athlete

Recently, the NFL draft was held in Chicago to the delight of sports fanatics everywhere. Between draft picks, the announcers mentioned something that caught my attention; all rookies will attend the NFL Financial Education Program. Current and former players can also take advantage of the program to help them better manage and plan out their financial future.

Many athletes find themselves abruptly transitioning from struggling collegiate athlete to a multi-millionaire professional, almost overnight. Handling all of the excess that can come from sudden wealth would be difficult for most people to handle, let alone a twenty something year old. Think about all the stories of lottery winners who go bankrupt after winning massive prizes. History has proven time and again, that dealing with large sums of money without the proper financial education can have disastrous results.

The transition from worker to retiree isn’t too different than what these athletes go through. Think about it, on the day you retire, your life changes in a pretty big way. And just like the rookies, you’ll be in charge of the largest sum of money you’ve ever had to deal with. The decisions you make will involve all of the assets and savings you’ve amassed during your lifetime. Not to add any pressure, but those funds have to get you through the rest of your life.

Working hard and saving money were only the beginning to the equation. Now you need a strategy to protect, grow, and distribute those funds. You’ll be faced with decisions that require knowledge in the disciplines of taxes, investments, insurance, and the law. It’s easy to see how this enormous change can be overwhelming without the right guidance and preparation.

Unlike the rookies, you will not have a whole career ahead of you to repair major damage caused to your net worth because of bad decision making. If a financial education program is deemed vital for sports professionals, maybe it’s not a bad idea to seek some education on your finances. We offer complimentary, no obligation financial reviews so we can help educate people on how their portfolios are performing. We’ll take the time to understand what your retirement goals are and design an investment strategy to help you achieve them.

So even if your dreams of making it to the NFL never came true, you can prepare for retirement just like a professional athlete by getting educated in the world of personal finance.