Hello all and thank you Access Athletes for adding me as a contributor to the website. It has been a long-time goal of mine to work more with professional athletes in their pursuit of financial literacy and furthermore, financial freedom.

I myself am an ex-athlete that played both college and minor-league professional hockey before moving on to real estate. I loved the lifestyle of a professional athlete. Wake up, breakfast, practice, gym, lunch, and then you were free to do whatever you wanted, namely, golf. Game days consisted of wake up, breakfast, morning skate, lunch, nap, and a night game.

One of my teammates, who was a few years older, used to talk to me about real estate all of the time. He had actually built up a nice little net worth on the side between real estate and an invention that he created for roller hockey players. Here you have a guy that's making about $500/week playing hockey who was putting himself on the road to financial freedom in his spare time. Not only that, he barely even went to college and had a wife and kid to support as well. I remember thinking, "How is it that so many NHL, NFL, MLB, and NBA players fail to create a comfortable retirement for themselves?"

In my second year of playing for the now defunct "A" Macon Trax of the Southern Professional Hockey League, I began to deal with the fact that my odds of making a decent living as a hockey player were slim to none. I made the decision to put 100% of my effort into hockey that final season before eventually moving out to California to begin a new chapter in my life. I was sitting on a great education in Economics from a highly regarded school in the Northeast and was ready to make my mark in another field.

I eventually joined the Commercial Investment Group at Colliers International, which focuses solely on Commercial Real Estate Investments. Although our primary function is advising on commercial real estate, we also invest in many properties ourselves. We have a combined 35 years of experience, as well as a network that includes professionals in every major city. Our clients have completed deals all over the country, including Fast Food Restaurants, Drugstores, Convenience Stores, Banks, Multi-family Apartment Buildings, Industrial Buildings, and Office Complexes.

As I move through this blog, I will focus on financial literacy education first. I am lucky enough to have a wife who is a financial literacy expert and sits on the Board at Operation Hope. Without a disciplined budget, financial goals, and an understanding of money in general, real estate will likely never become an option to even the highest paid athletes. I will also explain different types of real estate options. I will focus primarily on options that require minimal management and allow athletes to focus all of their energies on their number one asset - their game.

 

Colliers International Commercial Investment Group

www.thecommercialinvestmentgroup.com

"Helping to ensure that your real estate investments work harder than you do."