CEimpact Podcast

Financial Wellness for Pharmacists

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Join Ashlee and Tim Ulbrich, pharmacist and founder of Your Financial Pharmacist, in this week's Level Up episode as they discuss Tim's career, advice, and resources that pharmacists can use in the journey toward attaining financial wellness.

Tim Ulbrich, pharmacist & CEO of Your Financial Pharmacist, set out to help pharmacists solve this issue by helping them develop financial planning and organization skills

In this episode, the two discuss:
- How Tim's blog developed into the Your Financial Pharmacist company
- Tim's best tips for pharmacists hoping to work towards financial wellness
- The upcoming CEimpact By Design course 'Dollars and Sense: Guidance for Building a Strong Financial Foundation', a course that Tim helped create.

To learn more about CEimpact's By Design memberships and to gain access to Tim's course, click here.

To get in touch with Your Financial Pharmacist, click here. 

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Speaker 1:

Tim, welcome to our show. Level up you. You are like one of my favorite people in the world, so I'm really excited to have you on our show.

Speaker 2:

Oh, I'm excited to be here. It's a treat to have a conversation and opportunity to collaborate with you, so looking forward to it.

Speaker 1:

Tim and I have been friends, colleagues, for I don't know, since like 2016, I think that's when I met you, or maybe 2015, when I heard about your blog.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, we're getting old, we're getting old.

Speaker 1:

Stop it. No, you're getting old, I'm well, I'm not I'm not Speak for yourself and I just am really appreciative of your work and running in these small pharmacy circles. You I've met hundreds and dozens and hundreds of thousands of people and sometimes you just really click with certain people, and I've been really fortunate to have a strong relationship with Tim. So Tim wrote a forward in our book that we published last year in Chris, chris Costellano's and I's book, and we collaborated on a bunch of projects. And then, when I started at CE Impact, I said, tim, you need to work with Jen, you need to work with Kathy Josh, our product development team, because your quality and the products that you produce, the education that you provide to pharmacists and beyond is just A plus. So I'm super excited to have you here, tim, why don't you start by sharing a little bit about your background, who you are, what you do, what your day to day look like?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, thanks for the thanks for the opportunity. So I'll start with my pharmacy career at 2008,. Graduated from Ohio Northern University go polar bears did your residency in 2009. This was really an interesting time where you know I often share with students now and they look at me like, oh wow, you're really old, talking about MTM and patient center, medical homes, right, things, things that are, you know, very, very common place now and evolve. But it was an exciting time working in an interprofessional clinic, seeing the pharmacist role beyond what I had thought or known it could be only really spending time interning in a community pharmacy type of setting. And that year really opened my eyes not only to practice but also to academia, which is where I'd spend the next 12 years in my career in various academic roles. Fell in love with career development and helping students kind of discover you know who are they and what are they interested in and why did they get into this profession and how do they want to have an impact and you know what do those next steps look like.

Speaker 2:

And intersecting with that academic work was really my own financial journey and coming out of school with way too much student loan debt, like many pharmacy graduates do, and really feeling like I didn't have the tools, the community, the resources, the knowledge. And I remember having a distinct feeling of wait a minute, like I thought I was going to make this great income and like everything would be good. And you know, I remember either said or unsaid kind of that feeling of a pharmacy student of like hey, someday, like it's all going to be good, Don't worry about the student loans, don't worry about the financial stuff. And that just wasn't the case. Right when you're looking at a couple of thousand dollar student loan debt. You know young family at the time, my wife Jess and I have four boys buying a home you know all of a sudden that six figure income didn't really do what I thought it was going to do.

Speaker 2:

So, long story short, we went through our own journey and I started talking with other pharmacists and I kept hearing the same things over and over again I'm overwhelmed by student loan debt, I'm confused about how to best budget, save and invest for the future. And then that frustration that, hey, I make a good income but I'm not progressing how I wanted to. So I said, wait a minute, like why is nobody talking about this? It's like this box where we all kind of go through our own struggles and, you know, no one's having a conversation. So I started blogging about it, which led to a podcast, which led to a book, and that really is the work that we do now, day to day, at your financial pharmacist, through our team of certified financial planners and our tax team, to help pharmacists at all stages of their career on their own path of financial wellness.

Speaker 2:

And sometimes that's, you know, new practitioners that are going through the same journey I went. Sometimes that's people in the middle of their career saying hey, wait, wait a minute, I need to catch up or I need to you know, look at this certain part to be able to get towards my longer term goals. And sometimes that's people that are transitioning into retirement. So I'm really passionate about what could our profession be if we took off some of the financial stress that's there and you know what? What would that mean to not only people individually, but also to some of the evolution that I think we need to see in our profession?

Speaker 1:

Did you talk about your blog at all? Cause that's where I feel like I was one of your first people to like first five, I feel like so you were. When you started Roughly 2015, 2014 2015 you started a blog and then tell us about that.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it's funny. You know, I often will talk with people that have an idea, and I share this story because it's so important of like just starting and not knowing where things are gonna go. So, I kid you not, actually you might have been a part of this group, I can't remember, but I wanted to start this blog. And then the next natural question is like, well, who's gonna read this outside of Jess and my parents? Because they're they're generous. So I literally messaged a hundred people LinkedIn, text message, facebook messenger and I said, hey, I'm thinking about starting a blog personal finance pharmacy Are you interested? And maybe there was some guilt there, maybe they were actually interested, I don't know. But that was the first hundred of my email list and I quickly recognized like, oh, like, this is a valuable way to have a conversation, and and then obviously would kind of build from there.

Speaker 2:

And that hundred grew to 500, a thousand to 5,000, grew to 10,000, but that was the start and it really was a hobby. It was I'm interested in this. I want to talk more about this. I feel like there's a chance to educate more. We didn't get any of this information in pharmacy school, and so it was a outlet and a vehicle for me to share on something I was passionate about, and it was the feedback I was getting of oh, like I experienced the same thing, or I had no idea, or hey, tim, I saw you wrote about this and I implemented something and I had this outcome.

Speaker 2:

That was then the momentum to say oh, we need more of this, and I think there's a business here, I think there's something to build from.

Speaker 1:

What? Okay, so what's evolved since then?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, what's happened?

Speaker 1:

What's happened your life since then? I mean, if someone's listening, they're like, okay, you start a blog and then that 500 or 100 turn into a thousand, but then what does that mean for the curriculum that you've built over the years and the education that you've provided?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, the best way I can describe the journey is really a hobby to a side hustle to a business, and it was validation of stages that kind of led to the next. So you know the, the hobby stage of just writing, to write obviously there's no monetary component there.

Speaker 2:

You know that led to then some paid speaking opportunities and eventually we wrote a book and that's where I would say it was more of the Side hustle of, okay, there's some income, there's some opportunities here, and then really were it transitioned into a business which gets the present day, today's. In 2019, I merged what I was doing from an educational standpoint To my now partner, tim baker, who's a fee only certified financial planner. He was within a week of one another. We didn't know this at the time. He started a fee only financial planning firm for farmers just called script financial. Um, and it was actually five days apart that we started this and then four years later.

Speaker 1:

I know right.

Speaker 2:

We, we would merge those efforts. And so now we've got the the range of, you know, free educational activities all the way up to one on one, uh, fee only financial planning with a team of CFPs, as well as a tax practice to help people that want to go down that pathway of one on one. So that was the moment of really Okay, what, what is this from a business standpoint, and how does this go from a side hustle to a business? That was a yeah, a linchpin, and I would say now we're kind of in the stage of Okay. So you, you validated the need, you validated the business model that people are willing to pay for it. Now, how do we really grow this business to be more of an enterprise type of offering? And you know things like operations and we're not as much in the day to day. You know the delivery, and so how do we develop the team and make those transitions? And so that's been a whole journey of learning.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, exactly, I'm sure I mean that's a lot about the background of your financial pharmacist, but talk to us about what does financial wellness and I mean stability look like for your average Pharmacist or technicians? I mean, we have two different buckets of audiences here and two different buckets that we serve. So we have a lot of and you're now a faculty of. We have training for pharmacists, training for technicians, but when you're talking to a pharmacist or when you're talking to a technician, what is the education and training look like from from your perspective Of financial wellness?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's a great question, and and I think the wellness term is such an important one there, because we are finally Recognizing that finance needs to be a part of the wellness conversation. Right, and what I think about from my own personal experience, which is what I hear from pharmacists predominantly, but we also work with students and technicians, and other healthcare professionals Is that when things are not financially well, however you may define that it's this constant underlying stress and anxiety that eats away at you over time.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and what I share is that when, when you're working with someone or you're, you know, even DIYing it with an education, when you go from not having a plan to having a plan and that could be debt repayment, that could be investing, that could be any part of the financial plan While the numbers may not change significantly one month to the next, long term they will, but short term they may not Having a plan and the peace of mind that can come from having a plan Really provides clarity to take a step forward and make other decisions. And this impact just great literature that supports is the impact of financial stress that one carries into their workplace. Right, we know, we all know about the financial stress that can happen within a household, within a marriage. You know there's obvious benefits there to having a very, actually well, individual. But I believe, from our workforce standpoint, we we need disruption, we need innovation, we need entrepreneurship. Well, guess what? A financially unwell individual is Not going to be thinking in those ways. They're not gonna be thinking about innovation and disruption and Entrepreneurship.

Speaker 2:

So you know, I think that's the benefit, you know, we look at what, what does somebody bring when they have that financial foundation of house in order, and then we just get the joy of you know, once, twice, three times a week, someone reaching out and saying, hey, I read this blog, I listen to this podcast, you know, I worked with so-and-so and we, we accomplished this and because of this, we feel X, y or Z and that, that feeling, I think, is something we underestimate when it comes to the, the long-term financial plan.

Speaker 1:

So what's the difference between financial wellness and file and then financial foundation? The reason why I bring this up is because the education that you have provided inside both our pharmacist by design program and technician by design is the. The title is dollars and cents guiding guidance for building a strong financial foundation. So I mean we focused on wellness and I totally agree with you. Financial wellness is such a great hot buzzword. I like it, but what is the difference between that and having a foundational confidence in your Sorry financial found foundation confidence?

Speaker 2:

Now I'm following you.

Speaker 2:

I think the foundation, the financial foundation, is a part of financial wellness. So, to me, wellness is the break bigger umbrella. It's a lifelong journey. It never ends. It looks different in different phases of our life and career. So we know this actually, from personal experience, right, when you know we're just starting individually and then there's, you know, a family involved and you know you're a new practitioner and then your post new practitioner. Like things evolve, change, topics are of more importance, less, less significance, you know, and things often get more complicated, right, but it never ends. A journey never ends of learning, of opportunities, of mistakes. So, to me, financial wellness, just like our physical wellness, just like a relationship, that's an ongoing pursuit. There's ongoing work. Foundation is the starting point of the path that we think about. This is a journey of the path towards being financially well right. So I think about five individual components of a foundation.

Speaker 2:

Just like when you're building a home, like this is the foundation upon which we're going to build the house, right?

Speaker 2:

So you know, eventually we're gonna you know, put on the studs and then we're gonna frame out the house, we're gonna finish the interior, eventually gonna remodel, make sure we take care of the art. All of that is important I'm part of the journey but we better make sure we've got that on a solid foundation, because what we often see and I think this is common among pharmacists and other healthcare professionals as well Is they find themselves 10, 15, 20 years in and they're trying to go back to fill in the cracks in the foundation Right. And I think one of the things I'm so passionate about with especially students and new practitioners is hey, there's a real opportunity here to set the foundation right, to make sure we've got the system in place and the building blocks in place so that, knowing you're going to make a decent income throughout your career, that if we've got a good foundation, we can build confidently from there. Yeah, and why did you choose to?

Speaker 1:

select this, or why did you select this topic to talk about in our programming in the by design model? Is this where someone could turn to if they're just getting started, or does it meet the needs of multiple different season unseasoned new practitioner? Yeah, all of the above.

Speaker 2:

I think so right, because I think that the natural answer is hey. For people who are just getting started, whether you're a pharmacist, whether you're a technician, whether you're unrelated to the profession of pharmacy, these foundational items are critical. I don't think it stops there, though. One of the things I hear from pharmacists that have heard us speak on this topic three, four, five times is they say something like hey, I've heard this before, I've read about this before, but it's hitting me differently.

Speaker 1:

Right.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, because of whatever right, you know this phase of life. So, yeah, I feel like you know. Yes, this is kind of the 101 foundation and from here you can go down the rabbit holes on investing on debt repayment, on wealth protection, on home buying, on real estate, on any part of the plan. But let's make sure we've got the foundation short up before we get in the weeds and we might have to come back, you know, from time to time. That's okay, because this can change over time.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, now I hear you, so I'm sure you've been approached by hundreds of other CE, other providers and other programs and other colleges of pharmacy. So talk to us a little bit about why you chose to work with us. That's the impact.

Speaker 2:

Well, obviously, yeah, I've been asking all of our partners this Ashley Clemens Hayes obviously Don't say that.

Speaker 2:

Say Jen and Kathy and Josh, my team, you know, in all seriousness, I have been just so impressed with the team at CE Impact. I'm not just saying that, but the level of attention to detail and the planning and the preparation. They're not putting out content. To put out content Right, you know, I think we worked for something I've talked about before that we worked on diligently for three months to make sure it was customized for the CE Impact audience and we made sure it's designed in a way that we can then build upon as we were just talking about build upon in the future, and so I think CE Impact's reach to pharmacists and technicians was very intriguing to me, as well as just the experience that the team has and the intentionality behind what they're putting out and the programming that's beyond.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, thank you for that and I agree, the uniqueness about your education that you provided in our by design model is that it's not for CE. So most of the products, most of the of the education we put out, majority is CE and we are a CE company, so that's what we focus on. However, we have recognized over the past several years the needs of pharmacists and technicians and everyone in under the umbrella of the pharmacy profession are needing different types of skills requiring outside of that traditional CE model and your type of information. Financial stability, financial foundations, financial wellness all these buzzwords fit perfectly under that umbrella of not for CE. So we're going to be doing some more of these over the next several months and obviously Tim being the inaugural in our by design model for this quarter.

Speaker 1:

But it's been so interesting and fun to watch the differences and what we're allowed to talk about versus. You know the black and whiteness of all the rules and we're really mindful of that here at CE Impact because we believe in the model, but also just being mindful that there is some resources that don't fit exactly within that house of CE but are so important for the, so important for pharmacists and for technicians in order to create that holistic, well-rounded 12-element cycle that we have in our products. So, no, we really appreciate you and your area of expertise and your diligence with being mindful of first CE versus not CE, so it's a fine line that we work really hard to manage. So, yeah, thank you for supporting us along that. So give us a little bit of an outline of what is to expect, of what is to be expected inside the course that you created for us.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, inside the course, the dollars and cents guidance for building a strong financial foundation, as we were talking about a few moments ago. It's really meant to be. You know, for those that maybe are more seasoned, it's a chance to, you know, take a fresh look at the areas of the financial plan that we've defined as the foundation. It's a hey, do I have these blocks in place? If not, can I go back and, you know, fill in some of the cracks? For those that are, you know, just getting started, that this really becomes your roadmap of, hey, what are the five things, what are the five areas that I need to be thinking about that are really going to help me build the base so that I can then really think more long-term about the financial plan. So, in the course, we talk about things like the importance of setting short and long-term financial goals. So, yes, it's important to dream 20, 30 years into the future. That becomes our motivating vision. But it's also important to think about, hey, what are the things that we need to do this year that are going to put us on the path towards that long year, and those need to be measurable. We got to have a date, we got to have a dollar amount. So we talk about that in the goal setting. We talk about how to actually implement those goals inside of a spending plan type of system my code word for budgeting, because we don't like to talk about budgeting but how do we actually move a goal from an idea, a hope which you're dreaming, to actually executing on that and making sure we're counting for that inside of a monthly spending plan, and how do we automate that? So this doesn't have to be a cumbersome thing that we're thinking about every single day. And automation, which we talk about a little bit in the course.

Speaker 2:

Automation is a transformational part of anyone's financial plan because it's a complete mindset shift from reactive to now. I'm proactively dividing my income into the goals that I've already defined, thought about and I've planned for, and that is super empowering when you can get to that place. We talk about debt repayment, kind of basics of debt and a little bit about student loans. And then we talk briefly about the wealth protection part of the plan not the exciting part things like insurance, what do we need, what do we not need. And then we talk about investing, which is a more exciting part of the plan, and how can we begin to think about long-term. So we hit the main parts of the plan and I really view it as the starting line to your journey of learning. So any one of these topics, you can say, okay, I want to go dig deeper there over time, which we should each one.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

It could be a year long course.

Speaker 2:

Let's do it.

Speaker 1:

I love it. All right, tim, super fun. We brought you into this show to talk a little bit about your background, to talk about who you are, what you do, your area of expertise and, most importantly, to introduce you to our audience and to get them excited about the course dropping in a couple of weeks in a couple of weeks from today. So, if the listeners are interested, I will be putting all the show notes into this podcast on how to find Tim, how to sign up for your by design membership and, again, this is all included in our membership by design membership for both pharmacists and technicians as non-CE. So this is exciting to have you here. Really appreciate your time. Love working with you. I want to create a million other things with you because I just think your vision for pharmacists is exploding and it's great. This is just the start.

Speaker 2:

Thank you so much, it's been fun.