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In this episode of the AWM NFL Players’ Podcast, host Riccardo Stewart is joined by Sam Acho, Jeff Locke, and Zach Miller as they tackle essential investment concepts every NFL athlete should know. They break down the basics of stocks and bonds, the importance of investing in oneself, and the critical role of diversification in building financial security. Whether you're already investing or preparing to start, this episode provides valuable insights to elevate your financial strategy.
Key Highlights:
- Explanation of investment types: equity ownership and lending through bonds.
- Distinction between public markets for accessibility and private markets for high risk and high potential rewards.
- Importance of investing in self—human capital is the greatest asset for athletes.
- The necessity of diversification across global stocks and bonds for financial stability.
- Key questions before investing: ratio of bonds to stocks and commitment to long-term growth.
- Significance of compounding returns when investing early.
Quotes:
- "The most money you will ever make is going to be in your performance on that field." – Zach Miller
- "The power of compounding is massive when you start early." – Zach Miller
- "The future you will thank you for the investments you made right now." – Sam Acho
Creators and Guests
Host
What is NFL Players' Podcast?
The podcast by NFL players for NFL players. Each week, we break down the biggest events in football and how they directly impact a player's career and money.
Join Former NFL Veterans Sam Acho (Bills, Bucs, Bears & Cardinals), Zach Miller (Seahawks & Raiders), Jeff Locke (Vikings, Colts, Lions, 49ers), and college coach, Riccardo Stewart, for a raw and unfiltered conversation about the game, the business, and how players can achieve generational wealth.
Riccardo Stewart: Hey, I want to
welcome you guys back to another
episode of the AWM NFL players podcast.
My name is Ricardo Stewart and I had
the opportunity to be your host and I'm
joined with my friends and my coworkers.
Let's start first.
I got Sam Ocho.
He's the mayor gets everybody's vote.
We got Jeff Locke.
He's a professor primarily because
he educates and he drops knowledge.
And then lastly, got Zach Miller,
the truth, because everything
he says, solid, solid, solid.
And so guys, good to
be back on the podcast.
And, um, I know we got a chance to be
with each other in the same room this
past week, traveling, and now we'll get
to talk about some of the things that.
That, you know, questions
that come up quite a bit.
Um, it's always amazing to me that we work
with NFL athletes who've made millions.
And some of the questions that we
may think are simple are the same
questions that they're asking.
And so for today's podcast episode, I
really want to talk about investing.
And I want to talk about investing
from like a 30, 000 like feet.
And what I mean by that is like everyone
wants to see their money grow and
people know that they go to an advisor
to talk about investing, but many of
them have no idea on what is it, like
where do I go and then how do I invest?
And not necessarily particulars,
but just from a broad deal.
And so I'll start us off first.
I got this definition of,
okay, what is investing?
I'm going to read it here.
It says the act of committing
money or capital to an endeavor
with the expectation of obtaining
additional income or profit.
And one of the things we say
is it's not so much just about.
The percentage or the return, but
even more so what matters most
is after tax dollars, meaning
what happens once it's taxed.
And so I'm going to step back and
we're going to talk more about,
okay, what does that look like
from, from just a higher level?
So I'm going to start first
with you, Sam, how do I invest?
Sam Acho: Well, so there's
really two ways to invest, right?
We're talking about this
30,000ft view of investing.
One way is to own a piece of a company.
It's called equity.
So you could invest in a company
like Apple, own Apple stock.
And if the value of Apple, the company,
Apple makes iPhones and MacBooks, if
their value grows, well, all of a sudden,
because you own a piece of their company.
Well, now the money you
invested grows as well.
And so that's one way to
invest equity ownership.
There's another way to invest though.
And that other way is called.
Essentially it's like you, you, you,
you lend money to companies, right?
And so that's, people call them bonds.
Okay.
I'm going to, I'm going to
lend money to the government.
I'm going to lend money
to my local municipality.
I'm going to lend money and then
they're going to pay me back.
And so, no, I don't own any of, of, of
that, of that money that I lent, but I'm
going to get paid back with interest.
And so the two simple ways to think
about investing are one is equity, right?
Ownership.
Think about different companies.
So I own a piece of a company.
The other way is essentially you're
lending your money to people, to
companies, and then they pay you back.
Riccardo Stewart: Like that I like that
and I'm probably more likely to lend to
the government because I know I've lent
my money to some People before I don't
trust them to pay me back So that's
perfect that's good how Ownership and
being able to lend stocks and bonds.
Okay professor.
Why don't you step back and um, okay
I understand I can buy stock and have
ownership I can buy bonds where I'm
lending my money, particularly to a
government or municipality, as Sam said.
But like, where do I go
to buy these investments?
Jeff Locke: So the easiest way to
think about it, 30, 000 feet is
there's two places to buy, right?
You've got the public markets and
you've got the private markets when
you want to buy public markets.
Sam just talked about Apple.
They're one of the biggest
companies out there.
At the moment, right?
You can go on your computer, literally
within like five minutes, you
can make an account and you could
actually go buy Apple stock, right?
That's the public market.
Easily accessible.
Same thing with bonds.
At one point, Apple used to issue
bonds where they needed loans.
You could buy their loans,
give them money, and then they
pay you back with interest.
Again, you can go and do
that on the public market.
Then the private market.
Think of when Apple was just
coming out of their garage, right?
If you all know the story, right?
For a number of years before Apple
became public and traded on the public
market, they were on the private market.
And the private market's different.
You can't just log into an
app or go on the computer.
And buy those companies,
you have to have access.
The reason is they're more risky and
they're younger companies, right?
So public versus private is really
the high level way to think about
where to get these investments.
Riccardo Stewart: It's perfect.
All right.
I know how, right.
Stocks are bonds.
I know where public or private
Zach, tell me the truth.
No pun intended.
How do I, I mean, like, and since
like, what, what do I even invest in?
Zach Miller: Well, first and foremost for
any athlete, invest in your human capital.
We talk about it a lot.
The most money you will ever make is
going to be in your performance on
that field, on the football field.
You can generate way more returns.
Like everyone wants to talk about
returns and the stock market returns
on, on those bonds we just talked about.
But the return, the biggest
return is going to be investing
in your human capital.
Specifically that physical capital, how
good of a player can you be that short
window that you have to play in the NFL
and then you make that money, then you
can look at, okay, I'm so concentrated
in my own athletic, athletic ability
and the ability to perform on the field.
Let me be diversified
when I go to a globally.
Um, diversified mix of stocks, bonds
across the whole globe in those, you
know, thousands of companies that
exist in the world, you know, the
they're able to invest in the world.
You can be diversified there.
So spreading around essentially your
investments is result in more money.
And, um, a better outcome of kind of
that risk, that risk of that personal to
that diversified mix of public companies,
private companies all across the globe.
Riccardo Stewart: All right.
So if I'm hearing you guys first
and foremost, Sam, thank you.
I can have ownership by stock.
I can lend, get a bond.
I need to go purchase these
things in the public market where
all the information is there.
Or if I have the access, I
can go to the private market,
but a little bit more risky.
And then if I am going to invest,
Zach, I got to invest first in
myself, my physical, intellectual,
and social human capital.
And then when I invest in the market, I
want to make sure that I'm diversified
is the word that you'll hear us use.
So before we leave, I'm going to ask
you guys a few things so you guys
can drop a little bit more wisdom.
Um, Jeff, what are two questions I should
be asking myself before I begin investing?
Jeff Locke: So the first question, we've
talked about bonds and stocks, right?
They're different is do I have enough in
bonds before I invest in stocks, right?
We'll talk about it in future episodes
of like why that's so important is
building what we call your safety before
you start putting out your risk, right?
So that's the first question,
bonds before stocks.
Do I have enough second is.
Am I willing to let my stocks
grow for decades, not years, not
like five years, but decades.
And that's what's required to actually get
the returns that you want in the future.
Riccardo Stewart: It's good, Zach, because
you always talk about, you know, the
superpower of investing is when you're
young and starting when you're young.
Why is it so important to begin
investing as young as I possibly can?
Zach Miller: Well, there's a lot of
things you can't control in investing.
Sometimes those market returns, the
returns you get a lot of that, um, is left
to some somewhat a little bit of chance.
Whereas if you start earlier, your
money gets to compound and the
power of compounding is massive.
When you start at 20.
Versus then you start at 30, the amount
of money that will grow and be able to
compound for years and years and years.
It truly is the superpower.
Anytime you have the opportunity to
invest early, you'll end up with way more
money than if you invest later in life.
And so getting started as quickly and
early as possible, putting that money
into things that grow makes, um, you know,
something that could be a hundred thousand
turn into millions that much quicker.
Riccardo Stewart: All right, Mayor,
I want you to wrap it up for us.
Why is it important when
thinking of my future self and
my future family to invest?
Sam Acho: The reason it's important,
especially now, when you're young to
invest is that the future you, right?
Let's say you're 22, 21, 20, the 35
year old you is going to thank you
for the, the investments that you
made right now, meaning let's say
you do play an illustrious career
and let's say you do a good job.
Well, fast forward, you may
not be making that same income
when you're 30 and 40 and 50.
And if you invest in the right way, all of
a sudden the decisions you made it, right?
22, 25, maybe right now you are 35
and you're listening to this podcast.
The decisions you make right now,
all of a sudden, the, the, the, the
future you will thank you because all
of a sudden, let's say you're getting,
uh, some of these interest payments
back that you're not working for.
Let's say you've invested
into a company and all of a
sudden that company is growing.
They're paying you dividends.
All of a sudden it's like, wow, this is
positive rather than making some of the
wrong decisions and saying, okay, I'm only
going to invest in the private market.
I'm going to risk.
I'll do all this risk.
I got a buddy who has this deal.
I'm putting all my money there.
That may not be the best decision.
And so I think there's an idea of being
prudent, being prudent and thinking about
your future self and saying, okay, I'm
going to invest now with wisdom and with
tact so that in the future, I don't have
to worry about where am I going to, how
am I going to take care of my family?
Put it that way.
Riccardo Stewart: Love it.
How do I invest?
You invest into stocks and bonds.
Where do I go?
Well, you go to the public or the
private and how into yourself first,
and then globally diversified.
Um, if you have any questions on
what we've said, or you want more
resources to learn more about
investing, please reach out to us.
You can send us a text
at 6 0 2 9 8 9 5 0 2 2.
I don't know why I'm doing this.