NBA star Dwyane Wade made $196 million, but still sticks to a budget
NBA star Dwyane Wade made $196 million
during his 16-year basketball career,
but still sticks to a budget
Instagram: 2020 Vision
In 2003, Dwyane Wade was selected fifth overall in the NBA Draft by the Miami Heat. Overnight, Wade went from unpaid NCAA athlete to a professional ball player, signing a multi-million-dollar contract.
At the time, Wade had yet to invest in a financial advisor.
His personal goal was to save half of the $2 million or so he was taking in his first year. He ended up spending all of it.
“I spent all of it,” Wade says. “I went through it, my family had needs. I regret not having someone early in my career to teach me about all this money.”
If he’d had a financial advisor, he says, he might not have purchased an electric blue Cadillac Escalade with 26-inch spinning rims — a car that Wade says was the worst money he has ever spent.
“When I was in college and I knew I was gonna enter the draft, I had my eyes on this blue Escalade,” Wade remembers. “I saw someone driving it down the street of Milwaukee. I get some money, I’m gonna get me one of those. I put spinners on it.” And so Wade bought it. Got the spinners. And he drove up to traffic lights, rolling down his windows and turning up Three Six Mafia’s “Ridin Spinners"—I’m ridin’ spinners, I’m ridin’ spinners / they don’t stop. That was living the dream.
While he never regretted these early spendthrift purchases, Wade knew he could be planning smarter. “I was just sending my credit card to people like: hey can I get that Bentley? . . . That is not smart, people. Have someone smarter than you who can help you with your money.”
At one point, he owned more than a dozen cars. That was before Wade heard what he says is the best money advice he ever got: “To get rid of about 16 cars,” including a Maybach he never drove that was costing him $6,000 a month.
At first, he didn’t follow the advice, which came from his financial advisor. But Wade eventually conceded and whittled down his collection to just one car an Audi Q8,” ESPN documentary “Life Unexpected.”
Wade wishes he’d been smarter about handling his salary when he was younger. “I regret not having someone early in my career to help teach me about all this money,” he said. “I went from making $200-some-odd dollars in college to becoming a millionaire overnight and I didn’t know what to do with it.”
On the other hand, the best money the 39-year-old has ever spent was on buying new homes for his parents, as well as giving his children a high-quality education.
“To buy my mom her first home and buy my dad his first home that was paid for. As a kid, you have these dreams—especially growing up in the inner city—to make it out. And also for my kids, the best money I spent on them was being able to give them the education I didn’t have. Putting them in some of the best schools. To the point where my kids at a certain age—about 10—feel like they’re smarter than me. I’ve given them the key to a different kind of knowledge that when I was growing up we just didn’t have.”
Miami Heat legend Dwyane Wade may have raked in a little over $196 million during his 16-season NBA career, but he still meets with his financial planner every quarter.
That’s because Wade’s goal is to maintain the same lifestyle as a retiree that he had as a basketball superstar — which is harder to do now that he is no longer earning around $20 million a year.
“We had to sit down and come up with a plan,” Wade told Men’s Health in 2020.
“That plan allows me to understand, ‘Okay, I’ve got a budget. I can’t spend over this [amount], or if I go over I have to make some money somewhere else, I’ve gotta hustle.’”
This is a similar process our Newcastle & Lake Macquarie Financial Planning Advisers go through with our clients.
Many people are looking for financial freedom, where:
They have choice around whether they work or not
They have the freedom to choose what they do with their time
They provide a legacy to their family - through security of a home & through knowledge/education
For many maintaining their current income through sources outside of employment is a high priority.
As financial planners our role is to support you in achieving this by putting the necessary framework in place so both you & your income have direction.
When our clients have these goals, we believe it is prudent to establish the foundations early, to ensure when the income from their employment/business begins to flow, we have the structure in place to take advantage of opportunities and ensure their money is working for them.
“Like a man on a deserted island wishing for rain….
Make sure when that rain comes you have got something to collect it with.”
Cast Away - Tom Hanks
Wade’s upbringing had a lasting impact on how he approaches money.
“The fear of not having is a terrible feeling,” he told CNBC Make It. “That never goes away.”
“It’s something that I carry when I talk to my kids about money, when I talk to them about even the money I give them,” the father of four added. “It’s really trying to do something to them that I didn’t have, to have somebody really educate me on the importance of savings.”
After his early money missteps, the 38-year-old has a much clearer financial plan today — and he has a financial advisor that he meets with quarterly to help him reach his goals.
He’s learned that if you have a plan, you know where you’re going and it’s easier to achieve your goals. As he told Men’s Health: “A failure to plan is a plan to fail.”
“A failure to plan is a plan to fail”
Whatever stage of life you are at, ensure you have a plan in place, have the right framework & structure to allow your money to flow & grow.
Contact our trusted Newcastle & Lake Macquarie Financial Planning Advisers to take control of your financial future
Sources:
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/09/dwyane-wade-made-196-million-dollars-playing-basketball-but-still-budgets.html#:~:text=Share-,NBA%20star%20Dwyane%20Wade%20made%20%24196%20million%20during%20his%2016,still%20sticks%20to%20a%20budget&text=Dwyane%20Wade%20and%20wife%20Gabrielle%20Union%20during%20Paris%20Fashion%20Week%202020.
https://www.menshealth.com/trending-news/a31082939/dwyane-wade-money/
https://kayosports.com.au/shows/show-d-wade-life-unexpected!17506/season-2020!17507