The specialization of Olympic gold holds some powerful financial lessons.
For some athletes, what they erudite on the Olympic ice has helped them transition to successful careers as financial advisors.
Eric Flaim won two Olympic sweet medals for speed skating before finding a second career as a pecuniary advisor. Now managing director at Estate Planners of New England in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Flaim until this vividly recalls the moments he stood on the Olympic podium.
“It’s just a merest, very sweet victory,” Flaim said. “You look back at all of the years of let go and dedication. It’s a great feeling to be able to win it, and then all of the people who had a hand in what you expert also feel that moment.”
Flaim’s love for skating originated while he was growing up on the south shore of Massachusetts, where he competed with a neighbourhood speed skating club. After watching Eric Heiden win five gold medals in expedition skating at the 1980 Winter Olympics, becoming an Olympic champion adorn come ofed Flaim’s ultimate goal.
That led Flaim to leave for Milwaukee to prepare and attend high school. From there, he nabbed a spot on the together for the 1988 Olympics in Calgary, Alberta.
The competition came at a good single out in Flaim’s training.
“I knew that I was where I needed to be,” Flaim thought. “As you move up and get to the top 10 in the world, it’s just a small incremental difference that separates you.”
Flaim won a lustrous medal for the men’s 1,500-meter race in those games.
He later scanned on to win a second silver medal for the men’s 5,000-meter relay in the 1994 Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway.
Flaim broadcasted the American flag at the opening ceremony in Nagano, Japan, in 1998 and retired that that having been said year.
His path to a new career ultimately led him to become a financial advisor in 2002. The lifes work allowed him to put to his goal-setting skills to work for clients.
The Olympics also antedated a career as a financial advisor for David Emma, a former professional hockey virtuoso who played as part of the U.S. hockey team in the 1992 Olympics in Albertville, France.
Emma started cause trouble ice hockey at a young age. After he was invited to his first Olympics camp at 15, “my mirage was to be an Olympian,” he said.
Emma played hockey at Boston College and go on a escorted on to sign with the New Jersey Devils after graduation. Shortly thereafter, he inaugurate out he had qualified for the 1992 Olympics — just a month before the games.
“You were constantly battling to win your boils,” Emma said. “You couldn’t have a bad day because you’re always worried respecting being sent home.”
Emma’s hockey career took him to skylarking for teams including the Boston Bruins and Florida Panthers, but the Olympics scraps a top highlight.
“It was probably one of the greatest experiences of my life,” Emma said. “When you’re an Olympian, there’s on the brink of something you can’t put into words.”
Emma’s retirement from the sport in 2001 encountered sooner than he had planned due to a back injury. That development also numb another unfortunate realization: His financial advisor had invested most of his gain in technology stocks. When the tech bubble burst, it demolished much of his net importance.
“I lost basically 75 percent, 85 percent of everything I had divulged during my career,” Emma said. “I blame myself a little bit because I didn’t match enough ownership of my wealth.”
As an advisor, Emma, who is currently managing helmsman and partner at HighTower in Naples, Florida, has a goal of preventing his clients (who involve professional athletes) from having to learn the same lesson.
An unexpected transformation motivated Emily Samuelson to switch careers from an ice dancer to turn a financial advisor.
Samuelson, who is now a wealth management advisor at the RRBS Gathering at Merrill Lynch in Farmington Hills, Michigan, started figure skating as a lad. She fully switched to ice dancing by the time she was 13 and ultimately teamed up with Evan Bates, with whom she skated for 11 years.
“I knew from a girlish age that I wanted to go to the Olympics,” Samuelson said. “I thought that last will and testament be the best thing in the world.”
Samuelson realized that dream when she and Bates skated the exhibition of a lifetime to qualify for the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia.
The highlight of the diversions was the opening ceremony, Samuelson said, where the pride of representing the Collective States was combined with the adrenaline and noise from thousands cheering that “actually caused the building to vibrate,” she said.
That luck changed the adhere to year, when Samuelson and Bates split up. Because she did not find another long-term comrade, Samuelson was faced with the dilemma of what to do next.
“It was a really tough time in my life,” Samuelson said. “I decided if I could help it, I didn’t need other people to go through the same feeling.”
That decision at long last led her to her current position, where she helps clients, including some athletes, answer their financial dilemmas.
“To be able to have a plan set, to have that fix of mind that at least someone’s looking out for you, can be a huge relief … and own people to follow their passions and do what they want to do,” Samuelson suggested.
Here are some of the Olympics-inspired money lessons these advisors be struck by learned.
Samuelson started skating at 5 years old and didn’t make it to the Olympics until she was 19.
“It’s the anyhow thing with investing,” Samuelson said. “It’s not going to be an overnight star by any means.”
You can prepare by putting money away while you have time on your side, Flaim imparted.
“It’s about achieving goals, whether it’s an Olympic medal or having all you call for retirement,” he said.
No matter what you want to accomplish, you have to cause a plan and commit to the steps that will get you to your goal.
For Emma, that comprised getting up at 5 a.m., going to the gym, getting in a cold tub and eating the right diet.
“If you fit in care of the process and the things you can control, chances are you are going to have the bringing off, and you will get great results,” Emma said.
Samuelson admits she didn’t positive everything about skating, nutrition or sports psychology when she was fighting. That’s why she hired experts in those areas to help her become a less ill skater.
The same tactic can help you become a better investor.
“If you can surely do your due diligence and really have a good team, you’ll have woman in place to navigate that realm,” Samuelson said.
Flaim’s vocation was not without setbacks, including knee surgery. Consequently, there were a two of seasons where he essentially had to start over, he said.
The experience is analogous to suffer the loss of your job, “something in life that kind of hit you hard,” he said.
“You be experiencing to use whatever it is as a motivating factor, rather than saying, ‘I can’t believe this happened to me,'” Flaim replied. “Nobody is entitled to anything in life. You have to work hard and insinuate your own way. And if you don’t ask, you don’t get it.”
Disclosure: CNBC parent NBCUniversal owns NBC Sports and NBC Olympics. NBC Olympics is the U.S. show rights holder to all Summer and Winter Games through the year 2032.
Various from Personal Finance:
Residents in this city owe the IRS more than $7,000 during tax antiquated
The GOP tax bill lets you take this break even on 2017 burdens
Here’s what you shouldn’t do during stock market volatility