$500k/yr for 3 years is "never work again" money for me. That's $1.5 Million. If you pull out what many financial advisors recommend, 4%, that's $60k/yr for the rest of your life. That's above the US median household income.

If you don't pay taxes on that $1.5M, your living expenses (in jail) could also be quite low... but you won't magically end up with all the money. With half the money gone to taxes living on $30k/yr (non-inflation adjusted) doesn't sound so fun.

That's true, I hadn't considered taxes. I'd be very surprised to find out that NFL players are getting a W-2. Most likely they're all incorporated so they can claim all sorts of stuff as business expenses which would get their tax rate way below 50%. But you're right, it's probably more like $45-50k instead of $60k.

Still though, the median household income is in the $50ks. The 4% withdrawal rate means the base amount still grows with inflation, and so does your yearly withdrawal.

In other words, you can live a middle class life without ever working again. I would probably prefer to live a better lifestyle if that were an option. Sure, $1+ million isn't "fuck you" money, but it is "don't have to work ever again" money.

Players are employees of the teams they play for. It’s very hard even for high income employees to reduce their tax liability. Even Tim Cook pays about 50% taxes on his bonuses.

The median household income thing is also misleading. People earn much more with age. $30k is a good income for a 25-year old. It's in the bottom third for people above age 35. (It's even worse if you consider only college graduates, which NFL players almost all are.)

> Players are employees of the teams they play for.

Are you sure about that? I was under the impression that they were all contractors.

It's a little harder perhaps for Tim Cook to finagle his state of residency compared to a person that travels for a living. Most of these people are not paying NYC income tax. In fact, I'd be surprised if they couldn't establish residency in states without an income tax at all. This 'pro sports tax advice' site specifically and vaguely hints at controlling your state of residency. http://www.prosportstax.com/Images/Attachments/rn4b61f78e0a8...

Also worth noting the NFL has a 2:1 match up to $10k/yr. So every year you put $10k into your NFL 401k the NFL gives you $20k in tax free income.

A quick google search didn't give me a good indication of what the royalties are to low end pro athletes. I would not be surprised if the after tax on those is greater than the taxes on their traditional income.

It's worth noting that when athletes travel for games they have to pay state (and sometimes city) taxes for the cities they travel to which means their state of residency matters less than you might think.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jock_tax

$60k/year won't get you very far in 20 years, and even today won't get you far at all if you have to pay medical expenses on the damage you received playing the game.

The 4% rate is chosen specifically because it's low enough for your retirement savings to continue to grow with inflation.

I don't really see your point about $60k not getting you far at all since it's more than half the country makes. I understand you might have a more privileged view of what kind of lifestyle you expect to live, but you'd be doing better than half the country. You'll be fine.

You're a NFL player. By definition you're among the, what, best 1% of players in college. You, of course, go in planning to have a short career, because you're young and invincible and the best.

So of course after 3 years of living like a monk you have $1.5 million stashed away...contrary to all rational expectations.

Well, less, because after income taxes and because as a young, invincible man among the best to play sports you spend money, maybe you have $300k left. If you're lucky.

But you're now unemployed, so you need healthcare. And the mortgage on your house is at least half that $60k/year because you're a young invincible sports hero.

You've been earning a half million dollars up to this point, so it's a safe bet it'll be very hard to scale your expenses down to $60k/year.

Anyway, I don't know where I'm going with this, except that your expectations of what an NFL player can/will do after being physically tortured for several years (high school, college, NFL) with hidden mental damage and having been a young, invincible man told you're the best of the best and surrounded by people eager to piggyback on your success...may be optimistic.

Yeah, I certainly won't argue that there are huge cultural problems that will impede any person's ability to make sound personal finance decisions. And those cultural problems are magnified for someone like an NFL player. But I still think it's important to have rational discussions where were acknowledge that we could choose to live a different way. We could choose to think about money differently.