In the exciting world of sports, not all stars are in the spotlight. Some heroes work quietly in the background, helping athletes manage their money wisely. These background heroes include financial advisors who are just as important to an athlete's success off the field, as an MVP is during the game. They are the ones who help athletes build a secure and long-lasting future.
In the realm of professional sports, athletes often capture our admiration with their remarkable physical abilities and their capacity to astound us on the field, court, or track. They break records, win championships, and attain levels of excellence that remain mere aspirations for most of us. Yet, concealed beneath the spotlight lies a challenging reality that confronts many athletes: the limited duration of their earnings. When athletes make the leap to professional sports, they frequently undergo a significant financial transformation, shifting from modest financial means to substantially larger incomes, all while lacking substantial experience in financial management. Moreover, finding a dependable financial advisor can prove challenging, especially for athletes embarking on international careers. Considering the short career of athletes, typically spanning less than a decade, it underscores the heightened significance of prudent financial management for those who enjoy substantial earnings for a brief window of time.
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 critical realization professional athletes must make is that retirement from sports- voluntary or involuntary- is inevitable; with the average age of retirement being slightly below 30, depending on their sport. With a short earnings window, and numerous cases of athletes declaring bankruptcy right after retirement, it would be ideal for athletes to find that they have fully prepared and planned all along, when the day of retirement comes. With statistics reporting, that more than three-quarters of former NFL players were bankrupt within two years of retirement and 60% of former NBA players went broke within five years of retirement, planning from day one of gaining professional status is crucial. Professional athletes find themselves at the peak of their earnings early on in their sports career, creating the need for proper management and preparation to ensure that it lasts a long time.
