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Olympic gold medalist Lauren Williams lost $150,000 in her early years due to misunderstanding financial advice. He later received a CFP and founded a company to remind young athletes to choose advisors carefully and improve their financial literacy.
Retired track and field athlete and bobsleigh runner Lauryn Williams was first in the summer and winter of 2004, 2012, and 2014.olympic games An American female athlete who won three medals. However, during his career as an athlete, he lost 150,000 yuan in investments due to distrusting the advice of financial experts. She later decided to get a certified financial planner so she could manage money independently, and she founded a consulting company to help other athletes manage their finances.
Washington Post It was recently reported that Williams’ case shows that not every financial advisor has the best interests of their clients in mind.
The report notes that young athletes who have no financial plan but have lots of money are often targeted by unscrupulous financial experts or business partners.
Williams, 43, was interviewed by Post financial writer Michelle Singletary on the “Dollars & Sense with Michelle Singletary” podcast. She said that early in her career as an athlete she made some exaggerated mistakes with money, and the lessons she learned later led her to become a certified CFP.
He said that during his career as an athlete, he had a good income through endorsements and competition bonuses, but did not maintain his wealth due to several wrong financial decisions. He said some of the problem is due to incompetent financial advisors.
“I couldn’t find anyone who really taught me financial literacy,” she says.
By the time Williams was in his early 20s, he was earning more than $200,000 a year. Early in his career as a professional athlete, after experiencing two advisors who were indifferent to his needs, Williams tried investing on his own, but had less than ideal results.
An investment salesman told her that she could double her profits in a month by investing her money in a foreign venture. He said more questions should have been asked and all written information should have been sought.
Williams gave the salesman $150,000 which he originally planned to use to pay taxes, but the investment went to waste. To pay the taxes, he later took a second loan on the house.
He said he has seen painful lessons in financial management from other sports players. An NFL player listened to a financial advisor’s advice to invest in a casino. As a result, the casino did not open at all and lost 100% of the money invested.
Williams believed he could do better than the two financial experts he contacted. In his 30s, he became a financial planner and founded the company Worth Winning to help other athletes manage their finances.
To take care of your finances, you don’t need to become a certified financial planner yourself, like Williams. But you should be confident that the professional you hire has your best interests at heart.
“I didn’t know I knew anything about money management,” Williams said. , “I knew I didn’t know much about money, but I didn’t know how dangerous it would be if I didn’t have someone to guide me, and that person didn’t care about my ability to manage money.”
