From Super Bowl champion Nick Foles to women’s soccer star Alex Morgan, the sports world is abuzz with athlete retirement news. This is a significant life transition that often leads to psychological and financial stress for athletes, parents, partners and coaches. Understanding these strains can help ease the transition for all involved.
For most athletes, retiring is a gradual process rather than an instantaneous endpoint. The biggest change is finding a new way to stay fit and maintain a sense of self-identity outside of their sport, which has likely been the central focus of their lives for decades.
Athletes are also adjusting to the fact that they no longer have the same connection to their peers and the athletic community. They don’t go to practice or compete together anymore and may have lost a social circle as a result. The retirement of elite and professional athletes can have an especially profound impact on their support system.
The most successful retired athletes typically find ways to maintain a link with the sporting world through coaching, broadcasting or business ventures. But launching a second career is not without risk, with many former athletes losing money or going broke. RBC professionals recommend paying off debt and establishing income-producing investments before retiring to mitigate these risks.