What do football players and doctors have in common?

[RogueDadMD]

From a series of articles on si.com:

http://www.si.com/nfl/2016/08/26/womens-week-nfl-wives-rachel-terrill-finances

"In 2014, the median household income in the United States was $53,657. The same year, the median salary for an NFL player was roughly $770,000. But despite that drastic difference, money issues are as prevalent in the NFL as they are in many other American homes. Quantifying what it means to have “enough” is relative and someone else will always have more than you. I remember when a friend retired in his early thirties with over $15 million in savings, a veteran NFL wife asked me, “What are they going to do now?”

“Whatever they want,” I answered. “They have more than $15 million invested, so they won’t ever have to work again.”

“But they can’t retire off of that amount. Not for the rest of their lives,” she answered. In her mind, that could never be enough."

Given that the average doctor has a much level of education than the average NFL player, this should just continue to reinforce that education/intelligence doesn't mean anything when it comes to money management.  The average physician and the average NFL player seem to be at the same skill level when it comes to managing money.

[The White Coat Investor]

Athletes, musicians, performers, and doctors. All have high income from specialized skills and talent, not business acumen.

[canadianoutlaw]

This issue really hit mainstream with Pablo Torre's article in 2009. Pretty interesting read. Agree that doctor's have much to learn from these stories as well

http://www.si.com/vault/2009/03/23/105789480/how-and-why-athletes-go-broke

[Zaphod]

They make some terrible buys, have even less money skills and are in a position where the "being rich" and acting the part is much worse than it is for a physician. I was actually reading stories yesterday about crazy things athletes buy, and sometimes they had no contract but would by multi-million dollar yachts/houses, etc...its wild. Its a little different.

The other interesting thing about athletes, actors, etc...is that its earned money so their taxes are significant, no nice loophole like when you manage money.

[RogueDadMD]

It certainly is a little different. The average NFL player can't just go part time and back to full time or choose to work an extra 3,4 or 10 years to maintain a certain lifestyle.

However the lack of basic financial understanding of how to maintain a lifestyle or not require a certain lifestyle is a shared trait.

[Zaphod]

PEMDoc wrote:

It certainly is a little different. The average NFL player can’t just go part time and back to full time or choose to work an extra 3,4 or 10 years to maintain a certain lifestyle.

However the lack of basic financial understanding of how to maintain a lifestyle or not require a certain lifestyle is a shared trait.

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I think they also have more people trying to take advantage of them, which sadly is usually their family and friends, but this also happens to doctors. However, everything is just on a larger scale I guess with the bigger pay.

Its also a bit exaggerated with the wide pay discrepancies on the team if they go places together, that was an interesting story. It'd be like expecting the med student or intern to pay as much as the neurosurgeon in the group.

[PhysicianOnFIRE]

I wrote about a few NFL players and other athletes who actually live well below their means. Odds are these guys (linked) will become truly wealthy.

 

[RogueDadMD]

PoF -- there are definitely success stories out there in every profession. I know Kawahi Leonard of the Spurs is a great saver. On the whole they do worse as a profession than us despite higher income. But as Zaphod mentioned, I think there are even more people trying to take advantage of them then of doctors.

[Dicast]

Stuff like this brings me back to the reality of the world.  I think many of us spend so much time thinking about getting our savings % up we forget about our colleagues who are traveling in the other direction.  Last week one of the guys I work with was telling about a recent Lamborghini purchase by one of the contractors in our group.  Here I am coming up on my one year anniversary of net worth $0 and there are docs my age dropping more on a single car than they have in a retirement account!

Apparently the "smoke'm while ya got em" mentality is very alive.

[canadianoutlaw]

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/08/nfl-star-michael-bennett-keeps-his-checks-until-the-end-of-the-season.html

[CordMcNally]

To be fair, a majority of Americans are awful with money. There are many people who are terrible with money within the financial industry. It's just a product of the "now" mentality and keeping up with the Joneses.

[Tim]

The beauty of WCI and POF the simplicity of the message. The shorter the earnings period the higher the savings percentage is needed.
Telling a person to “budget” and be “frugal” and “live like a resident” goes out the window when the crowd one runs with have high incomes but great disparities. Failures are inevitable.
•Gross pay-taxes-retirement savings = spending
Please note, debt only shifts the time of spending, paying later rather than sooner. A $500k house or a $5mm house is still spending out of the Gross pay.

The key is how long you work and how long you need to support the retirement period. PoF’s spreadsheet works wonders. Realistically, how long will one make the big bucks? The rest is just math. The equations should be required in about 9th grade.
Over spending in ignorance is the problem. Spend first and short the retirement savings needs to be flipped.

Sometimes the easy things are really hard to face, like you don’t have and more money to spend. Some “good agents “ or FA’s run the numbers and put an athlete on a monthly allowance, making sure the taxes and the savings come first. Buckets for things like houses, rent or cars. It’s a dirty job, most physicians here are doing it themselves.

[Kamban]

canadianoutlaw wrote:

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/08/nfl-star-michael-bennett-keeps-his-checks-until-the-end-of-the-season.html

Click to expand...

But if was a bit smarter he might be better off direct depositing to a money market account earning some income till he decides to invest or keep some aside at the end of the season.

[Kamban]

Zaphod wrote:

I think they also have more people trying to take advantage of them, which sadly is usually their family and friends, but this also happens to doctors.

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These athletes are like lottery winners. Once people see how much money they earn, old friends and family come out of the woodwork with outstretched hands. And then there are scoundrels willing to invest their money in "quick get rich schemes" and before you know, they are bankrupt.

[MPMD]

If I live to be 102 I will never be able to understand the mindset of spending all of your money, not even doing rudimentary tracking, and saving nothing.

The entire culture of professional sports is a toxic mess from my vantage point. I don't enjoy sports at all and consume <5 hours of sports on a yearly basis, usually much less. The entire system seems to be riddled with all sorts of problems.

I have zero interest in watching grown men (or women) punch each other, scream at referees, pout, dive, and/or generally act like children. While youth sports might teach important lessons in diligence and sportsmanship, professional sports seem to systematically reward and tolerate the exact opposite. Every so often I'll see a CNN clip of some brawl in an MLB game and think, "explain to me why those people aren't being arrested and charged w/ assault?"