Think about the last kid you watched give everything to their sport. Early mornings. Late nights. Sacrificed weekends. A family that rearranged their life around a dream. That kid is in every gym, on every field, in every program in New Jersey right now.
Nobody questions the commitment. The question nobody is asking, and nobody is answering, is this: When the game ends, is that kid ready for the world waiting for them off the court?
Not ready in spirit. Ready financially. Ready economically. Ready with the real knowledge to protect everything they worked for, whether the dream pays out or not.
Right now, the answer is no. And the consequences are documented.
The Problem, and the Proof
78%
of professional athletes face financial ruin within 2 to 5 years of leaving the game.
Sports Illustrated, 2009. Confirmed by NBPA research.
$1.7T
in outstanding U.S. student loan debt. The college path sold as the safe alternative carries its own financial trap.
Federal Reserve, 2025.
96%
of the dollar's purchasing power lost since 1913. What money is, how it loses value, and what that means for every dollar they will ever earn.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, CPI Historical Data.
"The system prepared them to compete. Nobody prepared them for the economy waiting when the competition ends."
Why This Cannot Wait
Federal Debt
U.S. federal debt has crossed 100% of GDP for the first time since World War II.
CBO, 2025.
Social Security
The trust fund is projected depleted by 2033 with automatic benefit cuts to follow.
2025 Trustees Report.
Credit Stress
Credit card delinquency hit a 12-year high in 2024. The cost of living is outpacing income growth across an entire generation.
Federal Reserve Bank of NY.
The Job Market
AI is restructuring employment faster than new categories are being created. These athletes need to know how to build, not just how to apply.
"Every one of these conditions hits the communities with the most athletes hardest and first."
What Broken Money Academy Is
A financial coaching program that attaches to athletic programs, so when kids go to practice, they get this alongside it.
Not a classroom. Not an elective. One to two sessions per week during the season. Same gym. Same team. Same coach in the room. The culture of discipline is already built. This attaches to it.
What Sports Gave Them
The ability to prepare relentlessly for a goal.
The ability to perform under pressure when it counts.
The ability to execute a game plan with discipline.
The ability to lead, adapt, and keep going when things break down.
That is not just an athletic resume. That is the exact blueprint for building a financially independent life.
Three Coaching Tracks
01
The kid with a real shot. This track does not tell them to stop dreaming. It teaches them what happens to the money if they make it, and how to be one of the few who keep it. Covers contract reality, how wealth gets transferred away from athletes, and how to build financial independence that outlasts a career.
02
The largest group. The most overlooked. These athletes have more transferable value than any other population coming out of high school, and nobody has told them that. This track converts everything sports built in them directly into entrepreneurship and financial independence.
03
Universal coaching for all participants. What money actually is. Why it loses value. What an asset is versus a liability. Real answers about every financial decision they will ever make, in the same room where they already trust the coaching they receive.
9 Coaching Modules
45 minutes per session
What You Were Taught and Why It's Wrong
What is money, really? Purchasing power, paper currency, and real value explained through examples from their daily lives. The dollar has lost 96% of its purchasing power since 1913. Sets the analytical foundation for everything that follows.
Budgeting, Banking, Credit, and Taxes
The fundamentals every athlete needs first. What a checking account is. How a credit score is built. What taxes are and how they work. How to budget when income is inconsistent. Practical, unglamorous, and essential.
The Economy They Are Actually Entering
This generation has known abundance. This session introduces the oldest economic truth: you only keep what you earn and protect. Credit card delinquency hit a 12-year high in 2024.
Understanding What Holds Value and Why
A full picture of asset classes — hard assets, financial instruments, real property, real businesses — as a critical thinking framework, not a prescription. Students learn to evaluate any asset on its own terms.
What They Don't Tell Athletes
78% of professional athletes face financial ruin within 2 to 5 years of leaving the game. This session covers how that happens, how contracts are structured, where the money goes, and what the sports economy depends on.
Debt, Degrees, and the Real Calculation
Not anti-college. Pro-truth. $1.7 trillion in outstanding student debt. Average bachelor's degree graduate carries $37,338 in debt. When a degree produces a return and when it produces a trap.
Athlete to Entrepreneur
Everything sports built in them — preparation, resilience, executing under pressure, leading when it is hard — is the exact blueprint for building a business. This session maps those qualities onto entrepreneurship with practical first steps.
What to Do With the First Dollar You Make
Immediately actionable. What to do with the first money they earn. The difference between spending, saving in a depreciating currency, and allocating to assets with real value. Multiple honest paths presented. Why starting early changes the math entirely.
Reading the Economy Like You Read the Game
Every great athlete studies film. This session teaches economic pattern recognition. Federal debt at 100% of GDP. Social Security projected depleted by 2033. AI restructuring the labor market. The most dangerous player is the one who sees the whole court.
Delivery & Measurable Outcomes
1 to 2 sessions per week during the season.
45 minutes, built for focus.
Same gym, same team, same coach in the room.
Opens with a live real-world economic hook.
Closes with one concrete action per session.
No new infrastructure required.
Pre-program baseline financial literacy assessment.
Post-program assessment — delta is the outcome.
9 defined competencies, one per module.
Session challenge completion tracking.
Cohort outcomes report to administration.
Data available for Title I reporting.
Who Delivers It
The pilot is delivered by Kenneth Sass, author, entrepreneur, and practitioner of the financial principles taught throughout this program. His background building businesses and his published work on monetary systems give this program something no curriculum vendor can offer: instruction grounded entirely in lived experience.
"Athletes respond to practitioners. That credibility is in the room."
The Ask
Attach the Broken Money Academy to an existing basketball or football program. Let the coaching run alongside the season. Measure the outcome. Let the athletes tell you what it meant, and let the data confirm it.
No disruption to the existing program. No new infrastructure. No classroom space required. Structured to fit within standard athletic department or Title I program budgets.
"The schools that moved first in every important educational movement were not the ones who waited for everyone else to prove it worked."
"The communities that will feel the next wave of economic pressure first are the same communities filling these rosters right now. This program is built for exactly the conditions that are already here."
Full Program Overview
Program Prospectus