By Patrick Kerney
Vice President of Player Engagement
When we’re active players in the NFL, it becomes easy to think about money as if it is water: spilling it doesn’t matter because there is plenty more that is easy to acquire.
To some extent, every one of us has felt this way at some point, but let’s really think about this:
- While there is a lot of money to be made in the NFL, we all know it isn’t easy to acquire. We pay for it with our blood, sweat, and tears…..literally.
- In terms of there being “plenty more,” we all know this becomes less and less so with each passing year. No matter how accomplished we are as NFL players, we all know our playing days will undoubtedly end while we are still relatively young.
This plays in to why we should track our expenses. To dig down deeper, think about our lives as a “flight.” We tend not to think about expenses as much when we’re playing because we grow to believe there is always a “fueling station” nearby. But because we all know for certain that our playing days will end, we know for certain that our “plane will head out over the ocean” at some point. This is why tracking our expenses is so important.
By knowing how fast we burn through money, we learn so much that helps us in transition:
- How long we have until we are out of cash.
- What cuts we can make to lengthen the time until we are out of cash.
- Whether we might be able to actually improve our lifestyle.
- Whether we have enough cash flow to see us through internships, degree completion, graduate education or other brand-building efforts.
- Whether we can pursue a career that we know we’ll love.
- Whether we have to force ourselves into a less appealing career because we need the paycheck.
- What, if any, types of investments are appropriate for each of us.
I wish I was being overdramatic when I relate running out of money to a plane running out of fuel, but sadly the consequences can wind up the same. Financial ruin has many strong tentacles that reach deep into every other part of our lives. Think about the following situations potentially brought on by financial distress:
- Financial difficulty is the #1 cause for divorce in the United States.
- It’s hard to take care of our bodies in retirement if we have to work all the time just to pay the bills.
- We have no time or money to give to our faith lives.
- The inability to provide life’s necessities for our children is psychologically devastating.
- Maintaining friendships often costs money…particularly if that friendship is based on us giving money to that friend.
This isn’t scare tactics. This is reality. Having a sense of how fast we go through cash helps us forecast our future. While no forecast is 100% accurate, one based on accurate expenses can help bring a good bit of clarity to one’s long-term picture. While the tentacles of financial distress can be brutally destructive, the opposite can be said for those related to financial clarity and security.