How Joe Gibbs is making financial education easy

August 3, 2011 The 2009 Sports Illustrated story "How (and why) Athletes Go Broke" talks about the surprising high number of highly paid professional athletes losing all of their money. The author of the article included this fact about NFL players: "By the time they have been retired for two years, 78% of former NFL players have gone bankrupt or are under financial stress because of joblessness or divorce."

What makes financial education difficult?
Why is managing money so difficult for some of the players? According to the article one player put it this way in regard to meeting with financial planners, "Once you get into the financial stuff, and it sounds like Japanese, guys are just like, 'I ain't going back.' They're lost." Another football player said, "I once had a meeting with J.P. Morgan, and it was literally like listening to Charlie Brown's teacher."

Making sense out of finances.
Joe Gibbs, the former Redskins coach, also recognized this problem. He partnered with Strayer University to provide easy to understand and use financial education to Redskins players. His financial coaching talks about real life stories, and teaches the players about topics such as budgeting and using credit cards responsibly.

Gibbs believes that the problems players run into is less about irresponsible behavior and more about lack of financial knowledge. Regardless if you are a professional athlete or not how many people get high quality financial training before entering the workforce?

Where to find answers.
Even if you can't afford professional help with your financial questions there are plenty of free, high quality resources available to you. Be sure to check out the article The "Problem" With Professional Financial Help by Angie Hartman in the July / August edition of The Quarter Roll for 6 great ideas.