Biles opens up about money and learning to manage it
Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles, fresh from becoming the first woman to land a triple-twisting double-somersault in competition, stood before a group of students and admitted to a weakness earlier in her career: She really didn’t understand money. When people talked to her about finances, it sounded like gibberish.
“It’s like if I sat here and tried to explain gymnastics terms to you, that’s what it sounded like,” Biles said at an event Wednesday evening in Houston. “It’s really bad, but the one question I asked at the end of my meetings was, ‘Ok, so tell me if I’m broke, and if I’m not then we should be good.’ ”
But her parents and financial advisers helped explain the figures and numbers. And now that she’s older, 22, she asks more detailed questions and even recently purchased a house.
While superstar athletes would seem to have no worries about money, it turns out they often have the same questions and problems as the rest of us
when it comes to personal finances. That’s why Chase Bank is teaming with the athlete-focused media company Uninterrupted, founded by NBA star LeBron James and his longtime friend and business manager Maverick Carter, to enlist popular athletes to inspire families to have frank, open conversations about money.
“Many people think that these athletes have it all figured out. That they have all the money they need and they’re good. But that is so far from the truth,” said Jodi Rolland, head of Chase branches for Texas and the western U.S. “These athletes experience many of the same issues that we experience. How do we save? How do we budget? And how do we invest?”
Chase sponsors Uninterrupted’s Kneading Dough video and Branching Out podcast series, featuring athletes that include Serena Williams, who has won 23 Grand Slam single titles and four Olympic gold medals; Rob Gronkowski, a three-time NFL Super Bowl champion; and Matthew Cherry, a former NFL player and now movie director, talking about how they manage money, challenges they’ve overcome and advice they’d pass along.
They also seek to showcase athletes who’ve made wise financial decisions during and after their athletic careers.
Biles and her mom, Nellie, were interviewed Wednesday night at a Chase branch in downtown Houston.
Early lessons
The conversation started with how Biles learned to save money as a kid. Her parents opened a savings account to deposit money sent to Biles on birthdays and Christmas. If she wanted to buy something, Biles had to ask her parents.
She didn’t get paid for doing chores (those were simply expected of all family members) but did get money for earning good grades in school.
Simone and Nellie Biles also opened up about family conversations involving money. A particularly difficult conversation was when Nellie, who had previously co-owned a chain of nursing homes, decided to open the World Champions Centre gym in Spring. She expected Simone to be thrilled.
“I was not excited at all. I actually was very angry,” Biles said. “I was so mad because the first initial
thought I had was, ‘We’re going to be poor. We have no money to build this gym.’ My first initial reaction was money.”
Once she started expressing this to her mother, Nellie was able to tell give Simone more details on the gym and tell her that they weren’t going to go broke, that they had a plan.
Such business conversations have carried into Biles’ more recent ventures. At 18, she decided to go pro rather than compete at the collegiate level. Gymnasts make money by winning competitions and through sponsorships.
Earning rewards
And at the start of each year, Biles and her mother create a list of short-term and long-term goals, which can include things in and out of the gym. This gathering is also an opportunity to discuss big purchases Biles would like to make — and how she can make it happen.
“I wanted a Louis Vuitton bag,” Biles said, “and (my mom) said, ‘If you win the Olympics, you can get a Louis Vuitton bag.’ ”
She got the purse.
“It’s spending wisely because you can only have it for so long if you don’t spend wisely,” Biles said. “Just because you have it doesn’t mean you should spend all of it or splurge. Every now and then you should treat yourself and you should splurge a little bit, but not crazily.”