30 for 30 Broke
By: Josh Secrieru
After watching the documentary “30 for 30 Broke,” I have a better understanding of how life is for professional athletes. The documentary includes how athletes spend their money, going broke, how it affected them, what they regret, and how to prevent it happening to anyone. I think the root of the problem are for these professional athletes is not keeping their money organized and safe. They don’t keep their money safe because they don’t keep an account of how much they spend, instead they just spend freely on whatever expenses they want. Even though sport players have a huge income, most of them eventually go bankrupt after a few years of retirement. Salaries in the 1990s changed due to the economic change. The term “Keeping up with the Joneses”, means to buy or have something one has, then buying the better version to keep up with the style. For example: if one person buys a new 2015 Porsche, then someone buys a 2016 Porsche to keep up. This term leads to bad money making decisions because people buy things that he/she does not need, and wastes tons of money, which you could save or invest. Money making lessons I could learn from these stories are: keep your money safe, have secure bank accounts, always know your surroundings, have money for a pension plan, etc. If I were a financial planner, I would handle a professional’s money with great care. I would have restrictions on how many things you can buy, budget for recreational items, limited houses, and keep some of your money in banks for pension, bills, or savings. I think the worst financial decision some these athletes made are having too many wives or girlfriends, who are all essentially gold diggers. Some players have one wife, some have over seven. When a player has a wife or girlfriend, and they have a child, the child requires child support, and items they desire until they are 19 years of age. Also many players have several or more ex-wives, which sometimes they don’t obtain a pre-nuptial agreement, then they could lose half or more of their money because they were too lazy to get one. Also, some women get pregnant by a player on purpose, so they can acquire money from the father, for the mother and the child. In conclusion, if you ever become a professional athlete, always keep your money safe and secure, do not spend too much, save a large pension, and be easy with women.
