By Brandyn Campbell, Player Engagement Insider
December was a good month for Green Bay defensive end Mike Daniels. The Packers secured a playoff spot, and Daniels was handsomely rewarded for one of the best seasons of his career with a lucrative multi-year deal. To celebrate, Daniels made it an offseason priority to gain the knowledge needed to ensure that the wealth afforded to him lasts a lifetime by attending the Personal Finance Bootcamp, held April 4 – 7 in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, with his wife, Heaven.
The opportunity to participate in the event was a no-brainer for Daniels. “We have a lot of opportunities in the NFL to become educated on things we don’t have the time to focus on with our football careers,” Daniels said. “I appreciate that the NFL holds these bootcamps, and I’m going to try to take advantage of everything the NFL has in store for us here.”
Learning to create a lifestyle that will sustain wealth over the course of a lifetime and beyond can be hard in a league full of young men with lots of money.
“In the locker room you hear a lot more talk about keeping up with the Joneses—‘you see this car he has, you see these shoes’,” Daniels said. “When you’re here, everybody is more concerned with their financial future. It’s always good to network with people who think the same way.”
Daniels relished the chance to learn from presenters like Patrick Kerney, who are deeply familiar with the challenges of the NFL lifestyle, as well as how to overcome them. “It’s good to see that we have so many people who are dedicated to our financial education,” Daniels said. “Patrick Kerney is somebody who’s been there, done that. He’s a guy who speaks our language, but he has a lot of knowledge that we don’t.”
Kerney, and others at the bootcamp, have stressed the chance to create generational wealth, a notion that Daniels takes even further to include generational knowledge. “My wife and I want to set up a great knowledge of finances and pass it down to our kids, and our children’s children,” Daniels said. “Nobody talks about that. Everybody talks about the now, or even just their kids, but not their great, great grandkids. We can have an effect on them.”
Daniels’ sons are too young to understand the lessons presented in the finance bootcamp now, but their father has plans for them in the future. “I plan on coming back and bringing them when they’re older because it’s very important to educate the youth on this,” Daniels stressed. “I wish I could bring my whole family.”
Daniels is maximizing each session and looks forward to applying the lessons learned through the bootcamp, as well as having financial conversations with loved ones. He encourages fellow players to do the same. “I highly recommend this to every NFL player,” Daniels said. “A lot of us didn’t go to school for this and information like this isn’t easily available to the general public, so the information we get should be shared.”