Young athletes around the country spend countless hours perfecting their spiral or practicing free throws with the dream that one day they will be able to play the game they love professionally. For most, the goal of becoming a starting quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys or a point guard for the New York Knicks comes from a genuine love for the sport. However, there is also the understandable draw of the huge paychecks that our athletes receive. Sports stars are put on a pedestal and sometimes receive just as much attention for their mansions and expensive cars as they do for their performance on the field or court. However, what often is not televised is the financial downfall that can occur once the game is over.

Recent estimates show that 78% of former NFL players are broke or financially stressed after retirement and 60% of NBA athletes go broke within five years of retiring. With salaries that have been climbing into the tens of millions of dollars over the past decade, how is such a dramatic decline in their bank accounts even possible? The experts point to several factors that contribute to the lack of financial planning on the part of athletes.

Short Careers – When you compare the careers of athletes to those in a similarly lucrative field such as entertainment, you quickly notice that the professional lifespan of running back is significantly shorter than that of a leading man on the movie screen. In many instances, athletes only make their millions over a few short years. If lessons are not learned quickly concerning how to save and invest their earnings, their bank accounts can empty in even less time than the four or five seasons it took to build them up.

Lack of Education – Courses on personal finance and budgeting are sorely lacking at all levels of education. Many of us would cringe at the statistics noting how many of our graduating seniors do not know how to balance a checkbook, let alone comprehend the long-term benefits of compound interest. This problem is exaggerated in sports, as the reality is that many of the athletes on the professional stage were not offered a strong foundation in school. These men and women are often very intelligent, but were allowed to move through life using their physical abilities and told not to worry about their academic growth. This lack of exposure makes it very easy to be duped by agents and investment managers with ill intent.

Divorce – The break-up of the family is cited more than any other reason by professional athletes for their financial struggles. The divorce rate among athletes is higher than for the general population, estimated at being anywhere from 60% to 80%. Retirement from professional sports brings a dramatic lifestyle change, with spouses who were accustomed to spending weeks apart from one another now finding themselves forced into conversation at the dinner table every night. With these splits usually occurring after a player’s peak earning days are behind him, losing half of his net worth creates financial constraints that had never been an issue before.

Fortunately, the need to provide honest and expert financial advice to professional athletes has been recognized. One company that is leading the way in developing services that cater to the sports world is Titan Financial Services. Led by CEO Christopher Franklin, Titan Financial understands the unique challenges faced by athletes and acts as both consultant and teacher in helping these men and women make the most of their money. To learn more about Christopher Franklin and Titan Financial Services, please visit www.christopherfranklinonline.com or email Mr. Franklin at tfs@christopherfranklinonline.com.