Even for Olympic gold medalists, financial security isn’t guaranteed. Just ask Lauryn Williams. The Olympic track and bobsled champion earned $200,000 a year at age 20, yet by 30, she was interning for $12 an hour.
“The news coverage came, but the sponsors didn’t. I made $80,000 the year I became the first American woman to medal in the Summer and Winter Olympics.”
“I was behind the ball because I was 30 years old and just starting, whereas I had friends who were already doctors and lawyers and well into their careers,” she added. “I spent all of my 20s competing, so I felt kind of insecure that I didn’t have any real work knowledge.”
Though she had initially been turned down for work at the firm, she said the owner decided to bring her onboard after hearing about her impressive background.
“The money doesn’t go quite as far as people think it does, even though it was a pretty good living for a 20-year-old,” she stressed.
“I had a 10-year career, so it set me up better than the average person by the time I was 30. But it also didn’t give me the income to kick my feet up forever and never have to do anything again.”
Perhaps that could have been a different story if she had good financial advice—and that’s precisely what inspired her second act.
After two unsuccessful attempts at passing the CFP exam while interning, Williams finally passed in 2017.
Now she is a CFP Board Ambassador helping athletes make smart decisions with their money through her firm Worth Winning.
Having now advised various sports stars, Williams knows her experience is very much the norm.
However, for most athletes, a plan B is essential.
“From a sponsorship standpoint, I’ve had multiple gold medal-winning athletes as clients who didn’t compete in “premiere” sports and weren’t clearing $100,000 a year after all was said and done,” she said.
“There are the people that you would call the headliners of the Olympic games that are in commercials and those sorts of things, who are going to be able to retire and never work again after if they organize their finances accordingly,” she added.
“But the vast majority of people are going to need to work.”
