30 for 30 broke reflection

Watching 30 for 30 broke made me realize and learn about a whole other side to athletic financials, and what happens to athletes after they finish their professional careers. These professional athletes make the peak of there income normally in there mid to late twenties. Some of them come from living in poverty and go to getting millions of dollars from their contracts in a matter of weeks. Because of this early exposure to such excessive amounts of money they don’t have the experience in life to know that they need to plan and save their money for the future. In this time where NFL athletes contracts where excessively rising, America was going through a period where there were a lot of spenders but not savers. This reflected on the athletes spending money on the latest clothes, shoes, cars, and flashy houses. The athletes were not only competitive on the field but they were also competitive off the field, in the change rooms, and parking lots. This is were the term “Keeping up with the Joneses” came from. Athletes spent extravagant amounts of money on their wants. This started to become a competition. Not everyone on the team was a million air but everyone wanted to look like one so they would spend as much as a millionaire, which would put them in debt. These athletes were spending so much money they didn’t know how to stop their spending habits once their career was over. Since some of these athletes came from poor backgrounds people started to rely on them for money and because of their relationships with these people it was hard for the athletes to say no. They felt guilty because they thought it was their responsibility to help the people out that helped them. Since these players were paying multiple mortgages, when their careers did end they couldn’t afford to pay the other mortgages. They didn’t know how to tell there friends or loved ones that they couldn’t provide financial help anymore, which greatly effected them in the future. Since these athletes were so young and didn’t think about their life after they did retire, or assumed they would be playing for a certain number of years. When they did get injured or the team cut their contract, because they weren’t saving and planning they didn’t have money to recoil on. This decision not to plan and save was the worst decision some of these pro athletes made, and effected them many years after they stop gaining such a huge income. If I was a financial planner I would make sure these athletes were saving money for the future and I would give them a budget that would keep their spending habits to a minimum. I would also educate my client about planning for the future after his/her sports career is over, and making sure she/he finds another skill to pursue once they end their athletic career. The money management lessons the average person can take away from this is always save money, know what you have and when you can afford to splurge on your wants while still being able to afford your needs, and have a plan for the future.

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