Research shows that in order to retire and maintain your current lifestyle, the average pharmacist will need a few million dollars. Of course, this number may seem overwhelming, but when you factor in time and compounding interest it is also completely achievable. The past few years, I’ve been very focused on paying down debt.This year, I want to focus on SAVING. I have a goal to reach a certain amount of savings by the end of this year. It is a lofty goal, but by committing the money I was spending on student loan payments to our savings, I should be able to reach my goal of saving half my income from my consulting business.
Joe Saul-Sehy and Kathleen Celmins of the Stacking Benjamins podcast are some heavy hitters in the personal finance space. I’ve been listening to the Stacking Benjamins podcast for the last several years and I highly recommend it as a fun, interesting approach to personal finance. Though not for beginners, its presented in a way that breaks down difficult financial concepts.
Last year, the SB crew built and launched their first e-course focused on personal finance SAVE50. The e-course promises to teach the participant to save a whopping 50% of their income!
Now, I know what your thinking…
“Blair, you don’t understand I have hundreds of thousands of dollars in student loans!”
YES, I do understand; I’ve been there too. Not anymore since I’m student loan debt free, but I still get it!
I’ve got two things that may ease your mind:
- Module #2 of the SAVE50 course – Where does debt repayment fit?
- Get your interest to a manageable level through loan refinancing
So what is student loan refinancing?
It is the exact strategy I used to pay off $70,000 of pharmacy school loans in less than 5 years. In fact, the loan refinancing company I recommend told me they save pharmacists an average of $22,000 by refinancing.
I’ll be diving in to this subject more in my upcoming Elevate Pharmacy Virtual Summit interview with my friend at Common Bond. Long story short, they saved me a ton of money over the life of my loan. And, I chose them over other loan refinancing options because of their social promise (for each loan they fund they’ll fund the education of a child in need).
So what is it like being out of debt and saving 50% of our business income?
It has given me the freedom to build a business that increased my 2016 net income by 15%!
It has given us the freedom to purchase a large parcel of land for our family to hunt and camp on.
(When Yogi Berra’s not around that is..,)
Isn’t Yogi cute!?
We’ve also been able to funnel some extra fun money to our vacation fund. Hopefully I’ll be able to share some pretty amazing photos of Chile with you soon.
Beyond spending money on things we actual WANT instead of spending $300/month on interest, our peace of mind is a pretty good feeling too.
My husband and I consciously strive to keep our expenses much, much lower than our income. In business this concept is a no-brainer.
Revenue – Expenses = Profit
Here’s a thought: What if you started managing your PERSONAL FINANCE like you would your consulting business?
If you really want to run a successful business, you need to get and stick to a financial plan.
Luckily, there are so many resources that can help.
So how did I get started?
- Created a Mint account and started tracking EVERY PENNY (incoming and outgoing)
- REFINANCED my student loans through CommonBond
- Set concrete GOALS for my financial life: saving, spending and fun money
If you’d like some help starting, reach out to my friends at Stacking Benjamins for more information and to learn how to save 50% of your income.
And for loan refinancing, I highly recommend Common Bond.
They are good people and they’ll be happy to help.
