116 | Losing a Million Dollars

Have you ever thought about how much money you’ve made so far in your career? Or how much you’ll make in your lifetime?

For most lawyers, that number is at least a million dollars. But many of us never learn to manage all the money coming to us.

Instead, we focus on how much we don’t have and how we need to make more. And we end up with nothing to show for all the money we made.

In this episode, let’s talk about why so many lawyers lose a million dollars and how the way we tend to think about money can hinder our ability to keep more of that money for ourselves.

Topics Discussed

• how much lawyers make during their careers
• questions to consider about how you spend your money
• my story of having nothing to show for the money I made
• focusing on how much money you don’t have instead of how to manage the money you do have
• feeling secure with your current salary
• the importance of intentionality in your finances

Listen to the Episode 

Resources mentioned

Income/Wants/Needs Chart (source: zackvanzant.com)

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If you’re ready to learn the mindset and strategies to master your money, let’s schedule a call. 

Connect with me

Social media: Instagram and LinkedIn

Email: hello@rhothomas.com

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Lightly Edited Transcript

You’re listening to Wealthyesque. We are a community of lawyers who believe that true wealth is having control of our time. I’m Rho Thomas, and as a busy wife, mom and former Biglaw associate, I know all too well the tension between the culture of the legal profession and pretty much everything else you want to do in life. That’s why each week, I’m bringing you the information and tools you need to improve your money mindset and manage your money to create true wealth. Because ultimately, it’s not about the money. It’s about the freedom and flexibility the money affords.

Hey friend. Welcome back to the show. I’ll be doing well and having an amazing day so far. So today we are talking about losing a million dollars because it’s such a common occurrence. So many people lose a million dollars or millions of dollars over the course of a lifetime. And if you’re like what you thought about, so I was thinking about the fact that most lawyers will make a million dollars or more in their lifetime. If you start on the lower end of the pay scale around the $50,000 year mark, then you’d earn a million dollars after 20 years. For those who are making a little more like if you started at say 100,000 then you get there after 10 years. And for those in big law, it’ll be even faster because you’re starting around 200,000 these days, so you’ll earn a million dollars after five years. And none of this is accounting for raises and bonuses you’ll inevitably get or for any other money you might earn outside your job. But most people never look at how much money they actually make over a period of time like this. And they never created a intentional plan for how to use their money. And that’s how people end up making a million dollars or more but not having anywhere near a million dollars. To be fair, I know some of that money is going to taxes and some of its going to your living expenses. But how much of that money is being spent on stuff that you can’t even remember, or don’t even really care about? How much of the money is actually being spent on things you enjoy versus things that you just think you’re supposed to have because you’re a lawyer and that’s what you’re supposed to do. How much are you losing because you don’t realize you’re spending as much as you are because you haven’t been paying attention. These are the types of questions I want you to be asking yourself. Have you ever considered how much money you’ve made over the years and how that compares with how much you’ve improved your personal financial situation? I know for me back in 2016. When we first started looking at our finances, it was like man, I could have done so much more with this income the amount of money that we made in those first few years did not compare with what we had done financially, or what we had done financially didn’t compare with the amount of money we made. So we had taken some cool trips. We had gone to a lot of nice restaurants, but we hadn’t done much in the way of improving our finances. We had paid the minimum on our loans and put some away for retirement, but it wasn’t very much as compared to the total amount we made in that time. When you think about it. How much of the money you’ve made in the last however many years has gone to improving your finances? Is it like me where a lot of it has gone to things you didn’t need, things you didn’t want, things you didn’t care about, things that you probably don’t even remember at this point. So often lawyers talk about needing to make more money but haven’t looked at how much money is actually passing through their hands. If you aren’t managing the money you have now and you have no idea how much is slipping through your fingers already. You’re gonna make more and you’re not gonna be able to do that either. You end up losing that too. I think the realization of how much money we actually make in our lifetime is really startling or it’s really eye opening. Because so many of us are so focused on how much we don’t have, but we don’t focus on how to manage what we do have to be able to keep more of it for ourselves. And we’re so focused on needing to make more money or needing this raise or needing this bonus that we don’t focus on what to do with that money when we get it. There’s a graphic I share all the time that I’ll put in show notes, so it’ll be rho Thomas.com/ 116. But the graphic shows how overtime we make more money in our careers. So you get the raise, you get the bonus, all that kind of stuff. And at the same rate as you get those increases in your income, your quote needs also increase. So things that used to just be luxuries that were just wants at one point now become these parts of your life you can’t live without the so called needs. So the base level of spending increases at the same rate your income increases and savings might increase some but it’s very moderate compared to the increase in your expenses. You might have noticed this from when you first are practicing and the amount of money you made seemed like so much until it wasn’t and then you thought you can just get to the next level if you just make a little more then you’d be set and then get there and that starts to feel the same but if you could get to that next level right and it keeps going on and on like that. And the amount that you’re making now, at one point you probably thought would be this crazy amount of money and now here you are, it feels like you’re struggling it feels like it’s not enough. I posted recently about how often we think making more will make us feel more secure. But it won’t. You have to decide that you already have enough and that you’ll feel secure at that salary. And then from that place of feeling secure, of feeling sufficient, you’ll be able to make better decisions for your finances. I also talked in that post about the fact that there are people who make a fraction of what you make and feel completely secure. They feel great about their finances, and then there are people who make multiple times what you make, who don’t feel like they still need more. And you might think oh if I had multiple times what I make now then I’d be set, but if you’re already thinking that what you have isn’t enough then you would bring that same mentality to a higher salary. Most of us are not focused on managing our money better. Most of us are focused on our perceived lack of money, the money we don’t have, the things we haven’t been able to buy, the things we haven’t been able to do yet. And when you’re focused on all of that. As soon as you get more money, you’re gonna spend it all buying and doing all those things that you feel like you haven’t been able to do before. You’re gonna make more and immediately give it away rather than making a plan for how you can use to improve your own finances. All that to say many of us make a lot of money in the course of our lifetime and end up with not a lot to show for it. We’re spending because we can spending because the money is there not thinking about what’s actually important to us and what’s not, but then saying that we need more money when we haven’t figured out how to manage the money we have in the first place. If you bring that same lack of financial management to an even larger salary, you’ll just end up with the same results on an even larger scale. A lot of money passes through our fingers simply because we’re not paying attention or being intentional. I talk a lot about intentionality because it’s so important to manage your money well. Simply put, not being intentional is how so many lawyers lose a million dollars or more over the course of their lifetime. And I don’t want that to be you. So if you want to get to the place where you stop bleeding money, you stop allowing it to slip through your fingers so you can keep more of your money for yourself and start building your net worth. I invite you to come work with me. You can head to work on.com/call And let’s have some time. All right, so that’s it for this week’s episode company coming over on social media. You can find me most often on LinkedIn. My name is rho Thomas or on Instagram at I am rho Thomas. Subscribe to the show and leave a review both of which help more people to find it and please think of a friend or two who you think could use this information and share it with them. As we close out friend I pray that you take the information you learned here apply to your life and open up to the realization that wealth is available to you. As you do that consistently week after week you’ll continue to take steps to regain control of your time, build wealth and live the life of freedom of choice you deserve. Talk to you later.