17 Sep 2026
By Andy Gray, Chartered Financial Advisor, Gilson Gray Financial Limited
You Might Earn Your Best Money at 25. What Happens at 35?
For most people, earnings tend to increase gradually throughout their working life, often peaking much later in their career. Professional sport can be completely different, with some athletes earning more in their twenties than they will at any other point in their lives.
A new contract, a successful season or a move to a bigger club can transform someone’s financial position very quickly, but the opposite can also be true. Injury, loss of form, changes in management or simply reaching the end of a contract can have an immediate impact on income. This is why financial planning for athletes needs to look very different from financial planning for someone with a more traditional career.
The aim is not to stop athletes enjoying the money they have worked hard to earn. It is to make sure that the years in which earnings are at their highest also create financial security and flexibility for the decades that follow.
Don’t wait for the “big contract”
One of the easiest traps to fall into is assuming that proper saving can wait until the next contract, the next move or the next pay rise.
The problem is that when income rises, spending often rises alongside it. A better contract can quickly lead to a better car, a bigger house, more expensive holidays and a general increase in day-to-day lifestyle, meaning there may still be less left over than expected.
Starting early is therefore much more important than starting with a huge amount. If saving and investing becomes normal from the beginning of a career, it is far easier to continue that habit as earnings grow, rather than trying to completely change behaviour later on.
Make sure your lifestyle is sustainable
There is nothing wrong with enjoying the benefits that come with a successful sporting career, but it is worth understanding how much of your lifestyle depends on your current level of income continuing.
For an athlete, that income may be based on a contract lasting only a few years, which means the lifestyle built around it needs to be considered carefully. A useful question is how long you could comfortably maintain your current standard of living if your sporting income stopped tomorrow.
Having a sensible cash reserve, keeping fixed commitments under control and regularly investing surplus income can make a huge difference if circumstances change unexpectedly.
Tax planning matters more as earnings rise
Higher earnings usually mean a higher tax bill, so it becomes increasingly important to understand how income is structured and whether the available tax allowances are being used efficiently.
This does not necessarily mean using complicated tax strategies. In many cases, good planning comes down to making sensible use of pensions, ISAs and other investment allowances, while working alongside an accountant and financial adviser to make sure decisions fit together properly.
The earlier this is considered, the more opportunity there is to build wealth efficiently rather than trying to solve everything at the end of each tax year.
Protect the income that everything else depends on
For many athletes, their ability to perform is effectively their biggest financial asset because it is what generates the income that supports everything else.
That means injury or illness can create a financial problem as well as a sporting one. Athletes should understand what protection is already provided through their club, employer or governing body, what would happen if they were unable to play for a prolonged period and whether their family would remain financially secure if something more serious happened.
Insurance is rarely the most exciting part of financial planning, but for someone whose earnings depend heavily on their physical ability, it can be one of the most important.
Life after sport should be part of the plan
Retirement from professional sport rarely means retirement from working life altogether, particularly when a sporting career may end in someone’s thirties.
Some athletes move into coaching, media or management, while others start businesses, invest in property, retrain or move into something completely unrelated to sport. The challenge is that the next career may not immediately provide anything close to the level of income earned during the playing years.
Building savings and investments throughout a sporting career can make that transition much easier, because it gives the athlete time to decide what they actually want to do rather than feeling pressure to replace their income immediately.
The real objective is having options
Good financial planning is not simply about building the biggest possible pension or investment portfolio. For an athlete, it is about reaching the end of a sporting career with enough financial security to make choices without money dictating every decision.
That might mean taking time away from work, starting a business, spending more time with family, moving into coaching or simply accepting that the next stage of life may look very different financially.
A sporting career can be short, but the financial decisions made during it can have an impact for the rest of someone’s life. Making those decisions early, and having a clear plan around them, can help turn a few years of strong earnings into long-term financial freedom.
