Jun 27, 2015

Two NBA Stars Provide Personal Finance Advice: Who Would You Listen To?

Here’s a six minute audio interview with Adonal Foyle from NPR’s All Things Considered.  Here is an excerpt:

I got my master’s in sports psychology, and my thesis was on retirement experiences of NBA players. I went out and spoke to about 10 to 12 different players, and I talked to them about their transition. And one of the things we talked about was: If you were to do it again, what are some of the things that you would do differently? And almost all of them talk about financial literacy and financial education.

One guy said that, you know, “I saw my parents. They didn’t have any money. I grew up poor and then I was given all this money, and then I had no idea what to do with it. And I was so silly I didn’t ask questions because I was afraid that people would think that I wasn’t smart.”

And here’s Antoine Walker (you might recall that he lost $110 million) who has been barnstorming colleges to discuss the painful lessons that he learned with his financial missteps (click to see 2 minute NewsChannel 5 video).

Ask students what lessons they can take from these professional athletes that they can apply to their financial lives…

About the Author

Tim Ranzetta

Tim's saving habits started at seven when a neighbor with a broken hip gave him a dog walking job. Her recovery, which took almost a year, resulted in Tim getting to know the bank tellers quite well (and accumulating a savings account balance of over $300!). His recent entrepreneurial adventures have included driving a shredding truck, analyzing executive compensation packages for Fortune 500 companies and helping families make better college financing decisions. After volunteering in 2010 to create and teach a personal finance program at Eastside College Prep in East Palo Alto, Tim saw firsthand the impact of an engaging and activity-based curriculum, which inspired him to start a new non-profit, Next Gen Personal Finance.

author image More by Tim right solid arrow
Mail Icon

Subscribe to the blog

Join the more than 12,000 teachers who get the NGPF daily blog delivered to their inbox:

SIGN UP