John Urschel earned over $500,000+ per year in his three years as an NFL player but lived on $25,000 per year. He is now a PhD student in math at MIT. He says that he is not consciously attempting to save money or budget, but that the things he enjoys are “incredibly cheap”.
I don’t think the point of the story was about how much he made and spent.
To me the real story is how do we find and support the young brilliant minds. They’re certainly swimming up stream in schools like we have in Baltimore where the administration is corrupt and misuses funds and how the kids are being raised at home.
What an interesting man and story.
There are many many points made in this incredible story. College football makes it very difficult for players to take a STEM major. That he did so makes him a rare bird. STEM programs have a high change in major rate for all students as it is.
I think the focus on his living on a small amount of money when he was making NFL salary is a VERY important take from the story. Too many of us, myself included find ourselves living right to the edge of our incomes. Some even exceed it. For many of us, when our kids hit college age and the FAFSA EFC tells us what should be paying according to their formula, we scream. The way we look at it is that the life style we should be living st certain income and asset ranges do not include paying what FAFSA determined is our EFC.
More important is the very idea of living well at far less. Our generation isn’t doing well that way in terms of planning for retirement, let alone college. A whole thread on that in the Parents Forum.
Where it really hits home for me is with our children. The transition to self supporting status comes with a lot of bumps. It’s difficult to be disciplined and live a life well within ones means. When one is used to being subsidized by generous parents and spending time in the company of those also so subsidized, perhaps even more generously, it’s difficult to step back. I saw it a lot. My kids are still adjusting to this transition, some better than others.
Eating out seems to be the big thing these days. It’s expensive whether it’s the latte a day or not packing lunch. A lot to be learned in frugality and still living big and having an enjoyable life in a small income.
Great article. Such a positive, intelligent man.
We saved and saved and saved for college when my kids were growing up. We took one big trip to Disney World when they were 10 and 12 and stayed in one of the nicer resorts. Other than that we did one weekend a year to an inexpensive place a few hours drive from or home. I remember sitting at the pool at Disney talking to people being shocked by how many people told us they stayed at this resort every year. When we had talked about what we did for a living it seemed pretty clear they didn’t earn more than us.
Then when it came around time for college we were able to indulge in our greatest luxury telling our kids they could go to school wherever they applied and got in.
One family we knew who took big vacations multiple times, drove much nicer and newer cars than us and lived in a much more expensive home who had kids a bit ahead of ours started talking to us about college at a dinner together one night when our older was first staring the process. The husband said ( sensibly) not to allow them to apply anywhere we couldn’t afford and about the importance of a financial safety. My husband said we had college covered so no issue there. The husband started to laugh and was like “ Buddy you have NO idea how expensive it can be. It’s not like when we went to school” And my husband was like “ yes I kniow we have 529 plans for the girls” and the guy said “Yeah but you’d need up to half a million in those accounts to cover a lot of places for both of them, how could you possibly have that?” And my husband simply said “ By saving money”. He looked stunned. Obviously we were fortunate to be in a position to save that amount but we were doing it by living under our means. Not just the vacations but buying moderately priced cars and keeping them for over a decade, living in a house that was hundreds of thousands less than we could “ afford” based on our incomes etc…
I actually remember this guy. Glad things worked out for him but he’s now my new hero. What a great role model also.
Great points about living within your means and love the comments on fafsa and realizing you “can” on paper afford more but hard when it’s not there to spend… Lol.
We also stated 529 early and didn’t save everything for both kids but enough to make it much easier to afford OOS college for two. Don’t love writing the checks but at least we can write those checks. Our cars are not as nice as others etc but I really don’t care.
Great story in so many ways! Thanks for sharing this.