Within the early days of her tennis profession, Serena Williams cared a lot about profitable that she forgot to gather her earnings — repeatedly.
Williams, 42, introduced in $94.8 million in prize cash as a tennis participant earlier than retiring in 2022, in line with the Women’s Tennis Association. Early in her profession, she almost left an honest chunk of it behind: She was so singularly centered on her efficiency that she’d almost depart cities with out selecting up her cash, she told First We Feast’s YouTube talk show “Hot Ones” final week.
“Is it true that you simply not often collected your winnings your first yr on tour after which as soon as tried unsuccessfully to money your first million-dollar test in a drive via ATM?” host Sean Evans requested her.
“These are all true,” responded Williams, who received 23 Grand Slam singles titles and 73 profession singles titles throughout her 27-year profession. “I by no means performed for cash. I performed as a result of I beloved the game … I wished to win.”
Williams’ skilled debut — through which she performed a single sport, dropping a qualifying match on the 1995 Bell Problem in Quebec Metropolis, Canada — reportedly resulted in a $240 check. At age 14, she was in no rush to spend that cash, she mentioned.
The identical was true when Williams received her first million-dollar check. Individuals round her have been excited concerning the greenback determine, however all Williams wished to do was deposit it and get again to work, she recalled.
“I by no means actually spent some huge cash,” mentioned Williams. “I simply went via the drive-thru and the man was like, ‘Uh, I feel you might want to come inside for this.'”
As her profession developed, her “tax man” needed to remind her to get her cash whereas she toured, she recalled.
“[He] could be like, ‘You did not get your cash?’ And I am like, ‘Oh, I did not get that one in Zurich. I forgot that one in Moscow,'” Williams mentioned. “I used to be enjoying to win, and if I did not win, I wasn’t pondering. I used to be simply so indignant that I wished to only determine a strategy to get higher and win the following time.”
When to show youngsters cash classes
Williams’ early-career experiences have been a part of her monetary literacy training: When she began making her personal cash as a teen, her dad Richard made positive that she was in command of it, she informed Bloomberg’s ‘The Deal’ podcast in Could.
“I keep in mind having to determine that out and having to discover ways to handle from a really early age and never get loopy with it, and so he empowered us to try this,” Williams mentioned, including that when it got here time to weigh sponsorship offers with corporations like Puma and Nike, she all the time had a seat on the desk.
“I am 16, my dad is negotiating, they are going forwards and backwards, and he needs me there for the entire time to ensure I do know what to do sooner or later,” she mentioned. “I realized early on that your paycheck from tennis — perhaps that is why I forgot them — needs to be your smallest incomes.”
Private finance classes for teenagers are essential, specialists say. In case you begin teaching kids basic money lessons as early as ages 5 to eight, they’re going to be able to find out about ideas like saving, spending and investing by ages 8 to 12, Eric Landolt, head of household advisory and artwork & amassing at UBS International Wealth Administration, informed Make It final yr.
By the point they’re youngsters, they’re going to be well-equipped to successfully handle a small finances or allowance, mentioned Landolt.
“Monetary literacy needs to be a primary ability, a primary ability within the sense of like, studying or writing or doing so one thing in a method that needs to be delivered to everybody in any circumstance,” he mentioned.
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