The Wealth Secret No One Talks About--Make Saving a Bill (Ep. 112)
As a law firm owner, you’re used to juggling client demands, staff concerns, and the never-ending fluctuations in cash flow. But when it comes to building lasting wealth, are you making the most critical move of all? Here’s a simple but powerful shift: treat your savings like a non-negotiable bill.
The Trap Law Firm Owners Fall Into
Many attorneys and law firm partners fall into the same trap: they save what’s left over. After covering payroll, rent, and all those surprise expenses that pop up, there’s rarely much remaining for future goals. Saving becomes an afterthought—and wealth remains elusive.
If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone. The income rollercoaster of running a practice makes it all too easy to put savings on the back burner.
The Mindset Shift: Paying Yourself First
Let’s flip the script. Instead of treating savings as optional, make it a bill—just as important as your rent or mortgage. You’d never skip your office rent because you know the consequences. Your savings deserves that same level of commitment, because those dollars will cover your future “bills”: retirement, healthcare, major life goals, and even that dream vacation.
This “pay yourself first” approach isn’t just psychological—it's proven. When you treat savings as a must-pay expense, you create consistency and discipline. Over time, this builds real wealth and gives you greater control over your financial future.
Overcoming Irregular Income
Unpredictable revenue is part of owning a law practice. Some months are flush, others feel tight. This variability often leads lawyers to delay or skip savings, holding out for a better month that never quite arrives.
Here’s what to do instead:
Automate Your Savings: Set up automatic transfers from your law firm account to a separate savings or investment account every month. Even a modest, consistent amount adds up.
Focus on Percentages: If your income fluctuates, consider saving a fixed percentage of every dollar you earn, rather than a set amount. This keeps savings proportional—and relieves stress during lean months.
Set Up Dedicated Accounts: Use modern banks like Ally or dedicated business banking tools to set up multiple accounts. Allocate funds for taxes, payroll, and—most importantly—personal savings.
Systems Are Key to Success
One reason many successful business owners build wealth isn’t luck or high income—it’s systems. Automating transfers, using dedicated accounts, and sticking to percentage-based savings takes emotion out of the equation. It also frees you from the constant question of “how much can I set aside this month?”
If you’re running payroll for yourself, consider also automating retirement contributions through your firm’s 401(k) or SEP IRA. The more you can make savings automatic, the better your results will be.
Don’t Wait for the “Right Time” to Save
A common objection we hear from law firm owners is: “I’ll start saving when cash flow stabilizes,” or “when that next big client pays.” But the perfect time rarely comes—procrastination is the enemy of financial freedom.
The truth? You can’t afford not to save. Your future self is counting on you to take action now, not later. Even small, regular deposits will multiply over time.
Make Savings Effortless
Ready to start? Here are a few practical tips:
Choose a an easy-to-use bank. Online options like Ally Bank make it simple to set up and nickname multiple savings buckets.
Automate everything. Schedule transfers so saving isn’t dependent on your memory or willpower.
Segment accounts for specific purposes—emergency fund, taxes, vacation, retirement—so you always know where your money is going.
Use financial planning apps like Monarch Money to track your progress and stay motivated.
Start Today—Your Future Self Will Thank You
Building wealth as a law firm owner isn’t about luck or that mythical big payday. It’s about building habits that last. Treat your savings like a bill—consistent, automated, and non-negotiable—and you’ll be on the path to financial independence.
Ready to take control of your future?
Set up your automated savings transfer today. Even $100 a month can make a massive difference over time.
If you want expert guidance in setting up money systems for your law firm or personal finances, schedule a call with Darren Wurz at Wurz Financial Services. We help law firm owners like you build wealth, gain confidence, and achieve true financial freedom.
Connect with Darren Wurz:
Transcript:
Please note the timestamp is synced with the audio player not Youtube.
Darren Wurz [00:00:00]:
What if the secret to building wealth wasn't earning more, but treating savings like your rent? Welcome to the Lawyer Millionaire podcast, helping law firm owners go from grind to greatness. I'm your host, Darren Wurz. You know, most of us human beings save what's left over. The problem is we end up with nothing. With unpredictable income and the pressures of running a law practice, saving often becomes an afterthought for many law firm owners. But what if you flipped the script and treated savings like a non negotiable bill?
Intro [00:00:33]:
We are on a mission to help lawyers and law firm owners maximize wealth and achieve financial independence. Welcome to the Lawyer Millionaire with Darren Wurz from Wurtz Financial Services.
Darren Wurz [00:00:46]:
Hey there and welcome to the show. I'm so glad that you joined us today. First, a quick plug for our book club. If you want to sharpen your money mindset and connect with other law firm owners who are doing the same, join the Lawyer Millionaire Book Club. Each month we dive into a powerful read that. Not each month, each quarter, Sorry. We dive into a powerful read that fuels your growth in business, wealth and life. In fact, right now we're reading Shoe Dog by Phil Knight.
Darren Wurz [00:01:13]:
We have over 80 members in the club. It's totally free and you'll walk away with real strategies you can use. Sign up now@LawyerMillionaire.com all right, let's talk about our topic today, which is treating savings like a bill. You know, it's hard to save sometimes and most of us human beings, we wait to see what's left over before we put anything into our savings. The problem is there's usually not much left over. Let's talk a minute about the psychology behind the paying yourself first method. You know, and profit first is the same concept. If you're familiar with the profit first method methodology, which is treating your profit as a priority and setting aside profit first before all things.
Darren Wurz [00:01:55]:
Well, I've been an advocate of that same concept for years in your personal finances as well. Most people treat savings as optional or leftover. But think about how you think about your mortgage payment or your rent, right? Those are non negotiable bills. When it comes to paying the mortgage or paying the rent, you're going to make sure that that is paid every single month. In fact, there's a that mortgage payments and rent payments come out at the beginning of the month because that's when you're paid, right? That's when they know that you're going to have the money and they want to make sure they get their Cut, Right. And before you put money towards anything else, you're going to make sure that that bill is paid. Well, let's rewire our minds, right? And let's think about savings in the same way. This is a behavioral trick that we can play on ourselves.
Darren Wurz [00:02:46]:
People take bills a lot more seriously than goals. So why not treat your savings just like a bill that's going to make you more consistent, more intentional, and ultimately more successful. And you know what? Your savings is a bill. These are bills you're going to have to pay in the future. You're putting money aside for future bills so you can think of it that way. You're treating your future self the right way. Well, you know, law firm owners often struggle with savings, and there are some reasons why. First of all, irregular income, right? As a business owner, you have fluctuations in your revenue.
Darren Wurz [00:03:23]:
Some months are good, some months are not great. You know, income is up and down and all over the place. Welcome to being a business owner. Right? The inconsistencies in cash flow. And so what happens is when you have that roller coaster of cash flow, you might have a tendency to pay everything and everyone else first and wait to pay yourself or wait for a good month in order to put any money away. The problem is then those good months are far and few. Between or when they do come, there's something else that comes up that needs your money. There's always something that needs to be paid for.
Darren Wurz [00:03:59]:
The ups and downs in cash flow also lead to emotional challenges. It can make us. It can make us afraid. It can make us scared to make to save money. It can make us scared to pay ourselves appropriately. And a common mistake I see among many law firm owners is prioritizing cash flow over personal wealth. Right? You know, you want to make sure that the cash flow in the firm is healthy, but you need to make sure you're paying yourself enough. And I see law firm owners all the time who lower their pay, who are barely squeaking by in terms of their own salary and paying themselves in order to make sure that the firm is operating successfully.
Darren Wurz [00:04:42]:
If that's happening to you, there's a problem, right? And we've got to fix the cash flow issue in the practice. If you're not paying yourself first, you're running a business that feeds everyone but yourself. So that's kind of a different topic, right? Making sure that you're paying yourself in your practice, but at the same concept applies to your personal finances as well. So why should we treat savings like a bill? Well, savings is a bill As I mentioned to your future self, your future self is going to have bills, housing, health care, lifestyle, possibly helping your kids or grandkids. If you ever plan on retiring, you're going to have bills, right? So by not by skipping, right? By skipping savings and not putting the money in the savings accounts, in the retirement accounts, in the investment accounts, you are skipping out. That's money that your future self is not going to have to pay bills. You wouldn't skip a mortgage payment. So don't skip your retirement payment.
Darren Wurz [00:05:43]:
Be nice to your future self. In fact, think about that when you're actually, when you're setting up your savings, when you're putting it on autopilot, right? Shift that mindset from optional to non negotiable and be nice to your future self. One of the biggest secrets to making savings a bill is to automate the process, right? And if you work at a big company, this is easy for you because many times you have a 401k plan and sometimes you're just automatically set up and you're automatically set up with a certain percentage and that percentage automatically goes up each year and you're automatically put into a certain target date fund. And so you're kind of automatically put into this savings mode. Let me tell you a quick little story, right? In a former life, I was a teacher. You may or may not know that I taught 8th and 9th grade science for five years in Cincinnati, Ohio. It was my first career. You know, one of the magical things about teaching is I learned the power of savings, right? Because as a teacher, you are forced to put away 13% of your paycheck.
Darren Wurz [00:06:52]:
You don't get a choice in the matter. 13% of your paycheck is going to be withheld and put into the teacher retirement system. Now in Ohio, you have two different retirement systems to choose from. You have a pension system, a traditional pension, and you have one that's a. Well, that's a defined benefit plan and then you have a defined contribution plan. And that's like a, you know, 401k type of plan, right? I chose the 401k plan. My dad's a financial advisor. I'm like, yes, I want to invest the money.
Darren Wurz [00:07:21]:
I want the money to be my own. I'm going to let it grow, like let, you know, make the money mine. I'll invest it, I'll let it grow. Now the cool thing, the other cool thing is that the state matches dollar for dollar. So as a teacher, 26% of your paycheck is going into retirement. Every year. Now, I only taught for five years and the first year I only made $36,000. But at the end of five years, I had way more than a year's worth of salary saved up.
Darren Wurz [00:07:51]:
I had, I think I had close to $70,000 saved up in a five year time span. Because not only was I investing, it was growing. But that is the power of compounding. Now, as a teacher, I was poor. I, you know, did not have two nickels to rub together or two dimes or whatever the phrase is, right? But because I was forced to save and had no choice in the matter, I was able to accumulate a lot of money. Gosh, if we could just all do the same thing, you know, if we could all just lower our lifestyle by 13% and take that 13% chunk and sock it away in our investments, wow, we would really accrue some wealth, wouldn't we? That's the power of automating the process. Set up an automatic transfer from your checking or savings into your investment accounts. Autopilot removes the emotion and it removes the inconsistency.
Darren Wurz [00:08:49]:
And use tools to help you. You know, one of my favorite tools is Ally Bank. Ally is an online bank. They don't have any locations, but they make it really, really easy to set up multiple accounts. So, you know, profit first. I'm a big fan of the Profit first system. You can use the Relay Bank. I use Relay bank, you know, to help me.
Darren Wurz [00:09:10]:
They make it very simple to set up separate accounts and automate the process of your cash flow. You can do the same thing in your personal life with your personal cash flow. Unfortunately, Relay doesn't do personal bank accounts. I wish that they did, but Ally does personal bank accounts. And you can set them up very, very easily. You know, you just, you go on your computer, you type a few buttons and boom, you can set up a new account. You know, traditional banks, they make it such a tedious, long process to set up accounts. I don't know why it is, you know, brick and mortar banks are just so difficult to work with.
Darren Wurz [00:09:42]:
Ally is great, right? You can set up multiple accounts for your different savings purposes and then they have different savings tools so they can round up your purchases and then take those extra pennies and sock them away in your savings. And then they have this, this like automatic feature that can find extra savings for you and sock it away into your savings account for you. So it's a really powerful tool. And then the other thing I like is much like the Profit first system. You can divide up a bank account into percentages and you can distribute money in percentages to. To sub accounts within an account. It's banking based budgeting, right? So you can have, within your main savings account or checking account, you can have a mortgage sub account and a grocery sub account. And it's pretty cool.
Darren Wurz [00:10:29]:
So anyway, Ally is not a sponsor of this show. I just like them and I use them. So there you go. That's one tool. There are a lot of other tools that you can use as well. And you know, this is one of the great benefits of running payroll, once you get to the step where you're running payroll for yourself and running payroll for your business and you're putting yourself on payroll, is that you can then automate this process, right? You can set up a 401k for your business, you can participate in that 401k and you can automate the process of putting money into your 401k as a participant in the firm's 401k plan. So pick a day each month and pay. Make that pay yourself day, right? But better yet, automate the process.
Darren Wurz [00:11:12]:
Go right now and set up an autopay, right? Set up an investment account and set up an auto pay 10. It could be $10 a month. I don't care. Just get it going. You know, systems really are the secret. And for law firm owners, systems are the name of the game. Make sure you're paying yourself a salary. And you know, if you're an LLC and you're taking a draw, make sure it's a consistent draw, right? A lot of times I get questions from law firm owners about like, you know, how should I structure my draw? You know, make your draw monthly.
Darren Wurz [00:11:40]:
Figure out what you need on your in your personal life to meet your expenses and make that your income. You can do it, right? Set it up on auto. There's no reason you can't set up an automatic monthly draw for yourself. You're running payroll, have a draw on top of that for yourself, you know, and, and by the way, this is just a caveat, but I would. Oh my gosh. I was watching TikTok the other day and I saw this ridiculous TikTok video about running, you know, how you shouldn't run payroll if you're an llc, you should take draws instead. And if you're running payroll, it's illegal and the IRS will come get you. Okay? So just as a.
Darren Wurz [00:12:16]:
This is a sidebar, but don't get your tax advice from TikTok, although I am on TikTok. So anyway, sidebar. There, but systems, right? That's where running payroll becomes very, very beneficial for you because you can have an automatic amount of money going into a savings account for yourself. And you know, much like the profit first system, you can use percentages in your personal life, right? If your personal income is fluctuating, you can use a percentage based system and you can have a certain percentage go into this account for bills and have another percentage go into this account for general spending and have another percentage go over here for your savings. Segment your accounts into different purposes like that and make those allocations and have, have different buckets for different purposes for your emergency fund, for long term spending goals for retirement, etc. This is so critical to get right, you know, because I see so many heartbreaking stories, you know, the difference between consistent savers and inconsistent savers. Those who have been good and diligent about saving money over time for many, many years have built up massive amounts of wealth just by doing that, right? And I've seen it, I've seen it in clients that I work, that I've worked with, right? I have a, I'll tell you some stories. Law firm.
Darren Wurz [00:13:43]:
You know, two partners owned a law firm. They came to me because they wanted to set up a SEP IRA for their business. And in the meantime, you know, they had extra money that they wanted to invest. So I suggested, hey, you know, let's just set up a brokerage account. Let's put, you know, $1,000 a month away. And before you knew it, thousand dollars a month became $2,000 a month. And before you know it, both of these firm owners had accumulated a couple hundred thousand dollars apiece in after tax savings in their investments because they were just consistent about it. They put it on auto pay.
Darren Wurz [00:14:17]:
And you know what, even if it's a stretch, even if you have to undo it sometimes, don't worry about it. In fact, this one client of mine, sometimes once in a while he reaches out to me, he's like, hey, you know what, can we skip this month? Because this month things were a little lean and we'll skip that month for him, right? You know, but setting it up and having it that way makes it like you just know it's coming out and it's non negotiable. So schedule it, make it real, make it happen. You know, some common objections that I get, you know, I can't afford to save right now. Maybe you're thinking that right now, maybe you can't afford to save right now. But let me, let me reframe that for you, you can't afford not to your future self can't afford for you not to save. Another objection I hear is my income is unpredictable. Well, that's exactly why you need consistency in your savings.
Darren Wurz [00:15:10]:
Because you need a bucket of money you can pull from during those moments of unpredictability. Another one I hear I'll wait until the next big client comes in or I'm waiting until whatever this case resolves or that. You know, procrastination really is the enemy of progress. Most people who are waiting until the perfect time, the perfect time never comes until you're 65 and by then it's too late. You don't build wealth with good intentions. You build it with consistent action tools and tips. Well, bank accounts, I really like the Ally Bank. There are other bank account systems out there like that.
Darren Wurz [00:15:48]:
Make sure you're using a bank that makes it easy for you to set up that automation process and use apps and things. We really like the Monarch Money app to track your savings and track your goals and consider some kind of a profit first system for yourself and for your law practice. You can do the same thing. In fact, I do this in my own personal life. My partner and I, we have one account, it's called our spending account. And a certain percentage of monthly income goes into that spending account. Now the beautiful thing about having that saving that special spending account is I have zero bills that come out of that account. So I always know whatever is in that account, I can spend it, I can spend every dime and nothing bad is going to happen because there are no other bills, there are no checks being written out of it, there is nothing coming out of that account.
Darren Wurz [00:16:45]:
So just a little helpful hack for you there. Maybe that's helpful for you in managing your own savings. But here's my challenge for you today. This week, treat your savings like a bill, Set up an automatic transfer or increase your automatic transfer even if it's just $100. Make it non negotiable. Your future self will thank you, I guarantee it. You know, building wealth isn't about luck or hitting some big payday. It's about creating habits that compound over time.
Darren Wurz [00:17:17]:
When you pay yourself first, you're not just saving money, you are reclaiming control, creating peace of mind and building a future where you aren't chained to your practice. Wouldn't that be great, right? Not a future where you don't necessarily not practice law, but a future where you have the freedom to do whatever you want because you are not chained to your practice, to your business and so many businesses for so many business owners, so many law firms for so many law firm owners become traps that we are chained to and unable to escape from freedom. That's what we're all about here. If you want help setting up systems like Profit first or Cash Flow Systems for your for your personal life, or creating a business plan that aligns your personal and financial goals, jump on a call with me and I would love to share with you how we work with our clients and show you our one page strategic business plan. The link to Book A Call is in the show Notes. Also, if you enjoyed today's episode, leave us a review. It helps more law firm owners find the show. And finally, don't forget to join our book club.
Darren Wurz [00:18:28]:
Just go over to lawyermillionaire.com and click on Community up at the top. Well, that's a wrap for this episode of the Lawyer Millionaire. I'm your host, Darren Wurz. It's been great being here with you. I wish you great success. See you next time.
Outro [00:18:47]:
Thank you for listening to the Lawyer Millionaire. Click the Follow button below to be notified when new episodes become available. This content has been made available for informational and educational purposes only. This content is not intended to represent investing or tax advice. Always seek the advice of a qualified investment or tax advisor with any questions you may have regarding your own financial circumstances.