Quote:
Originally Posted by waffledave
I don't understand the hate players are getting for this. Yes they are paid a lot of money but don't forget that their careers are very short. The average NHL career is 5 years... Say you retire at 34 years old (a decent NHL career), you still have at least 40+ years to live your life with no income coming in. And most of these guys have a relatively expensive lifestyle to maintain (ie: big houses, higher property taxes, higher costs to maintain the house, etc...).
Yes yes, I already know the reaction I'll get. "Well these guys should just live more modest lifestyles! I get by just fine with my ****** apartment and my $15/h job!"...Please, be realistic. When you are paid this much, you adopt a lifestyle to match it. You want to give your family everything possible. That kind of lifestyle is expensive to maintain, and yes, maybe a hockey player will walk away at 34 years old having with, say, $15 million in the bank, but that also means they have to live the rest of their lives off this money...It's still a lot of cash, but it amounts to something like $375k a year for the rest of their lives.
Factor in taxes, factor in divorces, factor in wanting to leave money for their children, factor in trying to maintain a nice lifestyle for your family...It doesn't go as far as you'd think. And in my example, we're talking the top 15% of NHL players...The rest make much less money and walk away with much less, which is why so many role players look for other careers in broadcasting, scouting and coaching.
These guys only have a small window to maximize their earnings. Don't fault them for taking advantage.
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Your foolish if you think the players just leave their 15 million dollars in the bank and leave it to be withdrawn. It's called investing... Invest in real estate, buy property and rent them out so like that you get income on top of the **** loads of money you already have.
NHL players have it made after their careers because it's easy to make good investments when you have the money to afford good ventures with smart people.