From Olympic Gold to Financial Advisor: Lauryn Williams gives up a $200K Nike deal for a $12-an-hour internship to chase her dream.
As a certified financial planner, the former Olympian now helps and guides younger athletes through her firm, Worth Winning.
After a 10-year athletic career, Olympic gold medalist Lauryn Williams transitioned from earning $200,000 annually with Nike to taking on a $12-an-hour internship to pursue her passion as a financial advisor and educator for young athletes and professionals.
Despite being financially secure by age 30, Williams realized that her athletic earnings wouldn’t last a lifetime. Now, at 40, she focuses on financial planning for athletes and young professionals through her firm, Worth Winning, and serves as an ambassador for the CFP Board Center for Financial Planning, as she shared in an interview with CNBC Make It.
After passing her CFP exam in 2017, after two failed attempts in 2013 and 2015, Williams secured an internship as part of her coursework, where she was hired by a CFP firm owner. “It was a perfect fit for me,” she shared. In her CFP bio, she added, “CFP certification is a worthwhile journey…Helping people is the best part of the work.”
Williams, who is also a motivational speaker, retired from track and field in 2013 after an injury. She capped off her Olympic career by winning a silver medal in bobsledding in 2014. The financial challenges she faced as a professional athlete sparked her interest in understanding finances more deeply.
“People don’t realize that even with a $200,000 income, your agent takes 20%, and then there are taxes on top of that,” she explained. “The money doesn’t stretch as far as people think.” Her experiences with financial advisors who weren’t always a good fit during her career motivated her to help others make better financial decisions.
“Olympic sports, in general, are a lot like the real world,” she said. “There’s a top 1% earning very well, more money than they’ll ever need, while most athletes are just getting by, and some are struggling.” While the Olympic stars who earn more than enough for a comfortable retirement must manage their finances carefully if they want to avoid working again, many of Williams’ gold medal-winning clients weren’t even making $100,000 a year.
Williams revealed that spending all of her 20s as a competitive athlete led to feelings of insecurity. While her friends were building careers as doctors and lawyers, she felt she lacked real-world work experience. She now advises others to prioritize themselves by automating their savings and opening a retirement account.
