A few years ago Ed Butowsky joined forces with ESPN’s Pablo Torre to collaborate on an article, How (and Why) Athletes Go Broke, that would expose a huge problem in professional sports the fact of professional athletes going broke in epidemic proportions. Fast forward to last year, ESPN recognized the fact this article exposed a real systemic problem in any sports decided to turn this into a 30 for 30 documentary where Ed and colleagues in the sports industry would create very harsh real look at the problem.
One of the really surprising things that was uncovered in making this ESPN feature was how easy it actually is for multimillionaire athletes to go broke. This article exposed shocking controversial percentages of athletes that go broke after retirement, and while non of the leagues publicly came out to dispute the numbers there was private chatter about the percentages being high. Regardless of the chilling statistics it was obvious that this issue was a widespread bordering on epidemic proportions.
By the time they have been retired for two years, 78% of former NFL players have gone bankrupt or are under financial stress…
Within five years of retirement, an estimated 60% of former NBA players are broke.
Ed Butowsky is the managing partner of Chapwood Investment Management and is an internationally recognized expert in the investment wealth management industry. Ed is also a frequent guest on other networks such as CNN, NBC, ABC, Fox News, Fox Business, and Bloomberg to name a few.
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