November 26, 2021 • 39 mins
This week’s topic is finances and how professional rugby players manage their salary and portfolio. Our favorite Leo’s explain how they earn a living through the sport, how some players have a side gig and others have sponsorships. Lo explains how she has made some money through being a social media influencer even so it’s a lot of work. Naya explains how budgets work for her and Lo reveals she loves to save money. And although she’s a saver, she confesses that she’s learnt to treats herself when she want something because it gives her a spark of joy. The girls answer some great cub questions and close by giving us two challenges when it comes to money. This is a super insightful episode and has some great advice about preparing for the future.
Host: Naya Tapper & Ilona Maher
Recorded: November 24, 2021
For more information, links and resources and hundreds more conversations from the world of women’s sport including articles, blogs, videos and podcasts visit wispsports.com. WiSP Sports is the World’s First and Only Podcast Network for Women’s Sport with more than 60 hosts, 1500+ episodes across 50 shows and over 7 million downloads. We are ranked in the top 2% of more than 2.71 million podcasts worldwide. WiSP Sports is on all major podcast players. Follow WiSP Sports on social media @WiSPsports. Contact us at info@wispsports.com.
Host: Naya Tapper & Ilona Maher
Recorded: November 24, 2021
For more information, links and resources and hundreds more conversations from the world of women’s sport including articles, blogs, videos and podcasts visit wispsports.com. WiSP Sports is the World’s First and Only Podcast Network for Women’s Sport with more than 60 hosts, 1500+ episodes across 50 shows and over 7 million downloads. We are ranked in the top 2% of more than 2.71 million podcasts worldwide. WiSP Sports is on all major podcast players. Follow WiSP Sports on social media @WiSPsports. Contact us at info@wispsports.com.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:04):
Hi everybody, and welcome to seasontwo, Episode five of The Leos Den.
My name is Naya and my funfact today is that I had worked
at Buffalo Wild Wings four out ofthe six years I've been on the professional
USA women's rugby team. Hi guys, my namey Loonamar. People call me
(00:26):
low and my fun fact is atthe beginning of this year, I made
the goal to spend money on thingsthat I want and not just saying oh
no, I don't need it,just like if I want it and it's
gonna spark joy by it. Sowe're recording this actually on November twenty one.
First, we're at twenty fourth Sorryfor ones, get me my lift
(00:47):
comes out. I guess we're ata tournament in Dubai right now. It's
like eight pm here, but it'seight am back where we're at home,
so we're jet lagged immensely. Solet's you know how we do it.
We start off with the horse scope. So for us leos do you often
act as if the world is staticand nothing ever changes. Sometimes you may
(01:07):
think that human kind is a certainway, the world is a certain way,
and so this is what you're goingto do. Have you ever heard
of an evolution. The human raceis constantly involving, and so is the
world. Look around deep. Yeah, and I heard that. I thought
about, like how stubborn I amwith being comfortable with things staying exactly the
way they are every day, andlike having to fight myself with that mentality
(01:34):
each day when it's completely the oppositeof what I want. Like I'm really
a freak of habit, and soit's hard living in this world. That's
a good point. I like that, Like just sometimes you get a little
comfortable and then like things don't happen, You're like, what's happening, especially
with our job, with our sport, Like things can change constantly with whatever.
(01:55):
So good point. Yeah, definitelydefinitely say one of the main things
I took and take consistently away fromrugby as patients, and that's something I'm
still working on. So life hasa funny way of teaching you that.
But today for this episode, weare talking about finances as a rugby player,
(02:16):
kind of how I want to startthis off is one of the questions
that I get. Low let meknow if you get this question a lot,
But are we rich? I dude, I just got that question from
fourth graders and I was in fourthgraders. They were like, are you
rich? And I was like,no, no, no, I am
a female athlete in rugby. Andthen one kid was like, what car
(02:38):
do you drive? I was likea Honda Civic And fun fact, both
night and I drive Honda Civics OldHonday, okay two thousand and eight,
two thousand and eight. Yep.Yeah. And it's funny you say that
you get that from younger children,because I also get that from like people
my age adults who are like verycurious and don't know, like, do
(03:04):
like how much money are we reallymaking? Um? And I guess kind
of the easy way to talk aboutthat is to just kind of go into
you know, what it is likefor us in terms of payment and how
much we receive we received as rugbyplayers. Um, we are not rich,
(03:24):
but we are none gays that yetat least. Yeah. I think
we're a long long way away fromthere. And in terms of just those
guys are like millionaires, I don'tthink that. I don't know, are
there millionaire rugby players? I know, not in the US probably, but
(03:45):
a like for sure New Zealand andwhatnot. But they's not but still their
contracts aren't like soccer players NFL playersthat are like four hundred million dollars are
like two million um, nothing crazylike that. But I think one thing
that key for me is that Ithink we're never going to be rich like
in rugby, like that's us,but we're doing this so that hopefully one
(04:09):
day girls can make a really greatwage off of rugby. He's like,
right now, we're kind of like, you know, we're living better than
what it once was, right becausethey once we're not all fly at any
access. So we're definitely living abetter life, but we're trying to make
it even better for that next generationthat comes in so hopefully they can get
sometimes at one point that one hundredthousand, two hundred thousand million dollars contract.
(04:32):
Yeah, and I think rich isdifferent for everybody, Like rich for
some people is fifty thousand dollars.Rich for other people is six figures.
And we'll say, like we're makingless than fifty thousand dollars. We're getting
paid to where like it is commonfor you to have a side job because
you do need some extra form ofcash coming in. And I want to
(04:56):
say, like I think you couldbe rich off of rugby, but it
won't be from your salary. It'llbe from what you're doing outside of it,
in terms of endorsements and sponsorships likethat, and that's really tough to
come around and b which makes itreally difficult to you know, make a
lot of money. Yeah, Ithink that's key, And I was just
(05:17):
thinking about it now, like youknow, both of us, I think
maybe we make more of our incomeoff of like little deals here and there,
So it's almost like we have too, Like you don't work at off
a Wild anymore, but it's almostlike we still have twy jobs. Like
I do the Y side and thenI do the other TikTok influencers side.
A lot of work. And alsohow our payment is is that we receive
(05:43):
a salary payment for playing, andwe also receive money for getting selected to
tournaments, and then we also receivemoney based on how well we do in
those tournaments. So there is opportunitiesto make a lot of money. A
lot of it just depends on performance, which makes sense and kind of is
(06:03):
a situation for not only sports,but business and other areas of work as
well. Yeah, and I thinkwhat's key about that is when COVID hit,
Like we used to have this otherkind of source of income by going
to tournaments and makee tournaments, andthen when COVID hit for a year and
a half more than that, wedidn't have that extra source of income coming
(06:24):
in, and that was like definitelytough to only have the small monthly stipend
that we get, which again isbigger than a lot of athletes get,
and so very blessed that we doget to get it, but it was
just such a changeup from you know, us and I and I who usually
make tournaments and usually have a littlebit more pocket money from these tournaments that
was all taken away from with COVIDhas a lot more effected. Yeah,
(06:46):
And I think another one of thethings that was really hard to adjust to
is making the salary we make,but living on the West Coast in California
versus living on the East Coast,where from my experience it was a lot
cheaper. Yeah, I think welive in one of the best cities in
the world. I would say SanDiego, but it is not a cheap
(07:09):
place. It's pretty much I wouldsay the same as like New York City.
Like New York City is wildly expensiveas well. And I mean,
I so I live in a twobedroom apartment, tiny tiny apartment, like
no laundry, you know, acyor whatever, and I pay like eight
fifty I think for it, andit has like none of the amenities.
But for me, that's what Iwant to pay right now. But if
I wanted to look nicer, Iwould be up to like one hundred eleven
(07:31):
hundred, or I'd be up toone twelve hundred, Like that would be
the range for something that is actuallylike has the amenities that I want.
Like from having conversations with my sisterswho own houses and rent apartments and things
of that such, They're like,oh yeah, my rents under twelve hundred,
(07:55):
And I'm like, I'm paying twelvehundred dollars for like a little guest
house, And if I ever wantedto go into a one bedroom apartment in
a nice area, I'm paying atleast twenty three hundred, which is insane.
Yeah. I just I look atall these places and like everything that
(08:16):
I want, I'm like, well, this is like, can I live
with myself if I'm paying thirteen hundredbucks for a place when I'm not always
there because we travel. Now,it's like, can I register that in
my head? Do I want todo that? But then like there are
times that I'm like, I doneed a place that I feel comfortable with,
(08:37):
and so it is worth spending thatmoney. Yeah, so kind of
prioritizing where to put the money thatwe do make because gas is expensive,
food is more expensive, drinks ismore expensive, activities like it. That's
a whole lifestyle change. It's it'sinsane gases like almost five dollars in California.
(08:58):
And so you live close to thecenter, so you live how far
as you drive, like ten fifteenminutes, ten minutes and I drive I
live about half an hour from thecenter. Every morning I drive in and
I'm like, why the heck doI do this to myself? It's so
long, and it's like I'm bemy gas I use. But like that's
where I think, like I Niahas a great little place for um,
(09:22):
you know, twelve hundred bucks yearsa whole little house, whereas I am
more in the city in San Diegoand I pay eight fifty for a tiny
place. So it's just different.But now, when you worked at Buffalo
Wild Wings, did you do itbecause you had to you needed that double
income or did you do it becauseyou wanted that extra spending cash in order
(09:45):
to feel like I could be independentWhen I first came in where I was
making the lowest amount you could make, which was very, very very low.
I will say that I'm not goingto give you guys a number,
but it was lowest hell, Andso like to live independently without having to
call my mother or my father andsay, hey, can you throw me
cash for this? To live comfortably, Like you said, I had to
(10:09):
get a second job. I didn'twant to have to really depend on anybody
financially because I never had really evenin college, like I didn't have to
worry about school debt. I hada work study job. So I just
wanted to continue that mentality. SoI thought it was important for me to
get a second job. And Ialso was thinking long term in terms of
like, okay, you know I'mout of college, like I need to
(10:31):
start having a savings account. Ineed to be able to have a credit
card to where I comfortably have it, and I don't have debt. So
could I have survived without a secondjob, Yes, what I've enjoyed it
absolutely Nah. But about you haveyou, I'll go. Yeah. I
think you and I are very similarin that, like I just would never
(10:52):
think to ask my parents for money, and I mean they would definitely give
it to me, but I justthat thought to me is just not something
I ever want to do, andeven if it means getting second job,
I won't want to do it.I think for me, it wasn't getting
second job. It was kind ofmaking more sacrifices and like living situation how
comfortable I wanted to be. Sofor a while there I was living with
a woman who, like I onlypaid like six hundred dollars and rent like
(11:15):
very cheap, and that was kindof like my sacrifice. Like I wasn't
really ever fully comfortable there, butthat's what I did to supplement what I
was making. I didn't really everget a second job just because it was
like it's it was it's a lotof work and I can't imagine how you
did it, like trying to fitin hours and like when you're traveling all
the time, like hey, Ican work this day, but I can't
(11:37):
work to say, and I'll begone for two weeks. I think for
me, my second job wash takeclasses and like so I took take classes
because that's like I get the classesfor free, so it's almost like the
money that I could be spending onthe classes is I'm kind of keeping for
myself in a way. So thatwas became my second job in a way.
(11:58):
And that's crazy that because when Ihad first came, like those first
six months, I was training fulltime, I was working at Buffalo Wild
Wings, and I was finishing mylast semester online. How I did that,
I have no clue. I thinkjust the young age, the naiveness
in it, Like I just didn'tlike looking back on it now, I'm
like, how did I do that? Because after training, like I was
(12:22):
sprinting home to shower and get changedand go to work to be there for
eight hours, getting home at twelveo'clock, not understanding meal prep yet,
so bringing food home from Buffalo Wildjust like you two weeks at twelve in
the morning, knowing that I hadto get up at six o'clock and like
(12:43):
go push my body to limits,crazy limits. So like eventually I got
to a point after three or fouryears where it was like my back started
hurting from being on my feet somuch, and like, yeah, the
money was amazing in terms of tips. Like, that's one thing we'll say
about living on the West Coast isas a server, you make way more
(13:05):
than you do on the East Coast. On the East Coast, I think
I was making two dollars an hour. On the West Coast, I'm making
eleven dollars at least an hour withtips on top of that. Like,
it was really hard for me toleave Buffalo White Wings, even though I
probably could have left earlier because themoney was so good. But yeah,
I feel like you can survive withouta second job. But it is something
(13:28):
that is very common with the amountof money that we do make, depending
on what level of contract you receivewhen you are brought onto the team.
So that's something that I don't thinka lot of girls wanting to come be
in our positions think about, iswhat that money situation will be like and
what things you'll have to sacrifice inorder to be here, Because it's not
like the NFL or the NBA,where once you make it, boy you
(13:50):
made it, like you still gotto work hard and stuff, but the
reward is financially a lot bigger thanit is for us. So I like
it takes a lot for us toput our bodies on the line for the
financial reward that we get. ThatI don't think is enough and I don't
think it is what we deserve.But hopefully we'll, like you said,
(14:11):
get to where it needs to bebecause we're putting in the work now,
we're for sure changing the landscape,I think now. And I think it's
really just it's a it's a laborof love in a way, and it's
we love what we do and wewant to keep doing it. So like
I think, I don't know,I can't speak for you, but I
personally would be doing it even ifI got paid less. I would will
(14:31):
start working as a nurse at thattime, but just because I love it
so much and that's so awesome.And also I think since we had to
travel the world, it's like thatmoney that we would I feel like the
money we would pay for like tripsto South Africa and trips to Sydney are
like I don't have to pay thatas being just a normal person. It's
something I get to do for free, So that's cool. Yeah, and
(15:01):
we've kind of said a lot abouthow, Yeah, we make money,
but it isn't the greatest amount ofmoney. But there are a lot of
pros to being on the team financiallyin terms of receiving free food at the
training center that we work at.Um, some girls come in and on
their contract they get free housing,which I think is amazing. Um,
(15:24):
what else we get snack reimbursements.When we go to travel, we get
free travel. We don't have toworry about that, So that's amazing.
Anything else we can think of,I mean, we get gear except for
cleat, oh yeah, but weget all the gear and kid and whatnot
when we travel. We don't haveto pay for anything. So things like
add up in a way for sure. Um. But on a new topic,
(15:48):
like, so we're we're self whatdo we call independent contract employee contractors
of USA Rugby. So what thatmeans is that every month we get a
stipend. But like you know,usually you'd get your paycheck and the government
would already take money out of thatpaycheck. But for us, the government
doesn't take the money out. Soat the end of the year nine and
(16:11):
I are like paying, you know, paying the big man some big bucks
at the end there for the taxes, they take the taxes out when you're
regularly employed. But when you're selfemployed like we are, we have to
pay those taxes every January February.So that's so like for me, it's
(16:33):
so funny because I have my savingsaccount. I'm like, oh my god,
like, I got so much moneyin here, and then January February
will come around. I'm like,Okay, I have no safeties. I
have no safeties. What happen there? Yeah, And that's the one thing
we can do is we can writethings off. Some of our teammates write
a lot of things off. Idon't know about you, you'd probably write
(16:55):
a lot of it. I waslike, Dad, can I write this
off? He's like, you're notwriting that off? My what? But
to write offs are like things thathelped you to do your job as an
independent contractor. So you can writeoff cleats, even you can write right
off workout gear. You could writeoff the gases gas mialogy you have to
take to get to the center.Yeah, and I'm kind of like you.
(17:19):
I'm a little hesitant about that stufftoo, Like seeing some of the
girls that we're putting them out topretend you in here. But how do
you how do you do your taxes? Who does your taxes. Do you
have my known tax guy that Igo to, But every year it seems
like he's still is confused about whatsort of like employee, I am a
(17:41):
USA Rugby and he's like, so, what what do you do? All
right? So what is this?And I'm like, man, I don't
know. You're the tax guy.You tell me um. And so it's
always a different thing because it isa very weird system being an indpendent contractor
and whatnot, and like because weget money from the US Olympic Committee,
right, they're the ones to payUS Olympic Committee, but then USA Rugby
(18:02):
is going to pay us the bonuses. So and then for me this year,
my taxes are gonna be wild NYAbecause I'm getting all this money from
like probably twenty different sources plus yeah, so figuring all that out and like
writing off everyone. I just I'mvery scared for taxes because he's gonna call
(18:22):
me be like what is this AndI'm gonna be like, you know what,
I'm sorry, I have no idea. And I think that's one of
the things that USA Rugby can lookto improve on is teaching us how to
do those taxes, because like whenI came in, there was really no
help with that. Like, firstof all, I didn't know that I
would have to do taxes. Secondof all, I didn't know how to
(18:45):
do those taxes, and third ofall, I didn't know who to go
to to help me with that,because as you said, even people who
do taxes still have a tough timewith independent contractors. So for me talking
around the team, I ended uphooking up of the lady who was a
rugby player as well and very smartand kind of helped me with my taxes
(19:06):
for a while. But last yearshe wasn't doing it anymore, and I'm
like, oh my god, whatam I going to do? And I
tried to do it on Turbo Tax. It was an absolute fail. So
I ended up like paying extra moneyto have a tax pro on Turbo Tax
do it. And like she wassimilar to your dad of like, oh
yeah, you can't do that,you can't do this. I'm like,
(19:26):
oh man, I'm really going tobe paying a lot this year, so
for sure, and now do youinvest? Like one thing for me,
and I suggest this to anybody isstart an IRA, a retirement account,
like as soon as you can,and just start putting money into it.
I think it's so smart for us. My dad was like, can you
put four hundred dollars into your retirementaccount each month? And I was like,
(19:47):
what four hundred? No, sir, I cannot right now because you're
supposed to like a certain percentage oflike what you make each month. And
so he's like, can you dothat? Like, no, I will
not be But I just think it'sso key to start building for your future
now. And that's what I'm sothankful about is that my dad is so
on top of that, and he'slike, this is what he's like,
(20:08):
you're shorting this retirement acount. Now, you're putting six thousand dollars in this
year, You're putting this in blahblah. So that's very helpful to have
somebody who's so knowledge like my dadtelling me what to do. And I
didn't really have that growing up.I didn't have that since I've been living
in California in terms of having somebodyto go to and say hey, or
(20:29):
somebody coming to me saying this iswhat you should do with your money.
One of my teammates had a guythat she worked with and she's like,
Hey, if any of you guyswant to use them like hit him up,
and for me, like, ifI don't know something, I'm gonna
pick somebody who knows it all soI don't even have to like look up
that type of information. So Ireached out to this guy and he helped
me with getting life insurance. Hehelped me with getting an R I R
(20:53):
A to where you were saying likefour hundred dollars, where for me like
I'm putting five hundred dollars in mineeach month, which when they told me
that, I was like really,But then I thought about it and I'm
like, I spend five Like Icould spend five hundred dollars in a day
easy. So it's like if Ican do that, then I can invest
this money into this account and justsay take it like so I can never
(21:15):
ever had seen it was even there, and like every now and then I
go and look at it and I'mlike, oh, yeah, I'm glad
I'm doing that. Yeah you gotme ready to go change my mound.
I think I'm gonna change out toyeah you got five Oh scary. But
one thing I am. I ama massive saver. I don't know what
(21:36):
Mike Oma taught me early on,but I will save and that's why,
as I said, my fun factis like this year I was like,
lo, spend money on things thatare gonna make you happy, and it's
been actually really freeing. Um andlike I haven't found any difference in what
I make or anything like that.Like it's not like all of a sudden,
no, I don't have any money. It's like been the same.
(21:59):
But my my savings account was veryimportant for me to know I have security.
Like that's what I think is sokey because it's finances can be so
stressful. What would you say isa minimum amount for an emergency account?
(22:25):
I don't really know, but likeI might go a ball part like high
and say like twenty thousand or somethinglike that. Twenty yeah, I would
think like five for an emergency likewhat happened? Did your house burn down?
You gotta buy a new house.I don't know. I just feel
like it's it's like I guess that'swhat I am my savor and I need
(22:48):
to invest more and like put morelike stuff away. I wish I understood
it a little bit more, butI always would rather just have so like
such a security blanket personally. ButI know I have friends who are like
I don't understand the friends who literallylive paycheck to paycheck. I'm like,
how are you doing this? Howdo you sleep that night? Yeah?
(23:15):
I think for my savings account,like, I love seeing it rise,
and I do put money in itanytime I get a surplus of money or
just generally each month. But I'malso like not never a person who shy
away from like, oh I reallywant to get that, and I already
spent my money for the month.So I'm just gonna going my savings account
(23:37):
and just grab a little and I'llmake sure I put back extra. I
think that's the important part. It'slike the savings account is for emergencies,
but for me, like also,if I just want to use it for
something, as long as I havethe understanding that the money needs to put
back be put back in double fold, then I'm okay doing so. And
you were also talking about investments interms of IRA, but do you have
(24:02):
any investments and like just regular stockstocks that you watch on your own.
I don't watch stocks on my own. I have a guy who does investing
for me, because I would Iwant to know about it and I want
to understand it, but I haveI don't get it at all. I
don't know what the brick stocks areand with any of that is. And
(24:26):
I want you because like I wantto invest more and I want to like
see money multiply. But oh,I just I've never had a financial mindset
and so it has been cool totake like finance classes and want not to
learn a little bit more. Butuh no, I don't. I don't
check stocks. Do you do youdo like robin Hood or what do you
(24:48):
do? Um? I used todo robin Hood and then I and then
I went over to coin base becausethat's kind of where the crypto is and
that's what was blowing up during theCOVID era. I guess we're still kind
of in that. But I waskind of hesitant to do it too,
because I'm not really a gambler.I don't like risking the risking losing money
(25:14):
that like that just doesn't sound goodto me. But somebody suggested, like,
hey, like just put fifty dollarsin there and see what happens.
And when I started seeing the profit, it was like, oh okay.
But so like now I have bitcoin, I have ethereum, and it's kind
of like play money. So like, yeah, I have the same as
you, like a guy who takesthe five hundred dollars and invested each month
(25:37):
and what he thinks it should gointo, and I can't touch that money.
But then I have this, ohextra money that I wanted to instead
of putting it into my savings account, just play with the stocks and see
what could happen. Because I didsee a lot of people, a lot
of my friends, making some goodmoney off of crypto and Robin Hood and
things of that such, So Idefinitely I am investing investing in that now
(26:02):
and kind of learning as I go. And I'm not really interested in learning
about the information either, but alot of the people around me are,
so I kind of just picked theirbrain and I'm like, what should I
put it in kind of trusting themin that aspect, but also making a
good profit of it off of it. So I would recommend, like if
you ever had like a hundred dollarsor you know, a thousand dollars came
(26:23):
in, like play around with thatand see how much money you can actually
make off of the money that you'renot afraid to lose. Is basically what
somebody told me, like put inmoney that you're not afraid to lose.
That's a good point, and Ireally know I should try that because,
like I, some of them willget deals for like hey, just do
this for two thousand bucks, andI think that would be super key to
like, Okay, that money ismoney I wasn't prepared for, so why
(26:45):
not try something else with it?So yeah, I'll definitely try it.
Yeah, So with the talk onmoney, do you have a budget for
yourself? And if so, didyou create it or did some to create
it for you. I don't havea budget for myself. I literally just
spend what I want to. Butagain, I'm such a saber and it's
(27:07):
such a saber mindset that I'm notworried about it because I'm literally just like
so cautious is what I spend.I think budgeting. I one thing I
don't budget. I don't budget likeI eat out a lot because eating out
a lot. Eating out gives meso much freaking joy that I just eat
(27:29):
out all the time because especially inthe pandemic, when it was like very
hard to find sparks of joy,that was what gave it to me.
And it's just something so nice.Like all I do is usually eat at
the Center, right, I justeat Center food, and so feeling like
it's okay to go get ramen andare okay to go eat out? That
is something that I think is reallyimportant to me. But what about you
(27:52):
do you budget? Are you likeonly two hundred dollars for this? Blah
blah blah. So I actually likecreated a budget in the Google Excel,
and like I never follow it,so like I guess it just kind of
makes me feel good, like Okay, yeah, you got a budget,
but in reality, like I don'tfollow it as much as I would like
(28:14):
to. I think I would liketo be more strict to it because I
do feel like sometimes I get intothat mentality a little too often of get
if you want to get it,when like, you know, it's nice
sometimes, but to always do it, eventually it'll catch out to you.
So I think I'm some of thetimes where it's like, oh, it's
catching up to me, not inan extreme way, but in small manners.
(28:37):
It's like, oh, let mego look at my budget and make
sure. And it's like you're that'ssilly, like the budget need isn't even
a real thing. But it's somethingthat I would definitely recommend. I use
it to keep track of my billsand what money's coming in. So it
is kind of just some reflection eachmonth to look at and make sure you
know you're not being too outrageous.For sure often about it, but I
(29:00):
probably won't ever do it, notnow at least. Um now, I
think as athletes, a lot ofpeople think of us as sponsored, like,
oh, are you sponsored by blahblah blah and blah blah. So
like, now, do you havesponsorships or do you kind of like for
me, I don't have sponsorships.I just kind of like one have one
off deals. Majority of my incomeoutside of rugby is usually one off deals.
(29:26):
I do have one clothing company thatI work with called ps PSK.
That's I would say is a sponsorshipum where I received payment for you know,
promoting their brand. So I wouldsay that's probably the one sponsorship I
do have. But I'm speaking itinto existence right now that we are going
to get three sponsorships each this upcomingyear. Wow. Three Okay, Okay,
(29:52):
no, that'd be go. Um. I think same as you,
I have one off deal, solike to me, a sponsorship would be
like, hey, for a yearor whatnot. You're our face of our
brand, one of the face ofour brand. We're gonna pay you a
good amount. Whereas I have like, hey, can you do these tiktoks
for us this Instagram and I'll giveyou this amount of money. So that's
(30:18):
what I do work with right now. But yeah, I'm hoping to like,
you know, I would love touse a brand that I really like,
like even as athleta Abby would killme, but like Lululemon something like
that. Yeah, I think theconsistency and that is something that a lot
of us crave, and also theappreciation with being the face of a organization
(30:45):
or a company like that's a bigthing. So I think that's something that
I hope will flourish hugely for theboth of us. For sure. Let's
all send the little little prayer,Oh give us for asorships. Thank you
Jesus, Amen Amen hip questions shallwe we shall? Okay? So the
(31:15):
first question on the list is doyou have health insurance? And also how
accessible is the sport for those withhealth needs? Yeah, I have health
insurance. Um, I don't wantto have health insurance with the job we
do I still am on my parentsinsurance, but I am twenty five,
(31:36):
so next year I'll be off it, which is gonna be bad. But
our job does offer us health insurance, so that will be a good transition,
and that once I'm off my parents, I will still have a health
insurance option. But right now,I'm when I go home to Christmas,
I'm gonna hit up everybody at thedentist guy. I know, everybody get
(31:56):
my gi Yeah. I think that'sanother one of the pros that we didn't
think about is that we do getfree health insurance, because that's another thing
that's very expensive in California, Fornithat I just recently learned. So I
am twenty seven, so I havetransition to being under the USA Rugby health
(32:16):
insurance and it's very convenient. Wedon't really ever have to We don't have
to pay for anything, and ifwe do, it's you know, twenty
dollars or less. It's very nice. I'm not trying to think about how
much it's gonna cost once we leavethis Rugby world, but it is very
beneficial and in terms of accessibility forpeople with health needs, I would say
(32:42):
like outside of injuries, I don'treally know. I want to say,
yeah, because you have wheelchair rugby. Yeah, and I think one thing
with that is, like, wehave a mental health program. So if
you need to UM, if youfeel the need to like see it therapies
or whatnot, there are avenues andit's called the care Progroom, and they
(33:05):
will give you money to go getyour needs taken care of. UM accessible
to the sword for those with healthneeds. I mean, it is a
very tough sport, so we can'tbe gone it, I think, because
you know, we play with veryelite athletes. But yeah, as and
(33:27):
I said, there's wheelchair rugby.UM, some some members of our team
have asthma and other problems that theywork through, so I guess that's to
be there. Yeah, okay,the next so what our right? You
want to say it? Oh,I'm sorry. What our finances like in
(33:47):
the off season? Hit it naya? They are the same, Like we
still get paid our flat rate salarythroughout the off season. The only difference
would be that we aren't receiving selectionbonuses or bonuses for how we play because
we obviously aren't playing during the offseason. But outside of that, I'm
(34:08):
sure there's more time for social mediafor us to be able to make money
off of that. Yeah, butI would agree with the same because we
are contracted through Like before the Olympics, we were contracted for two years,
so for two years we were guaranteedto get payments each month, which was
super nice because in COVID we gotguaranteed payments even though we weren't playing,
(34:34):
So thank you to those. Andthen next question, does the league help
with exit planning for players? Iwould say something that's something that they definitely
improved on, but as an areawhere there could be some work, there
are programs put in place to helpus make extra crashs, whether it's interning
(34:58):
or getting extra casts to do classesthat you think will be important for your
future career, or any other areasof work that you are interested in that
they can help you with so thatwhen you do leave the league, you're
not feeling like you have no cluewhat to do. So I think I
(35:21):
would say yes. I would definitelydefinitely say yes to that, but I
think there's a lot of work tobe done in that area, and I
think it's also very hard because likeyou come from, Hey, I just
spent six years playing rugby. WHOAput me in your business environment, put
me in your hospital. So,I mean that's why a lot of our
girls take classes, a lot ofthem. You know, Nicole's going for
(35:46):
a yoga license to be a yogateacher. So there's all sorts of ways
that they're trying to set themselves upto be set in the future. Yeah,
next question, is there equal moneyput into the women the women's team
(36:06):
as well as there is in themen. You know, I'm not fully
sure about that. I think they'redoing a much better job of it.
Um. I think after this Olympicsit's undeniable that our women's team is deserves
notoriety and deserves people's attention. Andif not, like we had more attention
(36:30):
than I would say the men's didin the Olympics. And I think there
is equal money for each teams.But it might be different in other areas,
but for now it is equal whatwe get paid monthly sipend. Yeah.
Let the last question, Oh goahead, excuse nine and I were
(36:53):
very jet lagged and tired guys whoare sitting here like, oh my god,
it's almost dead. I've been twothirty am na, I am,
I'm lagging two thirty? What timedo you go to sleep? Yesterday and
went to sleep at nine, butI got up to thirty and I couldn't
go back to bed. So I'mso drouchy. I'm like, we gotta
(37:14):
keep saying him again. I'm sopissed. I've seen her roll her eyes.
I'm like, oh lord, letme hurry up, and she get
angry. We are tired all rightnow. And we kind of answered this
question. But do you pay fortraveler expenses? No? We do not.
Yeah, there's one more question onhere. Oh, keep going.
It says does Rugby cover your expenses? Or is it common to have a
(37:37):
side hustle? Oh? I guesswe touched on that as well. Some
of us had a night husselves,but um, yeah, some of us
don't. Some of us don't.Some of us like living living low now
at thirty. Okay, guys,that's a rap for this episode. We
(37:57):
wanted to say thank you so muchfor tuning in, and we apologize advanced
for a little bit of roughness inthis podcast, but we hope you enjoyed
it and that you learned a lotfrom it. We want you, guys
to make sure you subscribe to theleos Den on your podcast app and follow
at with Sports on all social mediaplatforms for more great podcasts on women's sports.
Show notes are on our webpage atwith sports dot com at the listening
(38:22):
tab at leos Den. The challengefor today is to create a budget for
yourself and try to follow it fortwo weeks. If it works, great,
give us our credit. And ifit doesn't, it's not the end
of the world. And then Iwould say a second challenge is if you
want something, by it okay.If you want to go get a bowl
(38:42):
of ramen, get the bowl oframen. If you want the shoes,
by the shoes okay. So there'stwo different challenges that it kind of don't
work together, but yes, thankyou guys so much for tuning in.
Make sure to turn your alerts onevery Friday for our episode release and follow
at Leo's Den Underscore with Sports onInstagram. Whether you came to the Rugby
(39:06):
and stayed with the Shenanigans, wehope you joined us next time and the
Leo's Den. Bye bedtime, peaceout, good night.
Hi everybody, and welcome to seasontwo, Episode five of The Leos Den.
My name is Naya and my funfact today is that I had worked
at Buffalo Wild Wings four out ofthe six years I've been on the professional
USA women's rugby team. Hi guys, my namey Loonamar. People call me
(00:26):
low and my fun fact is atthe beginning of this year, I made
the goal to spend money on thingsthat I want and not just saying oh
no, I don't need it,just like if I want it and it's
gonna spark joy by it. Sowe're recording this actually on November twenty one.
First, we're at twenty fourth Sorryfor ones, get me my lift
(00:47):
comes out. I guess we're ata tournament in Dubai right now. It's
like eight pm here, but it'seight am back where we're at home,
so we're jet lagged immensely. Solet's you know how we do it.
We start off with the horse scope. So for us leos do you often
act as if the world is staticand nothing ever changes. Sometimes you may
(01:07):
think that human kind is a certainway, the world is a certain way,
and so this is what you're goingto do. Have you ever heard
of an evolution. The human raceis constantly involving, and so is the
world. Look around deep. Yeah, and I heard that. I thought
about, like how stubborn I amwith being comfortable with things staying exactly the
way they are every day, andlike having to fight myself with that mentality
(01:34):
each day when it's completely the oppositeof what I want. Like I'm really
a freak of habit, and soit's hard living in this world. That's
a good point. I like that, Like just sometimes you get a little
comfortable and then like things don't happen, You're like, what's happening, especially
with our job, with our sport, Like things can change constantly with whatever.
(01:55):
So good point. Yeah, definitelydefinitely say one of the main things
I took and take consistently away fromrugby as patients, and that's something I'm
still working on. So life hasa funny way of teaching you that.
But today for this episode, weare talking about finances as a rugby player,
(02:16):
kind of how I want to startthis off is one of the questions
that I get. Low let meknow if you get this question a lot,
But are we rich? I dude, I just got that question from
fourth graders and I was in fourthgraders. They were like, are you
rich? And I was like,no, no, no, I am
a female athlete in rugby. Andthen one kid was like, what car
(02:38):
do you drive? I was likea Honda Civic And fun fact, both
night and I drive Honda Civics OldHonday, okay two thousand and eight,
two thousand and eight. Yep.Yeah. And it's funny you say that
you get that from younger children,because I also get that from like people
my age adults who are like verycurious and don't know, like, do
(03:04):
like how much money are we reallymaking? Um? And I guess kind
of the easy way to talk aboutthat is to just kind of go into
you know, what it is likefor us in terms of payment and how
much we receive we received as rugbyplayers. Um, we are not rich,
(03:24):
but we are none gays that yetat least. Yeah. I think
we're a long long way away fromthere. And in terms of just those
guys are like millionaires, I don'tthink that. I don't know, are
there millionaire rugby players? I know, not in the US probably, but
(03:45):
a like for sure New Zealand andwhatnot. But they's not but still their
contracts aren't like soccer players NFL playersthat are like four hundred million dollars are
like two million um, nothing crazylike that. But I think one thing
that key for me is that Ithink we're never going to be rich like
in rugby, like that's us,but we're doing this so that hopefully one
(04:09):
day girls can make a really greatwage off of rugby. He's like,
right now, we're kind of like, you know, we're living better than
what it once was, right becausethey once we're not all fly at any
access. So we're definitely living abetter life, but we're trying to make
it even better for that next generationthat comes in so hopefully they can get
sometimes at one point that one hundredthousand, two hundred thousand million dollars contract.
(04:32):
Yeah, and I think rich isdifferent for everybody, Like rich for
some people is fifty thousand dollars.Rich for other people is six figures.
And we'll say, like we're makingless than fifty thousand dollars. We're getting
paid to where like it is commonfor you to have a side job because
you do need some extra form ofcash coming in. And I want to
(04:56):
say, like I think you couldbe rich off of rugby, but it
won't be from your salary. It'llbe from what you're doing outside of it,
in terms of endorsements and sponsorships likethat, and that's really tough to
come around and b which makes itreally difficult to you know, make a
lot of money. Yeah, Ithink that's key, And I was just
(05:17):
thinking about it now, like youknow, both of us, I think
maybe we make more of our incomeoff of like little deals here and there,
So it's almost like we have too, Like you don't work at off
a Wild anymore, but it's almostlike we still have twy jobs. Like
I do the Y side and thenI do the other TikTok influencers side.
A lot of work. And alsohow our payment is is that we receive
(05:43):
a salary payment for playing, andwe also receive money for getting selected to
tournaments, and then we also receivemoney based on how well we do in
those tournaments. So there is opportunitiesto make a lot of money. A
lot of it just depends on performance, which makes sense and kind of is
(06:03):
a situation for not only sports,but business and other areas of work as
well. Yeah, and I thinkwhat's key about that is when COVID hit,
Like we used to have this otherkind of source of income by going
to tournaments and makee tournaments, andthen when COVID hit for a year and
a half more than that, wedidn't have that extra source of income coming
(06:24):
in, and that was like definitelytough to only have the small monthly stipend
that we get, which again isbigger than a lot of athletes get,
and so very blessed that we doget to get it, but it was
just such a changeup from you know, us and I and I who usually
make tournaments and usually have a littlebit more pocket money from these tournaments that
was all taken away from with COVIDhas a lot more effected. Yeah,
(06:46):
And I think another one of thethings that was really hard to adjust to
is making the salary we make,but living on the West Coast in California
versus living on the East Coast,where from my experience it was a lot
cheaper. Yeah, I think welive in one of the best cities in
the world. I would say SanDiego, but it is not a cheap
(07:09):
place. It's pretty much I wouldsay the same as like New York City.
Like New York City is wildly expensiveas well. And I mean,
I so I live in a twobedroom apartment, tiny tiny apartment, like
no laundry, you know, acyor whatever, and I pay like eight
fifty I think for it, andit has like none of the amenities.
But for me, that's what Iwant to pay right now. But if
I wanted to look nicer, Iwould be up to like one hundred eleven
(07:31):
hundred, or I'd be up toone twelve hundred, Like that would be
the range for something that is actuallylike has the amenities that I want.
Like from having conversations with my sisterswho own houses and rent apartments and things
of that such, They're like,oh yeah, my rents under twelve hundred,
(07:55):
And I'm like, I'm paying twelvehundred dollars for like a little guest
house, And if I ever wantedto go into a one bedroom apartment in
a nice area, I'm paying atleast twenty three hundred, which is insane.
Yeah. I just I look atall these places and like everything that
(08:16):
I want, I'm like, well, this is like, can I live
with myself if I'm paying thirteen hundredbucks for a place when I'm not always
there because we travel. Now,it's like, can I register that in
my head? Do I want todo that? But then like there are
times that I'm like, I doneed a place that I feel comfortable with,
(08:37):
and so it is worth spending thatmoney. Yeah, so kind of
prioritizing where to put the money thatwe do make because gas is expensive,
food is more expensive, drinks ismore expensive, activities like it. That's
a whole lifestyle change. It's it'sinsane gases like almost five dollars in California.
(08:58):
And so you live close to thecenter, so you live how far
as you drive, like ten fifteenminutes, ten minutes and I drive I
live about half an hour from thecenter. Every morning I drive in and
I'm like, why the heck doI do this to myself? It's so
long, and it's like I'm bemy gas I use. But like that's
where I think, like I Niahas a great little place for um,
(09:22):
you know, twelve hundred bucks yearsa whole little house, whereas I am
more in the city in San Diegoand I pay eight fifty for a tiny
place. So it's just different.But now, when you worked at Buffalo
Wild Wings, did you do itbecause you had to you needed that double
income or did you do it becauseyou wanted that extra spending cash in order
(09:45):
to feel like I could be independentWhen I first came in where I was
making the lowest amount you could make, which was very, very very low.
I will say that I'm not goingto give you guys a number,
but it was lowest hell, Andso like to live independently without having to
call my mother or my father andsay, hey, can you throw me
cash for this? To live comfortably, Like you said, I had to
(10:09):
get a second job. I didn'twant to have to really depend on anybody
financially because I never had really evenin college, like I didn't have to
worry about school debt. I hada work study job. So I just
wanted to continue that mentality. SoI thought it was important for me to
get a second job. And Ialso was thinking long term in terms of
like, okay, you know I'mout of college, like I need to
(10:31):
start having a savings account. Ineed to be able to have a credit
card to where I comfortably have it, and I don't have debt. So
could I have survived without a secondjob, Yes, what I've enjoyed it
absolutely Nah. But about you haveyou, I'll go. Yeah. I
think you and I are very similarin that, like I just would never
(10:52):
think to ask my parents for money, and I mean they would definitely give
it to me, but I justthat thought to me is just not something
I ever want to do, andeven if it means getting second job,
I won't want to do it.I think for me, it wasn't getting
second job. It was kind ofmaking more sacrifices and like living situation how
comfortable I wanted to be. Sofor a while there I was living with
a woman who, like I onlypaid like six hundred dollars and rent like
(11:15):
very cheap, and that was kindof like my sacrifice. Like I wasn't
really ever fully comfortable there, butthat's what I did to supplement what I
was making. I didn't really everget a second job just because it was
like it's it was it's a lotof work and I can't imagine how you
did it, like trying to fitin hours and like when you're traveling all
the time, like hey, Ican work this day, but I can't
(11:37):
work to say, and I'll begone for two weeks. I think for
me, my second job wash takeclasses and like so I took take classes
because that's like I get the classesfor free, so it's almost like the
money that I could be spending onthe classes is I'm kind of keeping for
myself in a way. So thatwas became my second job in a way.
(11:58):
And that's crazy that because when Ihad first came, like those first
six months, I was training fulltime, I was working at Buffalo Wild
Wings, and I was finishing mylast semester online. How I did that,
I have no clue. I thinkjust the young age, the naiveness
in it, Like I just didn'tlike looking back on it now, I'm
like, how did I do that? Because after training, like I was
(12:22):
sprinting home to shower and get changedand go to work to be there for
eight hours, getting home at twelveo'clock, not understanding meal prep yet,
so bringing food home from Buffalo Wildjust like you two weeks at twelve in
the morning, knowing that I hadto get up at six o'clock and like
(12:43):
go push my body to limits,crazy limits. So like eventually I got
to a point after three or fouryears where it was like my back started
hurting from being on my feet somuch, and like, yeah, the
money was amazing in terms of tips. Like, that's one thing we'll say
about living on the West Coast isas a server, you make way more
(13:05):
than you do on the East Coast. On the East Coast, I think
I was making two dollars an hour. On the West Coast, I'm making
eleven dollars at least an hour withtips on top of that. Like,
it was really hard for me toleave Buffalo White Wings, even though I
probably could have left earlier because themoney was so good. But yeah,
I feel like you can survive withouta second job. But it is something
(13:28):
that is very common with the amountof money that we do make, depending
on what level of contract you receivewhen you are brought onto the team.
So that's something that I don't thinka lot of girls wanting to come be
in our positions think about, iswhat that money situation will be like and
what things you'll have to sacrifice inorder to be here, Because it's not
like the NFL or the NBA,where once you make it, boy you
(13:50):
made it, like you still gotto work hard and stuff, but the
reward is financially a lot bigger thanit is for us. So I like
it takes a lot for us toput our bodies on the line for the
financial reward that we get. ThatI don't think is enough and I don't
think it is what we deserve.But hopefully we'll, like you said,
(14:11):
get to where it needs to bebecause we're putting in the work now,
we're for sure changing the landscape,I think now. And I think it's
really just it's a it's a laborof love in a way, and it's
we love what we do and wewant to keep doing it. So like
I think, I don't know,I can't speak for you, but I
personally would be doing it even ifI got paid less. I would will
(14:31):
start working as a nurse at thattime, but just because I love it
so much and that's so awesome.And also I think since we had to
travel the world, it's like thatmoney that we would I feel like the
money we would pay for like tripsto South Africa and trips to Sydney are
like I don't have to pay thatas being just a normal person. It's
something I get to do for free, So that's cool. Yeah, and
(15:01):
we've kind of said a lot abouthow, Yeah, we make money,
but it isn't the greatest amount ofmoney. But there are a lot of
pros to being on the team financiallyin terms of receiving free food at the
training center that we work at.Um, some girls come in and on
their contract they get free housing,which I think is amazing. Um,
(15:24):
what else we get snack reimbursements.When we go to travel, we get
free travel. We don't have toworry about that, So that's amazing.
Anything else we can think of,I mean, we get gear except for
cleat, oh yeah, but weget all the gear and kid and whatnot
when we travel. We don't haveto pay for anything. So things like
add up in a way for sure. Um. But on a new topic,
(15:48):
like, so we're we're self whatdo we call independent contract employee contractors
of USA Rugby. So what thatmeans is that every month we get a
stipend. But like you know,usually you'd get your paycheck and the government
would already take money out of thatpaycheck. But for us, the government
doesn't take the money out. Soat the end of the year nine and
(16:11):
I are like paying, you know, paying the big man some big bucks
at the end there for the taxes, they take the taxes out when you're
regularly employed. But when you're selfemployed like we are, we have to
pay those taxes every January February.So that's so like for me, it's
(16:33):
so funny because I have my savingsaccount. I'm like, oh my god,
like, I got so much moneyin here, and then January February
will come around. I'm like,Okay, I have no safeties. I
have no safeties. What happen there? Yeah, And that's the one thing
we can do is we can writethings off. Some of our teammates write
a lot of things off. Idon't know about you, you'd probably write
(16:55):
a lot of it. I waslike, Dad, can I write this
off? He's like, you're notwriting that off? My what? But
to write offs are like things thathelped you to do your job as an
independent contractor. So you can writeoff cleats, even you can write right
off workout gear. You could writeoff the gases gas mialogy you have to
take to get to the center.Yeah, and I'm kind of like you.
(17:19):
I'm a little hesitant about that stufftoo, Like seeing some of the
girls that we're putting them out topretend you in here. But how do
you how do you do your taxes? Who does your taxes. Do you
have my known tax guy that Igo to, But every year it seems
like he's still is confused about whatsort of like employee, I am a
(17:41):
USA Rugby and he's like, so, what what do you do? All
right? So what is this?And I'm like, man, I don't
know. You're the tax guy.You tell me um. And so it's
always a different thing because it isa very weird system being an indpendent contractor
and whatnot, and like because weget money from the US Olympic Committee,
right, they're the ones to payUS Olympic Committee, but then USA Rugby
(18:02):
is going to pay us the bonuses. So and then for me this year,
my taxes are gonna be wild NYAbecause I'm getting all this money from
like probably twenty different sources plus yeah, so figuring all that out and like
writing off everyone. I just I'mvery scared for taxes because he's gonna call
(18:22):
me be like what is this AndI'm gonna be like, you know what,
I'm sorry, I have no idea. And I think that's one of
the things that USA Rugby can lookto improve on is teaching us how to
do those taxes, because like whenI came in, there was really no
help with that. Like, firstof all, I didn't know that I
would have to do taxes. Secondof all, I didn't know how to
(18:45):
do those taxes, and third ofall, I didn't know who to go
to to help me with that,because as you said, even people who
do taxes still have a tough timewith independent contractors. So for me talking
around the team, I ended uphooking up of the lady who was a
rugby player as well and very smartand kind of helped me with my taxes
(19:06):
for a while. But last yearshe wasn't doing it anymore, and I'm
like, oh my god, whatam I going to do? And I
tried to do it on Turbo Tax. It was an absolute fail. So
I ended up like paying extra moneyto have a tax pro on Turbo Tax
do it. And like she wassimilar to your dad of like, oh
yeah, you can't do that,you can't do this. I'm like,
(19:26):
oh man, I'm really going tobe paying a lot this year, so
for sure, and now do youinvest? Like one thing for me,
and I suggest this to anybody isstart an IRA, a retirement account,
like as soon as you can,and just start putting money into it.
I think it's so smart for us. My dad was like, can you
put four hundred dollars into your retirementaccount each month? And I was like,
(19:47):
what four hundred? No, sir, I cannot right now because you're
supposed to like a certain percentage oflike what you make each month. And
so he's like, can you dothat? Like, no, I will
not be But I just think it'sso key to start building for your future
now. And that's what I'm sothankful about is that my dad is so
on top of that, and he'slike, this is what he's like,
(20:08):
you're shorting this retirement acount. Now, you're putting six thousand dollars in this
year, You're putting this in blahblah. So that's very helpful to have
somebody who's so knowledge like my dadtelling me what to do. And I
didn't really have that growing up.I didn't have that since I've been living
in California in terms of having somebodyto go to and say hey, or
(20:29):
somebody coming to me saying this iswhat you should do with your money.
One of my teammates had a guythat she worked with and she's like,
Hey, if any of you guyswant to use them like hit him up,
and for me, like, ifI don't know something, I'm gonna
pick somebody who knows it all soI don't even have to like look up
that type of information. So Ireached out to this guy and he helped
me with getting life insurance. Hehelped me with getting an R I R
(20:53):
A to where you were saying likefour hundred dollars, where for me like
I'm putting five hundred dollars in mineeach month, which when they told me
that, I was like really,But then I thought about it and I'm
like, I spend five Like Icould spend five hundred dollars in a day
easy. So it's like if Ican do that, then I can invest
this money into this account and justsay take it like so I can never
(21:15):
ever had seen it was even there, and like every now and then I
go and look at it and I'mlike, oh, yeah, I'm glad
I'm doing that. Yeah you gotme ready to go change my mound.
I think I'm gonna change out toyeah you got five Oh scary. But
one thing I am. I ama massive saver. I don't know what
(21:36):
Mike Oma taught me early on,but I will save and that's why,
as I said, my fun factis like this year I was like,
lo, spend money on things thatare gonna make you happy, and it's
been actually really freeing. Um andlike I haven't found any difference in what
I make or anything like that.Like it's not like all of a sudden,
no, I don't have any money. It's like been the same.
(21:59):
But my my savings account was veryimportant for me to know I have security.
Like that's what I think is sokey because it's finances can be so
stressful. What would you say isa minimum amount for an emergency account?
(22:25):
I don't really know, but likeI might go a ball part like high
and say like twenty thousand or somethinglike that. Twenty yeah, I would
think like five for an emergency likewhat happened? Did your house burn down?
You gotta buy a new house.I don't know. I just feel
like it's it's like I guess that'swhat I am my savor and I need
(22:48):
to invest more and like put morelike stuff away. I wish I understood
it a little bit more, butI always would rather just have so like
such a security blanket personally. ButI know I have friends who are like
I don't understand the friends who literallylive paycheck to paycheck. I'm like,
how are you doing this? Howdo you sleep that night? Yeah?
(23:15):
I think for my savings account,like, I love seeing it rise,
and I do put money in itanytime I get a surplus of money or
just generally each month. But I'malso like not never a person who shy
away from like, oh I reallywant to get that, and I already
spent my money for the month.So I'm just gonna going my savings account
(23:37):
and just grab a little and I'llmake sure I put back extra. I
think that's the important part. It'slike the savings account is for emergencies,
but for me, like also,if I just want to use it for
something, as long as I havethe understanding that the money needs to put
back be put back in double fold, then I'm okay doing so. And
you were also talking about investments interms of IRA, but do you have
(24:02):
any investments and like just regular stockstocks that you watch on your own.
I don't watch stocks on my own. I have a guy who does investing
for me, because I would Iwant to know about it and I want
to understand it, but I haveI don't get it at all. I
don't know what the brick stocks areand with any of that is. And
(24:26):
I want you because like I wantto invest more and I want to like
see money multiply. But oh,I just I've never had a financial mindset
and so it has been cool totake like finance classes and want not to
learn a little bit more. Butuh no, I don't. I don't
check stocks. Do you do youdo like robin Hood or what do you
(24:48):
do? Um? I used todo robin Hood and then I and then
I went over to coin base becausethat's kind of where the crypto is and
that's what was blowing up during theCOVID era. I guess we're still kind
of in that. But I waskind of hesitant to do it too,
because I'm not really a gambler.I don't like risking the risking losing money
(25:14):
that like that just doesn't sound goodto me. But somebody suggested, like,
hey, like just put fifty dollarsin there and see what happens.
And when I started seeing the profit, it was like, oh okay.
But so like now I have bitcoin, I have ethereum, and it's kind
of like play money. So like, yeah, I have the same as
you, like a guy who takesthe five hundred dollars and invested each month
(25:37):
and what he thinks it should gointo, and I can't touch that money.
But then I have this, ohextra money that I wanted to instead
of putting it into my savings account, just play with the stocks and see
what could happen. Because I didsee a lot of people, a lot
of my friends, making some goodmoney off of crypto and Robin Hood and
things of that such, So Idefinitely I am investing investing in that now
(26:02):
and kind of learning as I go. And I'm not really interested in learning
about the information either, but alot of the people around me are,
so I kind of just picked theirbrain and I'm like, what should I
put it in kind of trusting themin that aspect, but also making a
good profit of it off of it. So I would recommend, like if
you ever had like a hundred dollarsor you know, a thousand dollars came
(26:23):
in, like play around with thatand see how much money you can actually
make off of the money that you'renot afraid to lose. Is basically what
somebody told me, like put inmoney that you're not afraid to lose.
That's a good point, and Ireally know I should try that because,
like I, some of them willget deals for like hey, just do
this for two thousand bucks, andI think that would be super key to
like, Okay, that money ismoney I wasn't prepared for, so why
(26:45):
not try something else with it?So yeah, I'll definitely try it.
Yeah, So with the talk onmoney, do you have a budget for
yourself? And if so, didyou create it or did some to create
it for you. I don't havea budget for myself. I literally just
spend what I want to. Butagain, I'm such a saber and it's
(27:07):
such a saber mindset that I'm notworried about it because I'm literally just like
so cautious is what I spend.I think budgeting. I one thing I
don't budget. I don't budget likeI eat out a lot because eating out
a lot. Eating out gives meso much freaking joy that I just eat
(27:29):
out all the time because especially inthe pandemic, when it was like very
hard to find sparks of joy,that was what gave it to me.
And it's just something so nice.Like all I do is usually eat at
the Center, right, I justeat Center food, and so feeling like
it's okay to go get ramen andare okay to go eat out? That
is something that I think is reallyimportant to me. But what about you
(27:52):
do you budget? Are you likeonly two hundred dollars for this? Blah
blah blah. So I actually likecreated a budget in the Google Excel,
and like I never follow it,so like I guess it just kind of
makes me feel good, like Okay, yeah, you got a budget,
but in reality, like I don'tfollow it as much as I would like
(28:14):
to. I think I would liketo be more strict to it because I
do feel like sometimes I get intothat mentality a little too often of get
if you want to get it,when like, you know, it's nice
sometimes, but to always do it, eventually it'll catch out to you.
So I think I'm some of thetimes where it's like, oh, it's
catching up to me, not inan extreme way, but in small manners.
(28:37):
It's like, oh, let mego look at my budget and make
sure. And it's like you're that'ssilly, like the budget need isn't even
a real thing. But it's somethingthat I would definitely recommend. I use
it to keep track of my billsand what money's coming in. So it
is kind of just some reflection eachmonth to look at and make sure you
know you're not being too outrageous.For sure often about it, but I
(29:00):
probably won't ever do it, notnow at least. Um now, I
think as athletes, a lot ofpeople think of us as sponsored, like,
oh, are you sponsored by blahblah blah and blah blah. So
like, now, do you havesponsorships or do you kind of like for
me, I don't have sponsorships.I just kind of like one have one
off deals. Majority of my incomeoutside of rugby is usually one off deals.
(29:26):
I do have one clothing company thatI work with called ps PSK.
That's I would say is a sponsorshipum where I received payment for you know,
promoting their brand. So I wouldsay that's probably the one sponsorship I
do have. But I'm speaking itinto existence right now that we are going
to get three sponsorships each this upcomingyear. Wow. Three Okay, Okay,
(29:52):
no, that'd be go. Um. I think same as you,
I have one off deal, solike to me, a sponsorship would be
like, hey, for a yearor whatnot. You're our face of our
brand, one of the face ofour brand. We're gonna pay you a
good amount. Whereas I have like, hey, can you do these tiktoks
for us this Instagram and I'll giveyou this amount of money. So that's
(30:18):
what I do work with right now. But yeah, I'm hoping to like,
you know, I would love touse a brand that I really like,
like even as athleta Abby would killme, but like Lululemon something like
that. Yeah, I think theconsistency and that is something that a lot
of us crave, and also theappreciation with being the face of a organization
(30:45):
or a company like that's a bigthing. So I think that's something that
I hope will flourish hugely for theboth of us. For sure. Let's
all send the little little prayer,Oh give us for asorships. Thank you
Jesus, Amen Amen hip questions shallwe we shall? Okay? So the
(31:15):
first question on the list is doyou have health insurance? And also how
accessible is the sport for those withhealth needs? Yeah, I have health
insurance. Um, I don't wantto have health insurance with the job we
do I still am on my parentsinsurance, but I am twenty five,
(31:36):
so next year I'll be off it, which is gonna be bad. But
our job does offer us health insurance, so that will be a good transition,
and that once I'm off my parents, I will still have a health
insurance option. But right now,I'm when I go home to Christmas,
I'm gonna hit up everybody at thedentist guy. I know, everybody get
(31:56):
my gi Yeah. I think that'sanother one of the pros that we didn't
think about is that we do getfree health insurance, because that's another thing
that's very expensive in California, Fornithat I just recently learned. So I
am twenty seven, so I havetransition to being under the USA Rugby health
(32:16):
insurance and it's very convenient. Wedon't really ever have to We don't have
to pay for anything, and ifwe do, it's you know, twenty
dollars or less. It's very nice. I'm not trying to think about how
much it's gonna cost once we leavethis Rugby world, but it is very
beneficial and in terms of accessibility forpeople with health needs, I would say
(32:42):
like outside of injuries, I don'treally know. I want to say,
yeah, because you have wheelchair rugby. Yeah, and I think one thing
with that is, like, wehave a mental health program. So if
you need to UM, if youfeel the need to like see it therapies
or whatnot, there are avenues andit's called the care Progroom, and they
(33:05):
will give you money to go getyour needs taken care of. UM accessible
to the sword for those with healthneeds. I mean, it is a
very tough sport, so we can'tbe gone it, I think, because
you know, we play with veryelite athletes. But yeah, as and
(33:27):
I said, there's wheelchair rugby.UM, some some members of our team
have asthma and other problems that theywork through, so I guess that's to
be there. Yeah, okay,the next so what our right? You
want to say it? Oh,I'm sorry. What our finances like in
(33:47):
the off season? Hit it naya? They are the same, Like we
still get paid our flat rate salarythroughout the off season. The only difference
would be that we aren't receiving selectionbonuses or bonuses for how we play because
we obviously aren't playing during the offseason. But outside of that, I'm
(34:08):
sure there's more time for social mediafor us to be able to make money
off of that. Yeah, butI would agree with the same because we
are contracted through Like before the Olympics, we were contracted for two years,
so for two years we were guaranteedto get payments each month, which was
super nice because in COVID we gotguaranteed payments even though we weren't playing,
(34:34):
So thank you to those. Andthen next question, does the league help
with exit planning for players? Iwould say something that's something that they definitely
improved on, but as an areawhere there could be some work, there
are programs put in place to helpus make extra crashs, whether it's interning
(34:58):
or getting extra casts to do classesthat you think will be important for your
future career, or any other areasof work that you are interested in that
they can help you with so thatwhen you do leave the league, you're
not feeling like you have no cluewhat to do. So I think I
(35:21):
would say yes. I would definitelydefinitely say yes to that, but I
think there's a lot of work tobe done in that area, and I
think it's also very hard because likeyou come from, Hey, I just
spent six years playing rugby. WHOAput me in your business environment, put
me in your hospital. So,I mean that's why a lot of our
girls take classes, a lot ofthem. You know, Nicole's going for
(35:46):
a yoga license to be a yogateacher. So there's all sorts of ways
that they're trying to set themselves upto be set in the future. Yeah,
next question, is there equal moneyput into the women the women's team
(36:06):
as well as there is in themen. You know, I'm not fully
sure about that. I think they'redoing a much better job of it.
Um. I think after this Olympicsit's undeniable that our women's team is deserves
notoriety and deserves people's attention. Andif not, like we had more attention
(36:30):
than I would say the men's didin the Olympics. And I think there
is equal money for each teams.But it might be different in other areas,
but for now it is equal whatwe get paid monthly sipend. Yeah.
Let the last question, Oh goahead, excuse nine and I were
(36:53):
very jet lagged and tired guys whoare sitting here like, oh my god,
it's almost dead. I've been twothirty am na, I am,
I'm lagging two thirty? What timedo you go to sleep? Yesterday and
went to sleep at nine, butI got up to thirty and I couldn't
go back to bed. So I'mso drouchy. I'm like, we gotta
(37:14):
keep saying him again. I'm sopissed. I've seen her roll her eyes.
I'm like, oh lord, letme hurry up, and she get
angry. We are tired all rightnow. And we kind of answered this
question. But do you pay fortraveler expenses? No? We do not.
Yeah, there's one more question onhere. Oh, keep going.
It says does Rugby cover your expenses? Or is it common to have a
(37:37):
side hustle? Oh? I guesswe touched on that as well. Some
of us had a night husselves,but um, yeah, some of us
don't. Some of us don't.Some of us like living living low now
at thirty. Okay, guys,that's a rap for this episode. We
(37:57):
wanted to say thank you so muchfor tuning in, and we apologize advanced
for a little bit of roughness inthis podcast, but we hope you enjoyed
it and that you learned a lotfrom it. We want you, guys
to make sure you subscribe to theleos Den on your podcast app and follow
at with Sports on all social mediaplatforms for more great podcasts on women's sports.
Show notes are on our webpage atwith sports dot com at the listening
(38:22):
tab at leos Den. The challengefor today is to create a budget for
yourself and try to follow it fortwo weeks. If it works, great,
give us our credit. And ifit doesn't, it's not the end
of the world. And then Iwould say a second challenge is if you
want something, by it okay.If you want to go get a bowl
(38:42):
of ramen, get the bowl oframen. If you want the shoes,
by the shoes okay. So there'stwo different challenges that it kind of don't
work together, but yes, thankyou guys so much for tuning in.
Make sure to turn your alerts onevery Friday for our episode release and follow
at Leo's Den Underscore with Sports onInstagram. Whether you came to the Rugby
(39:06):
and stayed with the Shenanigans, wehope you joined us next time and the
Leo's Den. Bye bedtime, peaceout, good night.
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