Latest / Wealthy Woman Lawyer Podcast, Helping you create a profitable, sustainable law firm you love / Episode 299 You Are a Lawyer; Why Aren’t You a Millionaire Yet?
Transcript
- 0:01Intro: Welcome to the wealthy woman lawyer podcast. What if you could hang out with successful women lawyers, ask them about growing their firms, managing resources like time, team, and systems, mastering money issues, and more? Then take an insight or two to help you build a wealth generating law firm. Each week, your host, Devina Frederick, takes an in-depth look at how to think like a CEO, attract clients who you love to serve and will pay you on time, and create a profitable, sustainable firm you love. Devina is founder and CEO of Wealthy Woman Lawyer, and her goal is to give you the information you need to scale your law firm business from 6 to 7 figures in gross annual revenue so you can fully fund and still have time to enjoy the lifestyle of your dreams.
- 0:47Now here's
- 0:49Davina: Hello and welcome back to the Wealthy Woman Lawyer podcast. I'm your host Devina Frederick and today's topic was inspired by Dave Ramsey of all people. For those of you who do not know, Dave Ramsey's company, Ramsey Solutions, is a $350,000,000 a year business that helps people all over the world get out of debt and build wealth. Not everyone in the financial world is a fan of Dave's. Maybe you are, maybe you are not.
- 1:15But that's not really relevant to what I'm going to share with you today. What is relevant is that Ramsey Solutions recently conducted a survey of 10,000 millionaires to determine how they became millionaires. Most of them became millionaires by issuing debt and by slow and steady investment of a percentage of income from their day jobs. Here is what I found particularly interesting and what I wanted to share with you today. The top jobs of these millionaires they surveyed were, number one, engineers.
- 1:47Number two, accountants. Number three, teachers. Number four, project managers. Number five, lawyers. Are you as surprised as I was?
- 1:56Physicians did not even make the top five. I think they come in at number six. Millionaires are defined by their net worth. So assets minus liabilities equals net worth, and these people have a net worth of at least $1,000,000 The reason Dave Ramsey said that these folks, even teachers with their median salaries of $60,000 became millionaires is that they all have one thing in common. In their careers, they all must follow systems.
- 2:24He believes that the ability to be methodical in their jobs translates to being methodical in their personal finances. Ramsey Solutions teaches that it's not how much you make an income, it's how much you keep. And quite frankly, what you do with what you keep. And I agree with that to a point because I've known people who've made a ton of money but then blown it all. And I've known people who had basic jobs with steady paychecks, and they've made very wise decisions with their money and, as a result, have become wealthy.
- 2:54However, I also believe that the more income you make, the better your chances of becoming a millionaire. I think Dave would agree with me to a point with that because I know he hustled for years working twelve and fourteen hour days to have enough money to be able to invest more of his income. So my question for you is, if you are a lawyer and you are not yet a millionaire, why not? Here are some of the reasons I think many lawyers are not millionaires when they could be. Number one, you owe too much in student loans and do not have a good plan for paying it off.
- 3:28And yes, I completely understand the issue with predatory lending and student loans, so don't come at me for that. Number two, you owe other debts, like credit card debt, for example, that may be keeping the money you do make tied up, so you cannot invest it to build wealth. Number three, you only take home a certain amount from your law firm business, and it's just enough to cover the bills without leaving you enough to invest. You need to take home more, but either fear around money or uncertainty how to do it keeps you stuck. Number four, you are not building your team, setting up systems, reallocating your time, tracking your numbers, or any of the other things needed to scale your law firm so that it generates more revenue and allows you to scale your profits.
- 4:15Your salary and profits are capped out because you can only work and bill so many hours a day, and you do not have a plan to leverage your services. Number five, you are spending all that you make so that other people think you are a millionaire when you really are not. This may be you if you have a luxury vehicle in your driveway or designer handbag collection, but you don't have cash flowing real estate investments or a flush IRA account or brokerage account or even three to six months expenses in a high yield savings account. Six) Your law firm is not set up to be an asset you can sell later down the line when you are ready to move on to something else, but instead, it is solely dependent on you. Note that if it were an asset, it would count as an asset towards your net worth calculation.
- 5:05Seven. Not charging enough for your law firm's services because you have negative money stories that no longer serve you and who you want to be now. Eight. You don't fully understand the details about how your law firm business makes its profits. You may even be embarrassed that you don't know how to read your own profit and loss report.
- 5:26You should not be if no one ever taught you. I could go on and on with reasons more lawyers are not millionaires, but we know for sure that many, many are millionaires, and if they can do it, you can too. And just in case you think I have forgotten about systemic oppression, misogyny, and racism, and their impact on wealth building, I have not. I fully recognize that many have more privilege than others and a head start in life. Others have extra challenges.
- 5:53For example, if your family is wealthy enough to pay for your college education or your law school education, then you are starting out your career as a lawyer way ahead of those who had to borrow a quarter of a million dollars for their education. However, regardless of the state of this country and the world, each of us still has planes to catch and bills to pay, as Jimmy Buffett said, and so we must work with whatever is in our own control. Lawyers who own their own law firms can control their circumstances and how much money they make or do not make. The purpose of this podcast episode is not to criticize anyone for not being a millionaire yet. I promise you that in my life, I've made more money mistakes than I ever thought I would, so I will not be throwing stones from my glasshouse.
- 6:42No. My hope is that this revelation about the top five careers of millionaires will encourage you. You are definitely in the right profession, but profession alone is not enough to become a millionaire. Something more is needed. Now that you know what is possible, what do you think has been holding you back from the prosperity available to you?
- 7:04What habits, behaviors, and beliefs are you clinging to that no longer serve you? What if something else were possible? What if there were people out there who could help you solve the problems that are keeping you stuck, earning less money than you could be, and investing less of that earned income instead of spending it. Wealthy Woman Lawyer has helped hundreds of women law firm owners transform their law firm business to wealth generating machines so they can fully embrace a millionaire lifestyle. If you would like help transforming your own law firm business, then I highly encourage you to sign up for my upcoming training.
- 7:42It's called The Wealth Generating Law Firm Business five Secrets to Create the Profit, Impact, and Flexibility you desire, and I'll be hosting it live on May 15 at 11AM Mountain Time. The link to register is in the show notes. Click on it now and reserve your spot as spaces are limited. I hope this week's episode of The Wealthy Woman Lawyer podcast has got you thinking about where you are in life and asking questions about where you want to be and what action is needed to start moving you in that direction. If you enjoyed it, please leave us a five star review on Apple Podcasts and share with another woman lawyer with similar dreams.
- 8:24I'll be back next week with more content tailored specifically for women lawyers on a mission to become millionaires and live the life of their dreams. Thanks for listening.
- 8:35Intro: If you're ready to create more of what you truly desire in your business and your life, then you'll want to visit us at wealthywomanlawyer.com to learn more about how we help our clients create wealth generating law firms with ease.