Professional Athlete
Investing For Retirement
I am an active professional soccer player by day and a financial writer by night. I’ve had a successful soccer career so
far, having played over 300 professional games in countries such as the UK, Germany, Holland, Poland
etc. I’ve also had the honour of representing my country and playing at the highest level of club competition in Europe
– Champions League and Europa League. I started investing, to make
sure that I have another income source in place, by the time I retire from football.
About me
My Story
In my late 20’s I also started to document my investing journey publicly, to inspire and educate others. That has led to building an awesome community of investors across various platforms.
It hasn’t always been smooth sailing for me. I have been released from my club many times and having to move to another country without notice. I’ve spent months without knowing where the next paycheck will come from. This instability and unpredictability is part of being a professional athlete.
What happens
What happens after pro sports?
- There are very few athletes who can live off their endorsement deals after finishing their career. It’s maybe 0.01%.
- According to Sports Illustrated, a massive 78% of NFL players file for bankruptcy within 2 years of retiring.
- 60% of NBA players suffer the same fate within 5 years of retiring.
- Allen Iverson, one of the most famous basketball players of all time, earned around $154 million during his playing career plus another $30-50 million in endorsements. He told a judge in Georgia in 2012 that he was broke and couldn’t pay his debt for…jewelry. Iverson was known for travelling with a huge entourage, buying them expensive gifts and blowing millions on gambling. He also had large child support obligations.
- This goes to show that it doesn’t matter how much you earn – what matters is how you allocate that money.
- While you think, that this will not happen to you, it’s likely that you don’t spend nearly enough time thinking about your life and finances after your career.
- The stakes are very high, because although earnings are high – the earnings window is very small. We make all of our money in our 20s and early 30s. Decisions made during that time will either make or break our financial future.
- Set up a clear investment plan and allocate your money accordingly – you have a great chance of setting yourself up for life.
- Blow your career earnings on fancy cars, jewellery and parties – you will likely never get another chance of building wealth.
- Once sports career earnings are gone, it’s too late to start building your portfolio. After all it’s difficult to build a decent-sized investment portfolio starting at 35 working at McDonalds (no offence).
- As harsh as it sounds, we rarely obtain useful skills during our career that could be applied outside of sports so we are very unlikely to receive a similar salary for doing something else apart from sports.
- I’m not here to underestimate you. When I say this, I am talking to myself as much as I am talking to you. That’s why I started this blog. My mission is to help athletes make better financial decisions and to make them early.
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How I Invest
- My goal is to have a passive income stream covering all my expenses in retirement.
- The plan for achieving it, is investing around 40% of each salary into income-producing assets. Income-producing assets that I have chosen for the job, are dividend growth stocks.
- You can read my article here, explaining why they are the best assets for my personal goals. Essentially, stocks represent ownership stakes in businesses. So I am buying small pieces of great companies that share their profits with all shareholders.
- Companies share their profits with owners through regular dividend payments.
- Dividends are paid in cash – so my investing success doesn’t depend on stock price appreciation. What matters, is business performance. If the company I’m invested in keeps turning a profit and sharing it with me – the shareholder, I’m set. This slice of company profits from diversified investments is what I will live off once I retire from professional sports.
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