SHOW HIM THE MONEY

Phillip Buchanon was a No. 1 draft pick of the Oakland Raiders in 2002 and played 10 seasons in the NFL. Yet he may be making his greatest contribution to the game away from the field.

Buchanon, 34, has written an important book for NFL players – indeed, for professional athletes everywhere – concerning the sudden rush of money into their lives and how to handle the competing demands from family and friends who want a piece of that success.

In “New Money: Staying Rich”, Buchanon lays out a game plan for future pros to save and invest and to learn to say no to the never-ending requests for cash.

“I thought money would help the (family) situation, but instead it made it worse,” Buchanon says by phone from his home in Miami. “When you come into new money, you are going to get a lot of headaches.”

He knows the size of the headache. In the book he writes that his mother requested $1 million simply because she raised him.

Buchanon, who graduated from the University of Miami, stresses saving and careful investing for athletes, whose careers can be lucrative but of limited duration. His concern is that rarely are high school athletes or college players even taught the basics of finances.

“Investing is a skill. Learning it at 19 or 20 is too late,” he says. “If we worked as hard at finance as we do at football, we would be OK. Unfortunately, people think the money is going to keep coming in forever. That’s an illusion. It’s not.”

Young professional athletes may find themselves torn between families that see them as the answer to all of life’s frustrations and deprivations, their own desire to have fun with their new money and a lack of good information and advisers as to how to safely and securely invest.

“New Money: Staying Rich” is packed with anecdotes about Buchanon’s personal life and how he came to understand fiscal responsibility. It’s engagingly told. So often we hear stories of athletes impoverished within years of leaving the game. Buchanon’s book lays out a neat map for avoiding that fate.
 
 
Post By: Larry Weisman, a longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, blogs for Twistity.com. Follow him on Twitter @MrLarryWeisman .