Seven Costly Pro Athlete Screw-ups

It's been awhile since we've covered fabulously wealthy people who have spent all their money and then some, so when a reader sent me this piece covering seven costly pro athlete screw-ups, I knew I had to run it.

Here's a summary of the athletes and their screw-ups:

• Scottie Pippen – Former Chicago Bulls star Scottie Pippen lost $120 million in career earnings due to poor financial planning and bad business ideas.
• Evander Holyfield – Four-time boxing champ Evander “The Real Deal” Holyfield reportedly made over $250 million in cash during his boxing career, but despite this he reportedly is flat broke.
• Lenny Dykstra – According to Dykstra’s July 2009 bankruptcy filing, he owed more than $30 million to creditors, including his $18.5 million purchase of Wayne Gretzky’s home.
• Latrell Sprewell – Sprewell, who made over $96 million during his career, lost his $1.5 million dollar Italian yacht, named “Milwaukee’s Best”, in 2007.
• John Daly – Two-time PGA major champ John Daly gambled away between $50 and $60 million in career earnings, according to his 2006 autobiography.
• Jack Clark – Former professional baseball slugger Jack Clark was driven into bankruptcy in 1992 by his appetite for luxury cars.
• Mike Tyson – The king of them all is boxer Mike Tyson, who squandered a $350 million to $400 million dollar fortune.

It's amazing to read these stories. These guys had more money than they ever needed, more than enough to live several lifetimes, and they still blew it all!

Just goes to show you that it's not how much you make, but how much you spend. No matter how much you earn, you MUST control your spending or else you'll end up flat broke.