The aim of the Money Smart Athlete Blog is to provide athletes worldwide with the tools to become money smart and help them make savvy financial decisions. We created this blog to transmit and share the knowledge we have accumulated as financial and business advisors during the past two decades.
For decades, female athletes have been fighting an uphill battle in the world of sports. Despite improvements made over time, stereotyping and biased public opinion towards female athletes remains an issue which can have catastrophic effects on their self-image and overall athletic performance.
Even though steps have been made in the right direction, gender inequality is still prevalent and poses a great issue, especially in the world of sports. Despite the progress made over the years, income inequality and the gender pay gap between female and male athletes remains a cause for concern, affecting the level of financial independence of female athletes, as well as their ability to live a financially sustainable life.
According to public perception, it is common to think that there is a clash between motherhood and peak performance in elite sports. Top athletic performance requires such high levels of commitment and dedication to the sport which means that women often need to sacrifice family life, especially when taking into consideration that the window of fertility and peak performance tends to overlap. Unlike male athletes, female athletes are forced to decide about whether they will continue to train and perform in sports, take a step back to embrace motherhood or attempt to take on the major challenge of combining the two, given that the sports industry and society may not be their greatest supporters in this process.
With a significant rise in female sports over the years, women have managed to defy all odds and thrive on what once seemed to be a male-dominated field. However, women still have to face a multitude of challenges in a wide range of fields in their everyday lives, due to the additional pressures and obstacles society and institutions heavily impose upon them. Female athletes have to juggle multiple roles, being athletes who need to succeed in their sport, being mothers who need to look after their children, being public personas who need to act as role-models, being wives and partners, as well as being financially healthy bread-winners.
Financial distress is a fact of life and a lot of people including athletes will experience it once or even multiple times throughout the course of their lives. It is more likely to affect the have-nots; however, the rich are not immune to it. Financial distress refers to individuals who are simply unable to generate sufficient revenue to meet their financial obligations.
As we highlighted in our previous article, setting financial goals is a vital component of constructing a robust financial plan for athletes. However, merely setting financial goals is insufficient to ensure their attainment. To successfully reach your financial objectives, a well-crafted action plan is crucial. Achieving financial stability and success as an athlete is a lifelong pursuit that necessitates patience, determination, and unwavering discipline.
Goal-setting is a crucial part of the financial planning process for athletes aiming to transform their financial dreams into reality. Once athletes determine and assess their current financial situation, the next step is deciding where they want to be financially over a period of time; that is developing and setting financial goals.
Athletes succeeding in professional sports may find themselves acquiring extravagant amounts of money almost overnight. However, these same athletes may find themselves drowning in debt just as fast, as we have seen happen with boxing champion Mike Tyson, figure skating legend Dorothy Hamill and NFL quarterback Vince Young, among many others.
A new year comes with new possibilities, opportunities as well as potential unexpected shortfalls. Therefore, athletes need to plan their finances ahead, organizing them proactively in order to stay on track with the goals and objectives they set for the new year and beyond. The only way athletes can reach their full potential is by turning these goals into reality. It all begins with identifying their current financial situation, as well as the financial position they would ideally want to be in, in order to come up with a structured plan on how to bridge this gap; fulfilling their financial goals and dreams in a way that adheres to their personal values. Organizing your finances can be simpler than you think, given that you have the discipline, dedication and flexibility required to follow through and be consistent.
It was a first for the worldwide football community to watch the 2022 FIFA World Cup taking place during November and December, instead of the typical June and July. There was a lot of anticipation for the tournament, not because of the dates on which it was taking place but rather because it felt like it was “a last dance” for one of the greatest footballers of all time, Lionel Messi.
Kylian Mbappé Lottin is a French professional soccer player who plays forward for PSG and the French national team. He is considered to be one of the world's top youngest soccer players, and is admired for his incredible speed, accuracy, perseverance and scoring ability, when it comes to his performance on the field. At 24 years old, he has already managed to achieve more than most professional soccer players ever will; winning the hearts of his fans all around the world.
Born in Ohio in 1997, Simone Biles is one of the world’s greatest gymnasts, leaving her mark in the world of sports, not only due to her incredible performance but also due to her strong and charismatic personality.
Giannis Antetokounmpo, known to many as the Greek Freak, a professional basketball player for the Milwaukee Bucks of the NBA, has a life story which seems a lot like an inspirational tale. Giannis has managed to inspire crowds and win them over not only with his phenomenal performance on the court but also through the way he managed to defy all odds, come out of extreme poverty and rise to the top.
Happy New Year to all of our Money Smart Athlete Blog readers. We will begin 2023 with an inspirational theme. When it comes to defining what it means for a person to be inspiring to you, there is no clear-cut answer. In the context of athletes, one can be considered inspirational due to their performance and athletic accomplishments; being able to set an athletic goal and do everything in their power to achieve it. Achieving their goals through hard work, perseverance, self-discipline and dedication, can truly empower those who follow and admire athletes.
Athletes experience stress from multiple sources. They must attend countless hours of practice each day, travel to distant competitions at various times, and maintain consistently excellent performance. This tension is compounded by the pressure of maintaining a positively perceived public image, when it comes to news media and fans. Having a large number of supporters along with the media constantly following and scrutinizing their every move can be tremendously stressful for athletes, having an impact on their performance and, in some circumstances, their mental wellbeing.
There is no doubt that high-performance athletes become naturally recognizable as they catch the interest of spectators, finding themselves in the spotlight due to their athletic accomplishments.
An increasing number of professional athletes are shifting their focus into building their public image, the way the public (or fans) perceive them. Allowing fans to get a glimpse of their lifestyle can help them gain a sports celebrity status that will not only bring them fame but will also allow them to create alternative income streams, additional to their sports related income.
We have all seen phenomenal athletes, who were once idolized, having their reputation torn down due to their reckless behavior. Numerous athletes who had been highly successful in their sport, ended up jeopardizing all their hard work by acting carelessly in their personal life, tarnishing their name and the general public’s perception of them. In the era of social media and cancel culture, a hero can turn into a villain in a split second.
How the general public, and especially fans and supporters, view and perceive a professional athlete as a sports personality but also as a public figure can undoubtedly affect not only their brand’s strength but also their mental wellbeing and consequently their sports performance. A positive public perception can elevate an athlete in all aspects, leading to an upward spiral, whilst a negative public perception can lead to a vicious cycle of failure, which can be very difficult yet not impossible to get out of. An athlete who acts recklessly in their athletic and personal life may end up putting their reputation on the line, risking losing everything they worked so hard for in a split second. However, with proper branding and marketing efforts perceptions can change to a certain extent, and an athlete’s positive public image can be recovered.
