank you to all of our frontline healthcare workers too, the nursing staff, retail pharmacists, everyone out there that’s out there on the frontlines dealing with this pandemic. So just want to give a shoutout to you guys too.
Tim Ulbrich: Thank you, Phillip.
Phillip Beach: Thank you, Tim.
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