Studies show that after about 90K per year the "happiness" that one gets from money starts to level out... Meaning that the more money you earn the happier you are, but after 90K most people start to level out as they've reached "peak happy" due to money.
This is an interesting point.
I read an article that pointed out the difference between people that were happy, and the people that weren't all that happy in different degrees. One of the reasons, and the article posited the big reason, was that they used their money to buy "experiences" not "things". So someone that was doing things a lot more than buying things was be a lot happier than a person that was doing the reverse. It made a lot of sense and I understand the psychology behind having more fun in life than possessions and for sure at 90K a person could have a lot of fun.
But with 20MIL with several consecutive months off per year I can't speak for everyone but I'd be buying so many experiences I'd be bursting with happy LOL. I'd be pooping rainbows like a Unicorn getting head from the Easter Bunny.
And I'd drive to those experiences in my Bugatti LOL.
I know that at 90K almost anyone in the US could be enjoying life, especially if they were married and had a household income of double that. Very wealthy people that aren't significantly enjoying life have something wrong with them. And I have met a few of them along the way.
The happiest person I know is a former employee of my defunct event business and she is just totally sparkling through life. She is a bartender making about 60K a year, mostly in cash so kinda close to the 90K reference. But she is just that type of person I think because she's made less and been the same chick. She will jump on a plane at a moments notice. She's under 30 too which helps haha.
I think there is an element of truth to the 90K thing, the buy experiences not stuff thing, and the type of person thing.
I have none of those three right now HAHAHA.
The push for the largest contract is likely more about ego than anything else.
No doubt, and not just for the player, the agents like to have that crap on their "media kit" to hand to prospective clients even when they know that a part of the contracts never get paid out.
Players gravitate to teams that have at least made it to a superbowl and are still on the upswing.
Maybe in the twilight of their careers but during the peak years they want the money.
Or another way to say it is that during their salad days they want to see some serious green!
Players making lots of money are going to give away 50% of their tax base and that's just crazy.
I think that every player in the NFL pays out at least that.
At 1MIL a year, which isn't a lot for an athlete these days consider these expenses.
Federal taxes 39.6%
FICA (if you earn over 200K) 8.55%
State taxes 0-13% lets split it and call it 6.5%
Then they have to pay taxes on each game check for the 8 cities/states, or 42 cities/states, or 90 or so cities/states they play in depending on the sport NFL/NBA/MLB lets just say that is another 5%.
That's just under 60%
And we haven't factored in the agents fee. And I don't know what the tax laws say about a bonus earned by hitting a level of production during a road game like hitting a certain number of home runs or throwing a certain amount of TD passes.
40% of the money paid on game checks goes away. Signing bonuses are different but still it's less than half.
