4 ms·

Curiously enough it's more difficult than you'd think. According to Sports Illustrated, within five years of retirement 60% of NBA players go bankrupt (although

• dredmorbius 15y ago
  Considering the brevity of an NBA career (4.7 years or so according to a few Googled sources), and at best the mixed bag of financial qualifications of players, this doesn't surprise me much. Generalizing somewhat: ghetto kid -> scholarship college athlete with a broad academic pass -> pro -> out on the street. Yes, there is a somewhat broader range of experiences than just that. Still: sports stars generally burn bright, but very briefly. It's a rollercoaster.
• philwelch 15y ago
  When you have a hundred extended relatives reaching out for help, combined with scam artists trying to talk you into "investments", it's easy to go broke.
  • furyofantares 15y ago
    It's also damn easy to waste money at any scale simply due to your own financial demeanor. I waste a lot of money on $50-$500 gadgets because that amount of money doesn't mean much to me. I'm not very financially responsible, though I'm not irresponsible either. If I made ten times what I do, I'd probably be buying $500-$5000 gadgets just as frequently. If $100k didn't mean much to me then I'd probably buy a Tesla. If $20M didn't mean much to me then I might become a space tourist. A more financially responsible person than myself would be likely to remain more responsible as they scale up, and a less responsible person would likely remain less responsible.