In this episode Founding Director ‘Red Star Education’ Kristen Cunliffe joins Gordon MacLelland to discuss Financial Fitness and how we can help our young athletes thrive with their finances. The recent BBC documentary ‘Football’s Financial Shame’ has brought the importance of this topic back into the limelight.
During the conversation they discuss amongst other things:
- Many athletes facing financial struggles due to poor advice, exploitation, and lack of early financial awareness.
- Documentaries ‘Football’s Financial Shame’ and earlier ‘Football’s Suicide Secret’ raised concerns about the long-term effects of poor financial decisions and predatory advisers
- The importance of education being independent, without commercial agendas or selling products, to maintain trust and integrity
- Challenges for young athletes with the pressure from expectations of peers, families, and sporting organisations, the fear of making financial mistakes and a lack of basic knowledge about taxes, budgeting and saving
- The importance of parents having open, honest, and sometimes uncomfortable conversations about money, learning together with their kids rather than pretending to know it all and modelling balanced spending and saving habits
- When speaking with advisors parents trusting their instincts whilst checking qualifications, experience, and fees and avoiding any snap decisions
- Allowing our young athletes to enjoy some of their earnings, but encourage habits of setting money aside for the future
Kristen Cunliffe is the Founder Director of Red Star Education, a company dedicated to giving young athletes the knowledge and confidence to make sound financial choices. With over 22 years’ experience as a multi-award-winning financial planner, independent financial educator and certified financial coach, Kristen combines expertise with a genuine passion for education. She is a strong advocate for keeping commercial partnerships out of player care, ensuring Red Star’s sessions are always focused on support, not sales.
