This is based on opinion and a goal to fund athletes !!!
This article discusses some basic fundamentals regarding the stock market and is not financial advice bur more of an insight of my future plans and long term goal.
As an athlete it is difficult to juggle your sport, work, training, coaching and other activities if your sport of choice has very little to no funding. If you have started your journey as an international athlete there is a few things to take into consideration. Where is the money coming from ?, how can I pay my bills without becoming homeless ?, how can I drop full time work down to part time so I can allocate most of my time to my sport ?, how much is my entry fee ?, how much is my flights and accommodation going to cost ?, how much is it going to cost to get to A to B ?.
When looking at flights look for the lowest option possible using Skyscanner this allows you to pick flights that suit you and your budget. Look for deals, in the UK BritishAirways have offers on certain destinations which allows you to cut back your costs. Once you have arrived in your chosen country you can book taxis on Uber using their app (sometimes it’s cheaper to order an Uber once at your destination) or use the AirportTaxis website to book in advance. For hotels you can look at Booking.com or you can fly out the same day with a backpack, compete then fly back.
Be Smart With Your Money
Once your money is spent you can’t get it back so why not invest it into a brokerage account ?, having looked into this for the past few years this seems like a really good option to fund athletes but this requires a lot of capital to make an impact. This is easier than how it sounds if you have the mental fortitude to do this for the long term.
If you get a full time job at the age of 18 or when you can start saving your money and still living with your parents or guardians you can achieve your goal a lot quicker as you may not have to pay rent, bills or even taxes just yet. saving £100 for 12 months adds up to £1200 but if you work full time you can save £1000 per month if you have no expenses which adds up to £12,000 per year or if you still want to have fun in your life reduce that to £10,000. This may sound insane but it is doable. If that is done for 5 years, age 18 to 23 that’s approximately £50,000 saved up.
What To Do With That Money ?
I know what you’re thinking, you will use that 50k to help fund my sports career, what if I told you that’s only a small part of it. Let me explain: having 50k or even 20k saved up is a good start as you will still keep your original amount with profit on top. Invest your money into the stock market using a brokerage account. Once your money is in the account this is where the fun begins.
Everything is based on percentage, below is a few tables I put together, if you had $4000 / £3264.94 and put it into one trade and made around 0.50% per trade that would make you $20 / £16.32 which doesn’t seem like a lot but it adds up overtime, if you continue that process 10 times then you make $200 / £163.25. The more capital you have the more you can potentially make as you can see below. The more you have the less of a percentage you need to make good profit as it compounds and grows over time.
To achieve this its best to set orders in at a lower price and to look for trends and confirmations to make sure you can manage risk and preserve what you have.
Is there more ? yes there is, you can generate extra cash flow through dividends (buying and owning shares in companies before certain dates) and earning interest on your cash in your account. By being able to buy and sell shares, earn dividends and interest on your cash and by continually adding money into your account you can earn a little bit of money over time. This profit can be used to fund your sports career but this requires patience and mental fortitude.
If you ever decide to stop competing then you still have your original amount saved up with a little more added on top is nothing is lost.
Taxes I Hear You Ask ?
Lets take the UK for instance where you have tax free amounts you can use up before paying any capital gains tax or dividends tax, so if you are not above that threshold then nothing to worry about just yet. From 6th of April 2023 your Dividend Allowance has went down from £2000 to £1000 with a tax rate of around 8.5% then from 2024 it drops down to £500. For Capital Gains Tax the tax free allowance was £12,300 but has dropped down to £6000 per year.
This is only a glimpse into what money and the stock market can do if the community comes together !!!
Please help me reach my goals by donating to GoFundMe: Donate to help build an athlete fund !!!
References
https://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/offers/sale
https://airportstaxitransfers.com
Adam Jess Performance 