Broke: What Would You Do With Millions of Dollars?

Let's talk high stakes today. I just finished watching ESPN's 30 for 30 "Broke." If you've ever dreamed of being a professional athlete and thought about how awesome it would be to be paid even just one of their paychecks, it's totally worth a watch. I remember calculating once that Alex Rodriguez makes $19,270.83 per hour. (Um... What?!) oh, yeah... I googled it. This site is dedicated to showing you how quickly he makes money by showing how much he's made since you've been on the site!

The documentary paints the true reality of professional athletes and puts the "Mo" in "Mo money, mo problems." We see the big numbers and the big contracts, but don't typically see the big problems and the big responsibilities that come with the numbers.

I think if I had to sum it up in one word it would be "sad." And not just sad for the athletes who are left with nothing after being in the spotlight for a handful of years. But, sad that our society is the way it is, and puts young adults into situations where they are set up to fail.

Here's a few staggering statistics to chew on. And I encourage you to give it a watch. It's available on Netflix.

By the time they have been retired for two years, 78 percent of former NFL players have gone bankrupt or are under financial stress because of joblessness or divorce.

Within five years of retirement, an estimated 60 percent of former NBA players are broke.

Toward the end, they summed it up well in saying that playing professional sports is NOT a career, it's an opportunity. The average NFL career is less than four years. So, if you are average, or below average, you have to make enough money to support yourself for the rest of your life.

But it begs the question... what would you do in that situation?

I know what I THINK I would do, what I hope I would do, but to say that I know for sure is a bit arrogant. I hope I would be in the 22% to come out positive on the financial horizon.

One thing is for sure, thinking through scenarios, planning, and educating yourself in the realm of financial literacy is time and money well spent, to avoid the situations that these folks are in.

What's your plan if you happened to start making millions of dollars a year? How much money is enough money?