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By Albert Whitestaff

Sports stars today can earn millions. We regularly hear of footballers earning in excess of one hundred thousand pounds a week and in the United States basketball players, American footballers and baseball players are paid staggering salaries, with the best earning millions of dollars a year. On top of their salaries athletes often enjoy huge sponsorship packages and can receives millions in image rights. But even with all this money, financial mismanagement is rife and plenty have ended up with nothing, below are a few stories of where it has all gone wrong for these sport superstars.

When we think about top athletes that have earned millions and thrown it all away, one name immediately springs to mind Mike Tyson. The former heavy weight champion of the world is believed to have earned around $400 million during his career as a top class boxer but in 2003 he was forced to file for bankruptcy after amassing debts in excess of $23 million.

How could this happen you may ask? How could anyone burn through that much money? I mean $423 million dollars is a lot of money to spend, Well, the answer is quite straightforward when you look at some of Mike Tyson’s behavior when it came to his spending. Just prior to him filing for Chapter 11, he bought a diamond studded gold chain for over $170,000. Add this to the mansions, cars and even Siberian tigers and you can see how he squandered his fortune. In just two years between 1995 and 1997 he spent $9 million dollars on legal fees alone.

With his boxing career practically over the future looked bleak for Mike but various acting roles and television appearances have helped him back to a relatively stable financial position but no where near his $400 million peak.

Mike Tyson is not alone however and there is a long list of other famous athletes that despite their success have lost it all. Olympic athlete Marion Jones may have won five medals at the 2000 Olympics and benefited from multimillion-dollar endorsement deals but due fighting legal battles over the charges of steroid abuse and wild overspending, she found herself deep in debt and her house was foreclosed by the bank.

The former American football player Larry Taylor was a linebacker for the New York Giants and ended up filing for bankruptcy in 1998 after getting into trouble for using drugs and dodging tax. Top women’s basketball player Sheryl Swoopes, was known as the “female Michael Jordan” but that didn’t stop her from having to file for bankruptcy in June 2004 and being forced to auction her medals and trophies.

All these cautionary tales show that even with the incredible financial rewards that modern athletes can gain with successful in their chosen sport, a sensible approach to managing your money is vital. These examples are just a few of many, as despite earning millions over the course their careers, a lot of athletes fail to plan and save for the future and their love of the luxury lifestyle and extreme spending can drive them to financial ruin.

About the Author: Albert has worked in the the debt management industry for over a decade and is an expert in all this

bankruptcy

and Insolvency, and works for one of the largest

debt management companies

in the UK.

Source:

isnare.com

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