Suns hosted 2,500 local kids for Futuresmart Challenge

Athletes coming from very poor backgrounds, striking it rich, yet somehow spending themselves back to broke by the end of their careers is a common problem in the world of professional sports.

It is a very sad cycle of events for those athletes who worked so hard to reach their level of financial prowess, only to lack an understanding of how to retain their economic security and spread their wealth throughout their entire lifetime.

Often today professional leagues run seminars for rookies to discuss the pitfalls of suddenly striking it rich playing a game, and educate them on how to maintain their vast wealth while still living a less than prudent lifestyle.

This lack of financial education is not only found in athletes, but in most Americans. Poor financial strategies – or even the very lack of any  financial strategies, send millions of people needlessly into debt every year.

Phoenix Suns

Financial services and insurance corporation MassMutual, coupled with the NBA and the Phoenix Suns, have brought that idea of self sustaining wealth to children of Arizona in hopes of teaching them simple strategies that will afford them the ability to live a sustainable financial future.

On Thursday February 1, the the Suns invited MassMutual Foundation’s Futuresmart Challenge hosted by award-winning actor (known most notably for his role as Dr. Sheldon Hawkes on CSI: NY) and best selling author Hill Harper, as well as Suns forward Jared Dudley, to speak to 2,500 local middle school children from all over the Valley to discuss the importance of saving and financial security through the understanding of “smart money” versus “dumb money.”

“Once I was in the NBA, I learned that it’s important to never spend money that isn’t guaranteed,” explained Dudley. “Everyone has their own different budget. I don’t care how much money you make, from sixty thousand to six million, people in general have a tendency to overspend. So stick to your budget. If you stay within your budget, you’ll reach your goals.”

Hill Harper, whose inspirational book The Wealth Cure: Putting Money in Its Place  won the 2012 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work, Nonfiction, noted that while children learn math at a young age, they’re not necessarily taught money management, which in and of itself is the most important math most people will ever use in their lifetimes.

“Every year, [students] learn math and…learn all these other subjects, but something you deal with all your life that can either be an amazing benefit to you or catastrophic problem is something we don’t learn…Events like this are so critical and for organizations like the Phoenix Suns and Mass Mutual Foundation to step up. The reason why it’s critical is because in the schools, we don’t teach money management.”

These fortunate students also enjoyed special visits by The Gorilla and members of the Sol Patrol and Solar Squad.

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Phoenix is the third stop on a multi-city tour of MassMutual Foundation’s Futuresmart Challenge, which will reach approximately 10,000 kids. 2018 is the fifth year of the program which has reached more than 42,000 kids nation-wide. The foundation’s goal is to reach more than 2 million students and their families by 2020. With goal of financial empowerment, this program offers an opportunity to learn professional and financial security at a young age, hopefully reaching students who will live lives with minimum to no debt.

For more information about MassMutual Foundation’s Futuresmart Challenge, click here.