Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin - The Money Playbook of a NFL-Player-Turned-Financial-Guru: How Brandon Copeland to Manage Money Like a Pro

Episode Date: September 11, 2024

Before Brandon Copeland was at the NFL, he was tackling a business education at Wharton. Now, he's back on his finance game and ready to nerd out with Nicole. Brandon tells Nicole how he bucked the trend and turned his NFL money into real wealth, how much he made his first year at the NFL, and what he thinks of the new NFL and private equity opportunities. Check out Brandon's new book here: YourMoneyPlaybook.com $ Take control of your finances by using a Chime checking account with features like no maintenance fees, fee-free overdraft up to $200, or getting paid up to two days early with direct deposit. Visit: http://chime.com/MNN  $ Looking for the perfect holiday gift for your coworkers, friends, and everyone in between? Choose Nicole’s favorite wine, Justin. Get 20 percent off your order for a limited time with the code “MONEY20” at http://justinwine.com/  $ Ready to find a financial advisor that’s right for your financial goals? Get matched with a trusted, vetted financial advisor at: http://moneypickle.com/MNN  All investment strategies involve risk of loss. The information shared in this podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. Listeners should do their own research and consult a financial advisor before making any investment decisions. See terms for additional details: https://moneynewsnetwork.com/terms/ 

I love hosting on Airbnb. It's a great way to bring in some extra cash. But I totally get it that it might sound overwhelming to start or even too complicated if, say, you want to put your summer home in Maine on Airbnb, but you live full time in San Francisco and you can't go to Maine every time you need to change sheets for your guests or something like that. If thoughts like these have been holding you back, I have great news for you. Airbnb has launched a co-host network, which is a network of high quality local co-hosts with Airbnb experience that can take care of your home and your guests. Co-hosts can do what you don't have time for, like managing your reservations, messaging your guests, giving support at the property, or even create your listing for you. I always want to

line up a reservation for my house when I'm traveling for work, but sometimes I just don't get around to it because getting ready to travel always feels like a scramble, so I don't end up making time to make my house look guest-friendly. I guess that's the best way to put it. But I'm matching with a co-host so I can still make that extra cash while also making it easy on myself. Find a co-host at airbnb.com slash host. One of the most stressful periods of my life was when I was in credit card debt. I got to a point where I just knew that I had to get it under control for my financial future and also for my mental health. We've all hit a point where we've realized it was time to make some serious money moves. So take control of your finances by using a Chime checking account with features like no

maintenance fees, fee-free overdraft up to $200, or getting paid up to two days early with direct deposit. Learn more at Chime.com slash MNN. When you check out Chime, you'll see that you can overdraft up to $200 with no fees. If you're an OG listener, you know about my infamous $35 overdraft fee that I got from buying a $7 latte and how I am still very fired up about it. If I had Chime back then, that wouldn't even be a story. Make your fall finances a little greener by working toward your financial goals with Chime. Open your account in just two minutes at Chime.com slash MNN. That's Chime.com slash MNN. Chime feels like progress. Banking services and debit card provided by the Bancorp Bank N.A. or Stride Bank N.A.

Members FDIC. SpotMe eligibility requirements and overdraft limits apply. Boosts are available to eligible Chime members enrolled in SpotMe and are subject to monthly limits. Terms and conditions apply. Go to Chime.com slash disclosures for details. I'm Nicole Lappin, the only financial expert you don't need a dictionary to understand. It's time for some money rehab. I like to think of Brandon Copeland as Troy Balton from High School Musical, but instead of juggling basketball and musical theater, he's juggled football and finance. Brandon played for the NFL for 10 years on different teams, but his first and his last team was the Ravens, his home team. But before he was tackling competing NFL players, he was tackling investments at UBS. And even when he was at the NFL,

he would run into the locker room to check his options trades. Seriously. Today we talk about how he bucked the trend and turned his NFL money into real wealth, which he talks about in his new book, Your Money Playbook, which you can find in the episode description. Brandon also tells me how much he actually made his first year in the NFL and what he thinks of the new NFL private equity opportunities. Brandon Copeland, welcome to Money Rehab. Thank you. Thank you for having me.

You graduated from Wharton, one of the most prestigious schools for business in the world. You'd interned for UBS for a couple summers in college. So that was a job option. But instead, you went to play for the Baltimore Ravens. So how did that happen? Yeah, that was a dream come true to be able to grow up. I'm from Baltimore originally, go to my hometown team, play the sport that I love, get to come out in the stadium that I grew up sitting in the stands with my granddad and my mom at times. And love, get to come out in the stadium that I grew up sitting in the stands with my granddad and my mom at times and to be able to come out of that tunnel and go to battle for my hometown. I remember graduating from the Wharton School of Business.

I didn't actually make my full class graduation because we had to go to Baltimore and do our conditioning test. But all I know is I remember going into that whole scenario just thinking, wow, this is awesome. But OK, it's time to get real and get serious because they're firing people around here all the time. So technically, I was signed to a three year one point four five million dollar contract coming out of school my senior year. But I saw twenty four grand before being fired the first time. So it got real, real fast. But like you said, I was able to scrape, scratch and claw my way to 10 years in the NFL. So made it happen. And that's incredible. So, so 1.4 to 1.5 million for

three years. Yep. Yep. 500 grand ish a year. Is that more than you think you would have made at UBS? Ooh, that's a great question. First time I've ever had that question. You know, I'm a guy who always will bet on himself. So I want to say in my mind on paper, yeah, that was a lot more than I would have ever made at UBS, right? But the competitor in me likes to say that I would have made it happen. I would have made more at UBS. Yeah, you would have, for sure. But you're not taking home like 500K, right? When all was said and done with agent fees and God knows what. Well, even my first year, I was practice squad. So you're not even making the full rookie minimum salary, which was 435 grand at that time. And every year it jumps up, jumps up, jumps up, which would have gotten me 1.45.

But just in general, just so if you're a rookie making, let's say half a million dollars, you got 50% of that money gone taxes. And hey, don't play in New York or California because you'll have more than 50% of that money gone when you play in those games. Even if you play in a non-incomes tax state, you play with the Tennessee Titans or the Miami Dolphins or the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, every place that you go to play, you have to pay those state taxes as well too. So something to keep in mind, 3% goes to your agent typically. Then you have training fees. You have cost of living, right? You got to have an apartment or a place to stay. Some people have places to stay in season. Some people have places to stay in the off season, right? They're real true home. And so, yeah, the costs add up really,

really fast. But I do know just in simple math from just more of a tax and cost of doing business standpoint before any expenses, there were games that I was playing with the New York Jets where I'd see about 46, 47% of my salary after the game. And yeah, that's what made me buy a place in Florida. But throughout all of it, you were still day trading while you were playing, right? You mentioned Tennessee. So you were still day trading while you were playing right you mentioned Tennessee so you were playing for the Tennessee Titans practice squad you were day trading you said you've gone to the bathroom actually to do some exit trade is that true yeah yeah well I would tell coach I was going to the bathroom but I go back to the locker room and just be exiting out of different trades that

I will make that morning did you guys think you were nuts? Did they know what you were doing? Some of them did. The folks whose lockers were closest to me knew what I was doing, but they also saw me winning. They saw me winning in my portfolio. I had a guy my rookie year. I had a guy come in and bring twenty thousand dollars in cash and just literally throw it in my locker and say, hey, let me see what you do with the kit. And yeah, I was just like, whoa. I took it home. I took it home. I went and bet it all on red.

No, I'm joking. I took it home and I ended up coming back to him the next day and just say, hey, I appreciate you, but I'm not going to take this money. You should talk to a financial advisor because I don't know what I want to do one day. And I don't want me taking this opportunity as a rookie in the NFL that could potentially deter some future goals and ambitions of myself.

So I did the textbook thing to do. I wish I could tell you I took it and I turned it into 70 million and I put it all in Bitcoin in 2013, but I didn't. I gave it back. I think what you did was the responsible thing to do. It was. It was. Did you feel like you were doing that as a backup plan while you were playing? Was that like your insurance? No, great question. I think it was for me, football is a means to an end and football gives you the, for me, I always looked at it as a startup capital to change my life and my family's life and to start businesses and to go invest in my own dreams and invest in myself.

And so you get an opportunity to make money. I have sat at UBS and I've sat at Morgan Stanley and I've sat at hedge funds and I've watched people literally trade what we're, you know, happy to be earning. I watched them trade it and go make more with it. I've watched people literally trade what we're happy to be earning. I watched them trade it and go make more with it. I've also watched them lose it, too. And so for me, I just understood that I need to have my money growing. I need to have my money working for me. And it was a muscle that I was able to flex and work on while being in a position to go

out and earn money in a totally different way. And one thing that I've learned over my career is like, if you can make it, if you can invest in a way where you're not 100% needing it, banking on it, then it allows you to invest with a clearer mind. It allows you to say no to things. There's some people who are investing in real estate and they need this deal to go right. Now, I want all my deals to go right. Don't get me wrong. But when you have to get a deal to go right in order to keep the lights on three months

from now, seven months from now, next week, now you are making yourself susceptible to make mistakes because now you're starting to look at things that don't look that good. But you're like, I don't know, maybe I need this. That's true with anything, right? Like trying to get a job if you come if you really need like you have that thirsty energy. Absolutely. question to be able to be in a position where I didn't need to, but I was using it to learn and to be able to learn in a comfortable state. I always figured I knew football was going to end. I wanted to work and train these muscles and train my memory and train my stomach for investing and

for trading and for the markets while I didn't necessarily need it to feed me and my family because I knew at some point it would end. So my grandfather played for 11 years in the NFL. His name is Roy Hilton, played with the Baltimore Colts from 1965 through 76. His last two years were with the Giants and the Falcons. And I share him because, one, he's one of my heroes, my mom and him. But two, when you can grow up and you can see your hero who played your sport at a different time, but you can see that it ends, that he had three knee surgeries. He couldn't lift his shoulder pass here. He shook when he wrote and signed his autograph because of all the things that he dealt with. I understood that, OK, this opportunity I have in the NFL will not last

forever. And I need to maximize it in more ways than just out there on the football field. So that's what led me into trading. Why do you think so many guys don't have that realization that it's ephemeral, that it's fleeting? Like you hear this as a stereotype. Do you think it's true? Yeah, I think I don't know whether it's true or not. I think not everybody gets a chance to grow up with a granddad that takes you to school and takes you out in the backyard and does all those things with you and promotes you more as a human being than a football player right like literally after games he would ask me how'd you do and it'd be ah man i missed a tackle in the third quarter blah blah he's like no no did you have fun right even all the way up through the league which is crazy to say the flip side of that is in order to be

really good in the nfl in order to last for, I'll say, I mean, I typically don't talk about this like this about my NFL career, but in order to last for 10 years in the NFL, the average is 2.8. I think it's 2.3 now after the pandemic, maybe a little less. You have to be a little bit psycho, frankly. And when I say psycho, I say it with all due respect, please don't, don't hunt me down. If you do hunt me down, that's okay. But when I say psycho, like you have to be able to walk out on Sunday morning, whether I'm in the middle of the season, dealing with a hip injury, dealing with bruises, dealing with stiffness in the knees, I got to go out of the tunnel. And I have to literally physically take

grown men who are fighting for their families, fighting for their lives, their livelihoods. And I have to take my hands and I have to move them out the way. That takes a lot of just mental training and coaching to go from like, hey, like, hey, let's have a good time to just, okay, this is real now, right? And to then come down from that, right? And to tell yourself, I'm just a human being. This will be done one day. This will be done one day. When literally you have to work all week to be able to just mentally train yourself.

I'm going against Tom Brady this week. Oh, what do I have to tell myself to be in the right mind? Tom Brady this week. Oh, what do I have to tell myself to be in the right mind? It's just it's tough to balance the psychology of like, get yourself up to go out and be a superhuman, but then also be humble and tell yourself you could end it all on one play because it's it's tough to really be able to do that against the San Francisco 49ers or any insert your favorite team there. So I always think that that's like the challenge. And it's not a what was me at all for anybody listening. It's just more of like, that's why a lot of guys get caught. You don't know when your career is

going to end, but you also you're in the midst of maximizing your opportunity today. One other thing I'll share with you is I remember, and I'm a pretty, I'd say, cognizant human being, but I learned about a 401k from the NFL Players Association who came into the locker room with me as a Baltimore Raven, as a rookie. And they were sharing all the benefits that they'd gone out and negotiated for us. Hey, guys, if you put X amount of dollars into your 401k, you're going to get it matched up to this amount, which is over 100% match, which is phenomenal. But even as a rookie in the NFL in the middle of training camp, I remember thinking, wow, that's amazing. Oh, wait, they're cutting people in a couple of days. they're cutting people in a couple of days.

If I don't go out here in an hour and a half and make a tackle on Jacoby Jones, God rest his soul. He recently passed away, but Superbowl champion wide receiver. I'm not going to be here. That 401k isn't really going to matter to me. So I love it. Sounds really good. I should be cognizant of it, but I got to lock back in and focus on today. Cause I might not be here tomorrow if I don't. So I think it's just the psychology battle that keeps a lot of players in the moment of now where it gets a little tough to think about five years from now, 20 years from now at times. It's not an excuse. No, I mean, that's the best explanation

that I've ever heard with it, because you hear about a lot of guys just spending all their money, not having it when when their career ends. But do you think there is a similarity between money management and football? Right. I don't know. I know a lot of finance analogies, not a lot of football. And so if you can have some grace with me, like people have to be on the offense and the defense when it comes to finances. Absolutely. Who's out of curiosity? Do you have a team? Who's your team? My husband's is the commanders. The commanders. Okay, cool, cool, cool. So the commander. Now it's mine. There you go. Absolutely. So, so in, in your money playbook, our book, we, we talk about this, but the, there are a lot of similarities between football and money management, the commanders before they go into a game, before they go into battle, they spend all week game planning.

They spend all week prepping. They spend all week scouting their opponent for the week. money management, I like to call into question, what are we doing as individuals to game plan, to scout ourselves, to understand our money, understand our strengths and our weaknesses, and understand ourselves better so that we can be better prepared for the obstacles that life is just inevitably going to throw at us. For example, do you have a budget? Have you sat down and spent time intentionally writing out your why and what money means to you, what you want to be able to do with your money a year from now, three years from now, five years from now? And by doing those simple things, one, by writing out your why, now you're strategically

mapping out who you want to be, what you work for, why you have discipline and where you want your life to end up, which most people haven't done. But how can you ever achieve something if you haven't sat down and really visualize it and wrote it into existence? But two, you also avoid becoming a hamster on a hamster wheel. And what I mean when I say that right now, we're in a hustle culture. We're in a, oh, let me make money. Let me make money, let me make money. And a lot of people are making money, but it's an aimless goal. You're not chasing fulfillment. You're not chasing happiness. You're chasing money. And so by you tying those things down to those goals, it's going to help make your steps strategic. The budget is so important as well, too. I know

how many pennies I spend on a monthly reoccurring basis. I know exactly how much it costs me to live. Right. And I think by everybody figuring that number out one, every time I do that, I end up making money because I see a subscription that I hold on. No offense to Apple TV, Apple TV. Man, I got that for the morning show, but I don't really need it anymore. Let me go ahead and cut that subscription. Oh, I'm spending on this app over here. Come on, let me cut that. And anyway, I always sell people if you're from the Northeast and it's still snowing in the place that you're in, it'd be like you trying to heat your entire house in the winter, but you don't

know that you have basement windows open. And so you're working really, really hard to make money, make money, and you're heating up your house. I'm heating up my house, heating up my house. And then the whole time you're just actually secretly working against yourself because you haven't actually mapped out where all your dollars are going. And that's backwards. That's inefficient use of your time. And so by doing those game planning exercises of a budget, writing down your why, those things are extremely important to making sure that you're just taking intentional steps with your money management. And that's just the beginning. It's a leaky bucket. Yeah. And if you, I think a dream without

a plan is just a wish and wishes are amazing, but they don't pay the bills. And so I think that I have a t-shirt with that somewhere, but right. If you, if you're, if you just say, I just want a million dollars, Nicole and Brandon, the question is, what do you want to do with that million dollars? I don't know. Like maybe you need more than a million dollars. Maybe you need less than a million dollars. You figure out the life you want and then reverse engineer to get the money to live that life, not just an arbitrary number that you think sounds really good. Hold on to your wallets. Money Rehab will be right back. We'll be right back. I love hosting on Airbnb.

It's a great way to bring in some extra cash. But I totally get it that it might sound overwhelming to start or even too complicated if, say, you want to put your summer home in Maine on Airbnb, but you live full time in San Francisco and you can't go to Maine every time you need to change sheets for your guests or something like that. If thoughts like these have been holding you back, I have great news for you. Airbnb has launched a co-host network, which is a network of high quality local co-hosts with Airbnb experience that can take care of your home and your guests. Co-hosts can do what you don't have time for, like managing your reservations, messaging your guests, giving support at the property, or even create your listing for you. I always want to line up a reservation for my house when I'm traveling for work, but sometimes I just don't get around to it because getting ready to travel always feels like a scramble, so I don't end up making time to make my house look guest-friendly. I guess

that's the best way to put it. But I'm matching with a co-host, so I can still make that extra cash while also making it easy on myself. Find a co-host at Airbnb.com slash host. One of the most stressful periods of my life was when I was in credit card debt. I got to a point where I just knew that I had to get it under control for my financial future and also for my mental health. We've all hit a point where we've realized it was time to make some serious money moves. So take control of your finances by using a Chime checking account with features like no maintenance fees, fee-free overdraft up to $200, or getting paid up to two days early with direct deposit. Learn more at Chime.com slash MNN. When you check out Chime, you'll see that you can overdraft up to $200 with no fees. If you're an OG listener, you know about my infamous $35 overdraft fee that I got from buying a $7 latte and how I am still very fired up about it.

If I had Chime back then, that wouldn't even be a story. Make your fall finances a little greener by working toward your financial goals with Chime. Open your account in just two minutes at chime.com slash MNN. That's chime.com slash MNN. Chime. Feels like progress. Banking services and debit card provided by the Bank Corp. Bank N.A. or Stride Bank N.A.

Members FDIC. Spot me eligibility requirements and overdraft limits apply. Boosts are available to eligible Chime members enrolled in SpotMe and are subject to monthly limits. Terms and conditions apply. Go to Chime.com slash disclosures for details. And now for some more money rehab. And now for some more money rehab. In your book, Your Money Playbook, you talk about four financial strategies.

I want to double click on the fourth one, which is the promise of legacy. So unpacking topics like insurance, wills, estate planning. Do you and your wife talk about estate planning and will? Like, it's not a fun, sexy conversation, but it's an important grown-up conversation for sure yeah absolutely we're actually having our third child here in the next couple of weeks so it's very much top of mind for us in terms of making sure that that our children are taken care of thank you third boy third boy so yes they're uncomfortable conversations but they're important conversations because we both need to be making sure that we're working towards the same goal. Yes, sometimes it will uncover some discrepancies in who you think should be managing the money when you're gone or who should be taking care of the children and things like that. But those tough conversations are the ones that are going to make sure that you and your family are straight for, I don't want to say eternity, but for as long as possible. I think

that the importance of legacy, while it is a wills, it is wills, estate planning, are those tough conversations that not a lot of people generally want to talk about because most people don't want to talk about their death. It's also about teaching your children how to deal with money and teaching your children how to manage money. We talk so much about generational wealth, but what good is it for me to give my children a bunch of assets and a bunch of money and not teach them how to go fish, not teach them how to deal with the money and not teach them how to go fish, not teach them how to deal with the money, not teach them how to deal with the pressure. And so those are the other things that are, I would say, more important than the details. We talk about all of it in the book for sure. But

one of the things I've been encouraging my friends to do is like making sure they're emphasizing, like bringing your children to work, letting them listen in on calls, letting them listen in on tough calls as well, too, because guess what? If you're leaving them this opportunity and these options, well, you want them to be comfortable handling it. And there's going to be times in their lives where a lot of these lessons we're not going to learn in school. So there are going to be times in their lives where they're going to think about, I remember sitting in the room when Nicole was having this conversation and it was a tough conversation, but this is how my mom handled it. So I know how to deal with this now, 20 some years later, right? And that is the greatest gift

in the world that we can give to our children as well, too. Yeah, because they're watching everything that you're doing. When people say I want financially responsible kids, the first question I ask is, are you financially responsible? How many crickets do you get? Because they're watching you. They're watching how you deal with money, how you go to the store and talk about money, how you talk about shopping or saving or whatever. And if you're stressed about it, they'll totally pick up on that. You also talk about optimizing opportunities for generating multiple streams of income. It's been said, all the stats that the self-made millionaires have about seven streams of income.

How many do you have? Oh, that's a great question. I have a few of them. I don't know if I think I'm over seven at this point. Some dividend income. Yeah, dividends. I don't want to put all my business out there, but I have dividends, real estate, production, financial education. The book now will be is a new one. So, yeah, we have I have a have a few out there yeah i think that it's extremely important to create other revenue streams ultimately i think that what we all have seen during the pandemic and also now more than ever with ai and companies having to lay off folks as they used to say they used to say one income stream is too close to none, two is too close to one, right?

And ultimately, I think whenever you can go into an opportunity and start to strategically think about, okay, well, are there other ways that I can benefit from this thing in completely legal ways, right? So if you're investing in Apple, right? Well, now maybe you look at not only owning the stock, but maybe you also are looking at some call options on Apple as well, too. That's a simple thing to think about. I'm not telling anybody to invest in Apple. Disclaimer, consult with your financial advisor, all of that type of stuff, right? Don't sue me. Exactly. Exactly. But, but pretty much again, I think that unfortunately most jobs and careers aren't necessarily built to see you win as an individual. They're there to make the company win, make their shareholders happy and make their

shareholders proud. And the more you need them, similar to the NFL, the more you need them, the more desperate you will be and the more likely you will be able to do whatever I ask you to do. And so however you decide to create another revenue stream, whether it's Uber driving, whether it's DoorDash, whether it's Airbnb renting out in a room in your apartment. I just think that is extremely important not to get so caught up on one stream of income that you lose sight of the other opportunities that may be sitting under your nose. Even thinking about just, hey, I have cash sitting over here in this normal basic checking account. I probably should put that in a high yield savings account because I don't plan on touching it. Well, now I'm making a smarter

investment decision. One thing going very, very long on this topic, but one thing I always tell people too, a lot of sometimes I'll go to a room of people. I'm like, Hey, who's ever invested before? And sometimes there's no one in the room that's invested. And I'm like, okay, cool. Well, I'm here to tell you that everybody here has invested before. What do you mean? Well, if you have a dollar to your name, you have invested, whether you choose to leave that dollar under the mattress and get a 0% return, put it into your checking account and get a 0.001% return or 0.011% return, whatever, or put it in a high yield savings account and get 4% to 5% right now, or put it into a CD or put it into the stock market, right? Those are all generating returns on your dollar. And that's an investment decision.

Yeah. Even a zero return is a return. Zero percent return is a return. And that's your choice. Yeah, the 5% high yield savings account, the easiest additional stream of income you could possibly make. So no excuse. Though you didn't mention social media as one of your streams of income.

A lot of athletes monetize it, but your Instagram is private. Why is that? Yeah, yeah. I am going through a phase right now where I'm trying to lock down and hone in on this next level of my life and so I think that whenever you're in those things for me during football for 10 years of football there were times where I would just go dark I wouldn't talk to anybody literally in training training camp, my rookie year,

there was a guy named Josh Bynes. He coaches for the Seattle Seahawks now. And he used to say in training camp, I don't talk to anybody besides my mom, my wife and my children. And I'm just zero dark 30 on this goal. This goal, this goal, this goal. Laser focus. Exactly. And right now I'm in that phase of laser focus, one with the third child on the way to with just business and just refining certain things. And I need to avoid as many distractions as possible to become to reach my fullest potential. It'll be unlocked soon. I'm already a lot of folks have been reaching out to me about that but but right now i'm like the opportunity i have to be the best version of myself social media i could care less right now but we'll turn that revenue stream on soon though i'll take that much you reserve the right amen to opt to monetize i want to get your thoughts

really quick on travis kelsey he's peaking financially between the NFL brand deals. There was just a story that came out that he sold his podcast to Amazon for $100 million. He's going to be in a movie. Yeah. What kind of financial advice would you give him? What would you tell him to do with this money or start thinking about? Listen, I'm sure he is surrounded by a bunch of great mentors and advisors. So hopefully they're giving them the right advice. I'm sure they are. He also has his big brother, Jason,

and a strong family that I know will make sure that he does the right thing. At this point, he should make sure that a certain amount is put away, tucked away, where it's just spitting off whatever his cost of living is every single year between your NFL salary, your podcast salary, your brand deal salary, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Right. So a certain amount should just be put away. Then there should be an amount, in my opinion, that is going out and investing and working for you. And it's just like, hey, we're going to the level we want to be 10 years from now, 20 years from now, because we're not always going to be comfortable with this lifestyle. And we want to grow. Right. And for him, I think the biggest thing is if I'm him and I'm sure he

is, he's probably not watching the podcast and the shows like I am. He's probably talking to these people directly. But for me, I'm watching Kevin Hart. I'm watching Tyler Perry. I'm watching 50 Cent. I'm watching Oprah. I'm watching all of these amazing entrepreneurs who've taken their platform and turned it into real, true ownership of something bigger. James, billionaire playing basketball, right? Like I want to understand how he's taken his brand and now infused himself into so many other brands that have built him this incredible empire because Travis Kelsey, he's just as crazy as it sounds in a beautiful way. Shout out to UT. He's just getting started. And speaking of ownership, this is breaking news. I want to get your thoughts on private equity firms can now hold ownership stakes in NFL teams. And this is a really big deal because the NFL was the only major American

sports league that didn't allow PE investments. So what do you think about this update? Yeah, I think it's, yeah, I think the sport is going to be the sport is still going to be just as good. I think it's an opportunity for owners to create liquidity for themselves. There's folks who've owned this team for generations at this point, and some of them may want to take some chips off the table.

It also gives the opportunity for new people to be able to potentially purchase into teams as well, too, clearly. But now not necessarily having to do it all with just their bank account. Right. And so, Hey, this is a prime example. I'm talking about people who are owning teams and they're trying to find more ways to be more strategic and create more liquidity in that market, which is obviously some of the. They're not trading very often. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. And so i think it's cool to see it's definitely going to be a major case study but the good thing is they can look at the nba the nf and nhl the mlb etc and see where there's pathways for them to do it but the nfl has always prided

itself on being different and being the number one league out there. So I'm sure they're going to continue to try to keep that restriction on it or keep it somewhat exclusive of a club. Looking forward to seeing the next phase of the NFL. Would you want to invest in the upside of athletes or would you want to invest in a team potentially? Oh, absolutely. Team ownership in your future? Absolutely. Absolutely. I don't know. Team ownership is in my future,

but I'll say you never say never. I absolutely want to invest. I've had those conversations and continue to explore those conversations. But I do know the next frontier of ownership is college. It's college athletes, it's college sports space. They've become pros right before our eyes. Next year, there's literally a settlement that recently passed, the House versus NCAA settlement, that is $20 billion settlement for college athletes, $2.576 billion in back pay, over $15 billion for the next 10 years, other ancillary opportunities to make money through NIL and things of that nature. And so there is going to be a huge opportunity for college athletes, but also the college sports

space. You're hearing it here first. It's going to look very, very different years from now. space you're hearing here first, it's going to look very, very different years from now. Brennan, we end our episodes by asking all of our guests for just one tip listeners can take straight to the bank. If there's something you want to leave our listeners with, it can be anything, investing in sports, saving, investing in general in the market, day trading, budgeting, what would you be? What would it be? Yeah, you have to put your money to work for you. If you don't put your money to work for you, you always have to work for it. So whether you're comfortable with it or not, learn as much as you can about investing and growing your money because an older version of yourself, a more seasoned version of yourself

will be extremely grateful that you did. Money Rehab is a production of Money News Network.'m your host nicole lappen money rehab's executive producer is morgan lavoie our researcher is emily holmes do you need some money rehab and let's be honest we all do so email us your money questions money rehab at money news network.com to potentially have your questions answered on the show or even have a one-on-one intervention with me. And follow us on Instagram at Money News and TikTok at Money News Network for exclusive video content. And lastly, thank you. No, seriously, thank you. Thank you for listening and for investing in yourself, which is the most important investment you can make.