Life after Football

Former NFL player, Mario Henry, a former New England Patriot ran out of money at the age of 28 when he was cut (Satter, 2017, p. 1 ). Henry says the average working person asks, how is that possible? That's a fair question, because the average NFL player's salary is close to $2 million per year. The median income is $750,000. (Satter, 2017, p.1). According to Henry at the top of the list is a lack of financial planning and education Not understanding budgets, receiving poor advice from agenda-driven agents who weren't properly screened, (Satter, 2017, p.1). Henry states that athletes' financial problems are attributed to a larger societal issue largely due to inadequate knowledge, poor advice, and lack of preparation (Satter, 2017, p.1). According to the National Institute on Retirement Security 88 percent of Americans are afraid of a retirement crisis, and 60 percent are behind in what they would need for retirement savings (Satter, 2017, p.1). Many Americans are not planning for their final stretch in life and those who believe they are prepared may have a false sense of security (Satter, 2017, p.1). Henry has stated that home equity is a useful source as potential retirement income even though that income isn't readily accessible to everyone (Satter, 2017, p.1 ). With the depletion of pensions the middle class has to now take a big risk on the stock market (Satter, 2017, p.1 ). Henry concluded with saying we have a retirement crisis in this country in which the current financial methods in the near future will possibly fail millions of people. There are going to be millions of people who will run out of money in the very near future unless they open themselves to new ideas. (Satter, 2017, p.1).

Bankruptcy Rates among NFL Players with Short-Lived Income Spikes

One of the most popular assumptions is that in an average person's economic life cycle they save when income is high, in order to provide for when income is low, which would likely be during retirement (Carlson, Kim, Lusardi, Camerer, 2015, p.1). The average career of an NFL player is 3.3 years, during the duration of that time players will make more money than an average college graduate will in an entire lifetime (Carlson et al., 2015, p.2). Often times injuries are also barriers that may prevent players from making their highest career earnings because a players' career may be cut short (Carlson et al., 2015, p.2). The NFL players that are healthy may only play until they're 30 years old, and with the known drastic income drop a smart player would save his money and prepare for life after football (Carlson et al., 2015, p.2). In most cases NFL players don't save money for a number of reasons that include positive outlook on their career length, poor financial planning or lack thereof, and the decision making to spend above your means (Carlson et al., 2015, p.2).

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