A number of former football players face some type of financial hardship within five years of leaving the NFL. Former NFL player, professor, writer, and entrepreneur Brandon Copeland joins the latest episode of Financial Freestyle with Ross Mac to give insight into how he avoided being part of that statistic.

According to Copeland, "You have to realize...when you're in the NFL that you are basically a lottery winner," saying, "that money is not promised to you for the rest of your life." While he signed a $1.45 million dollar contract with the NFL while still on campus at the University of Pennsylvania, he only saw a fraction of that money.

His advice is, "the more aggressive you can get with taking that money, saving that money, and then also doubling down and learning how to invest or put that money to work for you, the better off you're going to be."

Listen to the full episode here, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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This post was written by Meredith Lawrence.