$300,000 Party?

Please, please, please

Here we go again.  This time it's Vince Young, former NFL quarterback.  $26 million, 2006, guaranteed.  Today, Ronnie Peoples, who is involved in this fiasco, characterizes Vince Young's financial situation: "not good."  It is said he took out a high-interest loan to throw himself a $300,000 birthday party.

Please, please, please (listen to Mr. James Brown) ... someone give them or someone around them who is responsible my name and number.  I have none of these big name athletes for clients, but I can tell you I will call them stupid to their face at the very mention of funding posses, throwing $300,000 parties, buying a $176,000 Ferrari, or having to take out a high-interest loan.  Part of the sad part of this is that Vince Young (as far as I can tell) is one of the good guys!

Still, I have no problem calling them ignorant if they don't put at least half their earnings away in safe investments.  Help me out here - if you can't live large on $13 million, you've got a problem.  I will use the behavioral finance procedure of aging their picture so they can be introduced to their future self.  I will go with them to the local warehouse or construction site and talk to people who work for 40 years to make less than one 10th of what they make for signing a contract.  If they don't like it, they can fire me - I don't care.  But I won't treat them with kid gloves.

My clients don't really have a choice.  They quickly realize they need to play their cards smart to have a shot at a decent retirement.  Even then, life events can pop up that upset the proverbial apple cart. But here we have athletes and movie stars et al. blessed with a talent and lucky enough to be born in a society that values that talent, to an outrageous extent, and they throw it all away.

You would think that, since most of them went to college, they could read and understand what has befallen those in similar circumstances who have come before.