High-profile jackpot winners fritter away winnings. An estimated 8 in 10 NFL players are bankrupt, jobless, or divorced two years into retirement. Could you manage a windfall better than they do? Here are six steps.
After finishing his shift managing a Gold's Gym in Boise, Idaho, Brad Duke pulled into a Jackson's gas station to check some numbers he had played in the Idaho State Lottery.
Skip to next paragraphHe'd already spotted the winning Powerball jackpot number and "some numbers looked familiar," he recalls. "I thought I had won $1,000, maybe $5,000. The girl behind the counter ran the numbers, and usually when you win there's this little 'We're in the Money' jingle that plays. There was no jingle, and after a few seconds the girl started screaming and jumping around."
He panicked, grabbed the ticket, and bolted, forgetting to pay for his gas. As he pulled out, news trucks were pulling in. He had won $220.3 million.
Panic isn't the first thing that most people might feel after coming into sudden money, whether through winnings, an inheritance, or a big sports contract. But maybe it should be. While there are strategies to turn sudden riches into lasting wealth, the landscape is littered with people who lost their way among the trappings of affluence and requests from friends and family.
The National Football League's most recent tale of woe is Mark Brunell, a Pro Bowl quarterback who earned $50 million in his career. In 2010, he filed for bankruptcy, citing $25 million in debt from bad business deals. It's a common problem for pro athletes. The average pro football player earns a median $845,252 a year in a career that lasts 3.5 years, according to the league and the NFL Players Association (NFLPA). Just two years into retirement, by some estimates, 8 in 10 former NFL players are either bankrupt, jobless, or divorced (which creates its own financial burden). Pros in other major sports face similar problems.
"More times than not, you look at this young guy, and at the end of this ride he's broke or divorced," says Frederick Hubler, president of Creative Capital Wealth Management Group in Phoenixville, Pa., and one of 257 financial consultants registered with the NFLPA. "It's a short earnings window, and not everyone can be a broadcaster. After they're done playing, guys are older than new applicants in other job markets, and they don't want to be at the bottom of the mountain."
It's no picnic for many lottery winners, either. Take Jack Whittaker, the West Virginia man who won a $315 million Powerball jackpot in 2002 ($114 million after taxes). By 2007, it was gone. Alex Toth, who won $13 million from the Florida lottery in 1990, was broke and charged with filing fake tax returns by the time of his death in 2008.
Why is a windfall so difficult to keep? Sudden money is rarely a solution to preexisting financial trouble. Florida lottery winners facing bankruptcy before winning big were just as likely to be facing bankruptcy again three to five years later, according to a 2009 study. Then there are the emotional challenges associated with trying to maintain the rush of happiness that comes from sudden money.
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