How the Media Could Help Athlete$ (and the Rest of U$)

While scrolling through the NPR stories I missed last week, I spotted yet another financial story, this one about professional athletes and their lack of financial savvy. This was a summary of a larger piece in Sports Illustrated on how a very large percentage of professional athletes are often bankrupt not long after retirement. The causes are varied--from poor investments, to divorce to out-of-control paternity payments.

Media Stresses Performance, Not Finances
Well, nothing new here, and nothing to blog about regarding the press, until I noticed the subhead, “no financial education,” which described how the media is good at encouraging talented athletes to worry more about performance and less about a financial education. And this is true—I remember when Derrick Harvey finally signed his contract with the Jaguars for over $17 million in guaranteed money, and the article stressed that Harvey was now a millionaire with a huge responsibility to—the Jaguars and fans. What about his responsibility to himself and the people depending on him to take good care of all that money?

Well, given this article and all the recent woes about the economy, I just had to know how many articles The New York Times had written recently on the benefits of early financial education. I found an excellent article on teaching personal finance in our high schools—from 2003. I also found a terrific article on credit card abuse by college students, and how high schools spend precious little time teaching students about budgeting and banking—from 1995.

Of course, here’s an interesting article about necessary courses in business for high school students, dated March 19, 1897!

Why Not Talk About Importance of Financial Education?
Maybe I could have done a more thorough search, but my point is, with all the problems caused by credit card debt, dishonest investors and mortgage madness, where’s the emphasis in our society on learning financial basics? There are plenty of stories on the broken economy—how about some more on ways to fix it, beginning with what’s offered in our schools? Why not report on ways to make the courses that are left, after the legislators chop up the budget, really count for something? (Maybe requiring that all economics or math classes include a segment on understanding interest, writing checks and balancing a budget.)

It seems like the media could perform a real public service here, since education may be the only way for the general public (and professional athletes) to understand the importance of learning basic finance.

If you make $17 million or $17,000 a year, it’s crucial to understand money management so you don’t go broke and take down innocent people with you.