“The richest man is not the one who has the most, but the one who needs the least.” Rev. Run
It is beyond amazing to me how many millionaire athletes go broke, but then again I am really not that surprised. When you give young people right out of college or those who have never gone to college millions of dollars without any knowledge of business other than handing over financial control to agents & financial advisors who just see them as another commodity up for trade -no wonder so many athletes have gone broke. The worst part of it all is that many of these athletes come from poverty where they have never had much to maintain or had anyone teaching them that even with little knowing how to manage your money is the best gift you can give to yourself, your future & the future of your family. Anyone who opens a bank account should have to take a financial management class & community leaders/churches particularly in the poorest & most disenfranchised neighborhods along with the NBA, NFL, FIFA etc. should also be pushing financial preparedness & readiness classes as hard as they fight drug abuse because money is the ultimate drug & the root of all evil when it’s mismanaged. Without money we can not attain nor maintain our addictions.
If our disastrous global recession has taught us anything, it has shown us that life can change in a blink of an eye when it comes to money. Here’s a list of the richest athletes in 2007 where are the now? READ MORE
ESPN’s list “25 Rich Athletes Who Went Broke” tells the sad story on how having millions without business acumen can leave you broke. Some athletes however are just stuck on stupid with little guidance. My fellow Lefrak City Queens hero, Kenny Anderson never heard of birth control- 8 children -really? Evander Holyfield can possibly make the excuse of being hit in the head too many times as he fathered 11 children but what’s your excuse Kenny A?
“Ringing up nearly $41,000 in monthly expenses, including child support to eight kids and his mother’shouse payment, former NBA guard Kenny Anderson filed for bankruptcy in October 2005. How did his estimated $60 million dwindle to nothing? Easy. He kept 8 cars in the garage of his five-bedroom Beverly Hills home. He gave himself a monthly allowance of $10,000 that he dubbed “hanging outmoney.” He regularly handed out $3,000 to $5,000 to friends and relatives. Finally, he lost $5.8 million in a prenup agreement. Anderson, it seems, could not hold a dollar if it was taped to his forehead.” READ MORE
Sports Illustrated has put out their annual “The 50 highest-earning American athletes”, let’s keep a close eye to see if they have learned anything from the perils & failures of athletes of the past who lacked business acumen & entrusted their financial well being wholly to others to maintain. Not everyone can be Tiger Woods because after all he’s Blawhasian or whatever the hell he calls himself. LOL!
“In a year in which Tiger Woods’ image has been forever tarnished — costing the perennial No. 1 tens of millions in endorsement dollars — he still stayed ahead of the curve. Tiger’s earnings were down more than $9 million from a year ago, but he still earned nearly $30 million more than the No. 2 athlete, fellow golfer Phil Mickelson. Meanwhile, the NFL has its most prolific showing ever on our list: an unprecedented 15 players, thanks to a rash of contracts that pay out big in a 2010 season without a salary cap. This year’s list also features 16 basketball players, 13 major leaguers, three NASCAR drivers, two golfers and one boxer. The average income of the athletes on our International 20 list of the top-earning non-American sportsmen also broke a record: in excess of $30 million, as new No. 1 Roger Federer has become a financial force alongside the soccer and Formula 1 powerhouses.” READ MORE
Look how many Black faces are on this list. Just imagine if they had financial advisors who knew, came from & could understand the communities where they came from in order to advise them to invest in those communities for true upliftment & not just for profiteering & changing the face of the neighborhood? Imagine if all these Black millionaires invested back into the neighborhoods, communities & cities that raised them & allowed others a hand up by building community based financial institutions, schools, giving micro loans for development by the people for the people to stay & build in their communities in order to not be overwhelmed & overtaken by gentrification ? Imagine if we heeded & understood the words of John Henrik Clarke when he said “Black tells you how you look but it doesn’t tell you who you are” – Imagine if the new decade of Pan-Africanism was based on the economic preparedness, readiness & power of the Global Black economy that knows who we are! Imagine if this happened from Africa to Harlem -IMAGINE!
“Freedom is not something that one people can bestow on another as a gift. Thy claim it as their own and none can keep it from them. We face neither East nor West: We Face Forward..Something in the nature of an economic revolution is required. Our development has been held back for too long by the colonial-type economy. We need to reorganize entirely, so that each country can specialize in producing the goods and crops for which it is best suited.” Neocolonialism The Last Stage of Imperialism…. We have the blessing of the wealth of our vast resources, the power of our talents and the potentialities of our people. Let us grasp now the opportunities before us and meet the challenge to our survival. We shall measure our progress by the improvement in the health of our people; by the number of children in school, and by the quality of their education; by the availability of water and electricity in our towns and villages, and by the happiness which our people take in being able to manage their own affairs. The welfare of our people is our chief pride, and it is by this that my Government will ask to be judged.” DR. Kwame Nkrumah