Earning Pattern Can Influence Likelihood of Bankruptcy

As young Garnerville residents approach adulthood, they may contemplate the variety of occupations that they could embrace as their possible future careers. Studies in high school and post-secondary programs may prepare them for particular industries and, depending upon what they choose to do, they could earn salaries that spread across a wide expanse of possibilities. One interesting financial trend has been noted in a professional industry that most youths can only dream of joining.

According to data collected by the National Bureau of Economic Research, players in the National Football League have a high chance of filing for bankruptcy in their lifetimes, due in part to their unusual earning patterns. Many players are drafted out of college and only last in the NFL for a small number of years. Injuries and other factors can take them away from the physical profession that earned them a high signing bonus.

Although they tend to earn high bonuses and salaries early on, many players experience a significant drop in income once they leave the league. With many players retiring less than ten years after being drafted, a large number of former NFL players find themselves in their thirties, spending money that they are no longer earning and slipping into financial chaos. This front-end earning pattern can leave many without sufficient money to carry them through their later lives and faced with the difficult decision to file for bankruptcy.

Professional football players, however, are not the only professionals who struggle with finances and who have to make tough choices about their debts. Teachers, doctors, business people and others all can find themselves struggling to make ends meet, even if they earn substantial salaries. Personal bankruptcy is always a consideration that those in financial hardship may have when they are weighing their options for alleviating their debts.