You Have to Have a Plan | Zach Miller, Sam Acho, Jeff Locke, Riccardo Stewart | NFL Players’ Podcast #28
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Notorious Big Famously is quoted saying, “Mo money mo problems”. As NFL ultra-wealthy athletes more money usually means more complexity, complexity necessitates having a plan.
In this episode, the AWM NFL team discusses the importance of financial planning for your future.
For questions, you can reach out to Riccardo Stewart at +1 (602) 989-5022.
+ Read the Transcript
Riccardo Stewart (00:11): Hey, I want to welcome you guys back to another episode of the AWM NFL podcast. I'm your host Ricardo Stewart. They call me the coach and I'm here with my friends. got Jeff Locke, the professor, man of knowledge. got Zach Miller, the truth, because he tells it how it is. And finally, we got my main man, Sam Ocho, the mayor who gets everybody's vote. And so today we want to talk about, I want us to talk about like planning and when it comes to a plan, right? We're, the season is about to start for NFL athletes. know, preseason's already started and we're meeting with our clients and we're going over the preseason plan.
We're walking in with the scouting report on their money to let them know, you know, essentially how the next six months is going to go for them financially in other areas of their life. And it got me thinking, you know what? A lot of people don't have plans and don't understand the importance of plans. So let's let's talk about that today. And I'm going to start first with you, Sam. I your dad was a pastor. You're a man of faith. And so I'm to pull out some ancient Hebrew. Literature here and it says without a plan or without a vision that people will perish What does that look like and what does that mean as it relates to? financial plans
Sam Acho (01:19): Yeah, I think of two pieces that there's a difference between a plan and a vision. I'll start with the vision. A vision is this broad idea, hope, dream that you hope to aspire to and want to get. think about me for some of the work I do, not only with the athlete families we serve, but with ESPN, I'm getting a chance to be not just in studio this year, but I'm getting a chance to call games at different stadiums. And that was a vision of mine, a goal, a dream that seemed really far off.
But it was always something in my heart and in my mind that I was like, I want to go after this division. But before you get to that vision, you have to start to develop a plan. And I'm going to switch to football. If you don't mind, we're talking about training camp and preseason. Well, I played outside linebacker and anyone who knows football or defense knows that you don't just run out there and just try to figure it out on the fly. You have a plan specifically for a pass rusher like me, you have a pass rush plan. And so with the plan, it comes with number one, studying your opponent. What does this offensive lineman like to do?
Okay, they might be a two hand puncher. That means I can use my side swipe. Maybe they're gonna wait and sit back and not punch their hands. Okay, I'm gonna use my stab, my long arm, but I have a plan that goes into the football game in order for me to be successful. In the same way that you have a plan for football as a pass rusher, a defensive back, as a quarterback, an offensive lineman, you need a plan for your money, a plan for your finances, a plan for your future. And that's where we come in. We come in to help you establish that plan in the same type of detail, the same type of organization, the same type of systems and structures that you need for a football plan. We bring that to your finances.
Riccardo Stewart (02:52): I kind of want to just stop and just say there's the podcast for the day. First of all, Sam, this is crazy. want to, want to, want to, I want to listeners to know this. Sam Ocho obviously played in NFL for nine years. He's on ESPN. He talks about football. We don't talk a lot of football like to the, to what Sam, like that was great to see. Oh, well that's how you, that's how you, okay. I see the moves. First of all, congratulations on that. Can't wait to hear you this fall calling games. Okay. The professor.
Riccardo Stewart (03:22): We hear all of these terms and I know they become junk drawer terms. Financial advisor, wealth manager, all these things. Is there a difference? And if so, what is the difference between a financial advisor, an FA, which we don't like to be called, and a financial planner?
Jeff Locke (03:37): Yeah, the way I think about it is financial advisor is just this broad term that can encompass really anyone that thinks they can advise you on money, qualified or not. You can call yourself financial advisor. Financial planners are the smaller subset of financial advisors. And just like Sam said about all the things that go into planning on the football side, that's what we do on the financial side for you.
If you're a non -planning advisor, you might just advise on the investments or you might just sell insurance products and call yourself a financial advisor. But we pride ourselves in literally advising on anything your money touches. And that's building out an entire plan, not just right now, but three, four, five, 10, 20 years down the line for you and your family.
Riccardo Stewart (04:29): So Zach, with that, with the plan, we always talk about making sure every dollar has a job, making sure your money's making you money, paying in your future self. Stick into that first point of your money having a job. What do we mean when we say that?
Zach Miller (04:44): Well, I think as hard as NFL players work on the field, their money should be doing just a harder work to earn them that money off the field. And so if you think about it, we think of it as different positions on the field. Certain money should be your offensive line. It should be protecting you. And it's, it's not flashy, but it gives you that time, that protection for a while.
And then when you need to get first down, score touchdowns, you need those wide receivers, those skill positions to get the ball in the end zone, that's your growth, that's your equity. And so if you build that out, you're essentially saying, all right, I'm getting paid this week, my paycheck is this amount, this much is gonna go into here. I'm giving that dollar a job. It's job is savings, part of my savings, which is then investing. So that dollar, I know exactly where it's going, it's part of my protective reserve.
Then more money from that paycheck is actually going to my future self, it's going into growth, equity, generational wealth. So you know what role, on the team your money is playing.
Riccardo Stewart (05:46): Really good. So I'm here now in not in Phoenix and I just got finished meeting with one of our clients here in the hotel and like he's thinking about his plan and how it's changed. He's married, he's got, he's getting married, a kid on the way like things are changing and so he had a plan and we're going okay things might need to change now. Sam like how does it work when it comes to knowing when your plan needs to be adjusted. Because when you rush, that ball snapped and you thought he was going to quick set you, but he didn't. And now this isn't going to work. When do you know to adjust?
Sam Acho (06:21): Well, that's such a great question, Riccardo, and it comes sometimes on the fly, but you have to already be prepared for it to your football example that we were just talking about. I may have a past for us plan to go and work on that two hand puncher. I'm expecting this to happen, but to your point, let's say he jumps out real fast instead of going backwards. I need to have had prepared for that in practice so that when the situation comes, I'm ready or at least have someone who have told me or showed me or made me aware.
That's where we come in. I go to the specific point. I think there are three points where you want to be able to adjust your plan. Number one, Ricardo, you spoke on it when you're getting married. If you're not married and you're single, you may have a plan for when you were single. But when you get married, multiple things happen.
Number one, now instead of you worrying about one person, you're worrying about multiple just from a human perspective, but from a financial perspective and a tax implication perspective, there's so much change, even from an estate planning perspective, so much changes when you get married. So that's kind of the, let's call that the jump set. I wasn't prepared for that.
Well, the second plan or second time you want to look at your plan is when you have a child, you talked about one of our clients is is is is they're expecting and they're having a baby any day now any week now. And when you have kids, your plan needs to change. You need to look at your plan again, especially when it comes to that estate plan. When it comes to what you're thinking about. Now you might be thinking about college savings and maybe paying for school, all these different kinds of things. And the last time you would change your plan. This is in the football example as well.
Maybe as a rookie or a second year player, you have a lot more speed, you have a lot more explosion. Well, as you get older, at least when I got older, maybe the speed wasn't there, but the mindset was there, the skill was there. I took different angles to make the right play that I couldn't make when I was 20, now I'm 30. Well, that's when you start getting towards that retirement phase. When you're thinking you're coming to an end of your football career, when you're finishing, you need to look at that plan again. One of the players that I played with in Chicago, he's coming towards the end of his career.
And he's going over his plan again, saying, man, I didn't figure out, I didn't realize I needed an estate plan. We're like, oh man, like I wish you were working with us, you could have had that before. So the three points I would say is number one, when you get married, number two, when you have a kid, number three, when you're ending your career.
Riccardo Stewart (08:29): Really good. Zach, let me wrap this up with you. Obviously, we didn't go into detail on all this, you guys can reach out to us and ask us any questions, but what are some of the things that get left off or go unplanned that you've seen?
Zach Miller (08:44): Well, it's really easy to drop a play on the football field. And if everything goes perfectly, you score a touchdown. That's the reality is things change, plays get blown up. So just like that, your plan should and a good, a good advisor, a good advisory team actually addresses all of those blind spots, all of those risks so that even though things are unplanned, you are protected and you know, you, you've seen that.
One of the most common and unfortunate one is it happened to me as your career ends before you think it will. So that's, that's one like that should be planned for it's technically unplanned because everyone thinks they can play forever. But whether it's injury, getting old, uh, being replaced by cheaper, a cheaper player, like it's, just going to happen. You know, you just stuff to play into your thirties. So that can be planned for, and then to that effect, like your income has a massive drop once you're done as a player.
And if you're not planning for that, why you're a player to replace that income, which you can do and should be planned for. mean, there's a huge, and you're going to get lifestyle creep. The more money you make, the more you're going to spend bigger house, nicer cars. It's just more expensive. And then like, I mean, I talked to a lot of guys that I played with the health issues and health insurance and those things.
A lot of times guys don't think about that post -career. And then sadly, like one of the things that causes retired players to actually be in financial distress or go bankrupt would be divorced, which you can actually plan for. it's might be hard conversations to have a prenup, but just like you have insurance, it's something that if you don't do, it's, it's not smart and everyone knows it's not smart. So it's one of those things you have to get ahead of and you have the right people to help you with that. Uh, Jeff, would I miss any good ones?
Jeff Locke (10:31): Nah, I just didn't think we would talk about the P word on the podcast, but here we are. It's real. It happens. It's got to be part of your plan. Even if you don't do it, you got to at least consider it and know the implications one way the other. But it's a heavy word.
Riccardo Stewart (10:34): Man, when he brought up the pre-nove.
Zach Miller (10:45): It deserves its own pod.
Riccardo Stewart (10:47): It's gonna get its own podcast and we're gonna leave you guys hanging with that one. But seriously, if you guys have any questions, one, is your plan right? Is it bulletproof?
Have you thought about the things that protect your money? Risk management? Do you have the proper insurance? Financial planning, if it's true financial planning, it's everything that your money touches and to protect your money. That means your entire life. And so any questions you have, we'd love to hear from you guys. Feel free to reach out to us at number 602-989-5022.