Your Wealthiest Clients May Not Have Their Estate Plans in Order<\/a><\/p>\nBut my life changed because of a relationship. In 2012, I was at a wedding in Turks and Caicos with my girlfriend, who is now my wife. Her best friend\u2019s dad was asking me financial questions, and I had no idea what he was talking about.<\/p>\n
He said, \u201cWhen we get back to D.C., I\u2019m going to set up a meeting. I want you to take it.\u201d That meeting was with the company that represents me now, a family office.<\/p>\n
They asked, \u201cHow do you want to live when you\u2019re done playing? Do you want a boat? Multiple homes? Let us know, and we\u2019re going to work around it.\u201d<\/p>\n
EV: Do people misunderstand why athletes run into financial trouble?<\/p>\n
DJ: I tell people to imagine gathering 100 individuals between 22 and 25 and giving each of them a half-million dollars to $1.5 million. A lot are going to make similar poor financial decisions.<\/p>\n
The difference in the NFL is that you\u2019re putting your body through a lot of violence, and your career could be over like that. You don\u2019t have the luxury of continuing down a path of poor financial decisions, or you won\u2019t make it back.<\/p>\n
I feel like I had a second chance because I was fortunate enough to play as long as I did. A lot of guys don\u2019t get that second chance.<\/p>\n
EV: How did you learn to set boundaries with family?<\/p>\n
DJ: I wasn\u2019t willing to buy someone a house or a car. I\u2019m here for emergencies. I know things happen, and I\u2019m in a place of privilege. But if someone asks for money, I want the full details. Why are we in this position?<\/p>\n
It\u2019s hard to tell family members no when they sacrificed so much for you. As a parent now, I understand that more every day. It was one of the toughest decisions I had to make.<\/p>\n
Your contracts are out there for everyone to see. You can\u2019t say, \u201cI don\u2019t have it.\u201d They know you have it. But there\u2019s a rhyme and reason. Before I had kids, I would say, \u201cI have to save this for my future family. I\u2019m building something, and I don\u2019t know if I\u2019m ever going to have a job again.\u201d<\/p>\n
EV: What does accountability look like with your financial team?<\/p>\n
DJ: I\u2019m not afraid to ask anything. I\u2019ve asked, \u201cWhat if I wanted to pull all my money out? Can you get it for me? How do I actually know the money I see on my screen or phone is there?\u201d<\/p>\n
He\u2019s not afraid to tell me, \u201cYou guys have spent too much. This is the path you\u2019re on.\u201d There\u2019s a mutual partnership and accountability.<\/p>\n
I used to tell young guys, \u201cWhy have a financial advisor if you\u2019re not going to listen to them? Give me the money. I\u2019ll let you spend whatever you want, and I\u2019ll take the fees.\u201d It took growth to get there.<\/p>\n
Now, my advisor has created a portfolio where I don\u2019t feel the urge to jump at outside investments. I send him everything.<\/p>\n
EV: What do you value beyond investment management?<\/p>\n
DJ: Our wills, trusts for our kids, insurance\u2014there\u2019s someone who is the expert in each department. There\u2019s a tax person, and I can have relationships with the insurance companies and brokers we work with.<\/p>\n
I prefer it that way because I\u2019m learning. I don\u2019t want to call one person and just get an answer. I want someone to explain exactly what we\u2019re doing, how it benefits me and why we\u2019re going that route.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve built trust over the years. To me, that\u2019s the most important thing. I trust that they have our best interests at heart.<\/p>\n
EV: What are you building now?<\/p>\n
DJ: I created the Gentleman\u2019s Suite, an invite-only networking concept that can operate as a traveling luxury hospitality suite. The first activation was in Martha\u2019s Vineyard, where our family spends time in the summer.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s food, beverage and entertainment, but that\u2019s the backdrop. I\u2019m creating a locker room outside the locker room where like-minded people can build together, enjoy fellowship and speak freely. There could be business that comes out of it, too. I\u2019ve been a direct product of what it means to have a good team around you. Even when things go sideways, you have people you can count on who hold you accountable in all phases of life. I want to create that with the Gentleman\u2019s Suite.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For professional athletes, financial success isn\u2019t just about signing big contracts or landing endorsements\u2014it\u2019s about making smart decisions…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":661780,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[114,268,85,46,266,267],"class_list":["post-661779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-business","tag-finance","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661779","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=661779"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661779\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/661780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=661779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=661779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=661779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}