The Birth of The Millionaire Nurse

The Spark in his eye:

I have always been interested in business. It fascinates me how men and women, from a germ of an idea, or wish, or hope, grow that idea into an organization that produces an outcome, a product or a service. Hopefully, if the stars are aligned, at a profit.

So how does someone interested in business, become a Doc, and how does a Doc, then become a writer/blogger/speaker about personal finance?

Maybe Sigmund Freud has that answer, I certainly do not.

I just was born to be a doc. No one in my family had any medical background, I had no serious illness, nor did my immediate family, that exposed me to medicine at a young age.

I was (and am) a voracious reader as a child, so maybe one of the early stories planted the idea of medicine into my head-but I really don’t recall one in particular.

Maybe it was Ben Casey, Marcus Welby, or Dr Gannon from those early medical dramas on TV.

After finishing medical school and residency training in Ob-Gyn, I always kept one foot in the business world. Let me count the ways:

• Buying farm land
• Frozen Yogurt Franchise
• Stock and commodity market investing
• Resort real estate-spec houses
• Cattle herd
• International resort real estate-rental property

To name just a few.

Now, of course I was practicing medicine this whole time, and luckily my CPA/brother had me set up a profit sharing plan in my business. I saved 15% of my income, before it got to the house, where I might be tempted to spend/invest/speculate.

The Conception:

Many of the above investments were successful, but many were not. My main problem was, I didn’t really have a plan. Someone would make a suggestion, and I was off with it.

When one of my children got into credit card trouble while in college, it hit me. I knew tons about sophisticated investments, and business, but I knew very little about the basics of personal finance. So I read all I could read.

During this time, I realized I had been answering business questions from nurses for years, and started to get the idea that I might have something to share.

I had nurses asking questions about a particular stock that was in the news at the time. But they had no basic saving plan, weren’t contributing to their 403b, and were just hoping to hit a home run in the stock market-a sophisticated lottery ticket- and had about as much chance of success.

The Book:

So I started writing. Using the influence of all the folks in the past that had written about personal finance, including but not limited to Kyosocki, Ramsey, Bach, Orman, Stanley, and countless others, I wrote the manuscript that became The Millionaire Nurse.

There is really nothing new in personal finance. Just a different way of presenting the information- making it “speak” to your particular audience. As time passes, and you continue to study-you pick up nuances that allow you to help others understand it better.

The provocative book title of The Millionaire Nurse was suggested by my book editor, and mentor in this new role-Wynton Hall, from Wynton Hall Co. The idea being that most nurses, grinding their way through a difficult job, had no clue that with just three ingredients-they could indeed become financially successful-that it wasn’t just a pipe dream.  You have to start thinking like a financially successful person-before you can have financial success!

The three ingredients are: Consistent savings, compound interest, and time! Again nothing complicated, but it does require tremendous cultural, and behavioral change for most, and the ability to put off pleasure for future gains. The main obstacle being many are never able to see further than their needs and wants of today.

The Birth:

The Millionaire Nurse Blog was begun as a whim in October 2009. My wife was working on a book project herself, and I suggested she begin a blog to catalog her efforts, and to reach other like-minded people. I started my blog, just to show her how to get started. Compared to many other blogs, The Millionaire Nurse Blog, is still in it’s infancy.

But I have enjoyed the interaction with others, and have enjoyed the process of growing my audience and improving my writing skills.

The Toddler Years:

My focus now is continuing to grow the blog. Monetize it- as it is not an inconsequential expense from a time, and financial investment.

But my main focus is on developing products that will allow my nursing audience to improve their personal finances.

I am in the middle of writing/videoing a basic personal finance course, that will be totally online, and be mostly video, but with work sheets, and action steps that will allow my audience to interact with me, my staff, experts, and the other participants, with a forum and phone Q/A sessions.

I hope to launch that this fall, with a new framework in which to teach basic personal finance.

The Future:

I plan on getting out more this next year, and speaking to young audiences, mainly student nurses, as a way to get them to start understanding personal finance. To do so early in their careers, where it will help the most. I already have another book idea percolating around in my head.

The Yakezie:

Like many bloggers, I troll the net looking for ideas, and inspiration. During that time, I kept running across this word Yakezie. Several bloggers were making reference to the growth of their blog, related to the mutual support, and the camaraderie.

I am a social person, but not much of a “joiner”-but something led me to The Financial Samurai’s call to action-a couple months old at that time. I asked in the comments if it was too late to join. Of course, he said no-it’s not too late, and welcomed me to the club.

The main benefit to me, in addition to the mutual support that others have shown, is getting to know other bloggers.

At this point, only online, but I look forward to meeting them. It is great to have a group to ask dumb questions, and not get razzed too badly. I want to also consider mutual work in the product development category-trying to spread the word about the benefits of basic personal finance planning for everyone, not just my niche audience, of nurses.

I am also learning what I am not. I am not a green, anti-materialistic, nihilist. I am not a coupon clipper, frugalista, spreadsheet guru, or a recovering spendaholic, trying to stay in the program, one day at the time. There is nothing wrong with those who focus their blogs on those things-they are just not me.

My focus is trying to help others learn not to spend everything they make, avoid excessive and wasteful debt, and help them learn the basics of the current financial products out there-competing for their dollar.

All while trying to make it interesting, and hopefully humorous, in a snarky kind of Dr Dean way.

The Thanks List:

Local: My wife, kids, and extended family, mentors-Charley, Jack, Bill, and John, from my parents generation who have supported me for years.

My practice and local medical environment: My office staff, we have been working, crying and laughing together-for 25 years. The nurses and other staff at my local hospital facility who are dedicated to helping others.

My Millionaire Nurse folks: Wynton, Kimberly, Ben, Marc Hrisko who all continue their support of my efforts

The Bloggers who have supported me since the beginning, who include The Mighty Bargain Hunter, The Frugal Lawyer, Emergiblog – who helped me in my formative blogging days-seems years ago.

And to all the nurse bloggers who currently support my efforts.

And lastly to The Yakezie: Thanks to all of you!  I appreciate it-and look forward to getting to know you better, and doing what we can to make the world  a better place.

Looking to learn how to start your own profitable website? Check out my step-by-step guide on how to start a blog. It’s one of the best things I did in 2009 to help earn extra money and break free from Corporate America!