Some professional athletes make tens of millions of dollars and still go broke. Dolphins rookie quarterback Tua Tagovailoa will not be one of those athletes.
Tagovailoa got $30.3 million guaranteed, including a $19.6 million signing bonus, on his four-year rookie contract. He isn’t spending a dime of it.
Instead, Tagovailoa said in an interview with GQ, every NFL paycheck is going into savings, and all he’ll spend to live on is what he gets in endorsements.
“I’m gonna be living off of my marketing money, so the endorsement money that I get, and then everything else is just put to the side,” Tagovailoa said. “So the money that I’m making from my contract, that’s put to the side, so none of that’s gonna be seen.”
With endorsement deals with several big companies, Tagovailoa has been able to purchase some nice items, including a $1.65 million house near the Dolphins’ facility, an $80,000 Escalade for his mom and a $10,000 Rolex for his dad.
“I would say I’m happy with what I spent it on,” Tagovailoa said.
Tagovailoa is wise to recognize that for pro athletes, the money you make at age 22 isn’t going to last forever. Unless you’re smart about how you spend it.