What I learned from the Nav.it athlete financial wellness seminar

A recent survey of 500 Olympic athletes by the advocacy group Global Athlete showed that 58% of elite athletes say they don’t consider themselves financially stable. A staggering 70% feel like they haven’t been given sufficient financial planning resources.

These statistics motivated our amazing partners at Nav.it to produce the "How to Become Financially Well: Preparing for Life After the Podium" Olympic and National Team athletes. The event was attended by 40 Olympians, world record holders and national teamers including Dagmara Wozniak, Maggie Steffens, McKenzie Coan, Mandy Marquardt and Tianna Bartoletta.

Here are three things I learned from the hosts Maia Monnell and Jenifer Sapel. You can view the full session below, which we highly recommend.

1. Your thoughts about money matter: Maia Monnell (CMO, Nav.it) opened up the session with a powerful study about the effect of mindfulness on our brains. I did not expect this during a financial seminar and it really helped frame the session. Your thoughts about money have a huge impact on your mindset towards hitting your goals. The information you consume and digest will affect your self-image when it comes to money and wealth. My takeaway from Maia was to "own your thoughts, don't let them own you". This will leave you open minded towards having an 'abundance' mindset versus a 'scarcity' mindset.

2. Less about 'budget', more about 'data': Jenifer Sapel, CEO of Utor Wealth, provided a fantastic analogy about the word 'budget' being like the word 'diet'. Budget implies a very strict structure that shouldn't be adjusted and often times not reflective of reality. A better way to approach budgeting is using it to track your data and being aware of where you are at each month. From there you can make adjustments and use this data to keep 'score' with more flexibility to your real life training and living scenario.

3. Set goals, build resilience, establish a community: I thought this message was so perfect for the 40 athletes in attendance. Maia and Jen tied this beautifully together by showing that financial wellness simply requires practice, training, goal setting, recalibrating and even celebrating! By doing things like setting financial goals and having a positive self-view, you will develop will power and mental resilience. Building a community will not only help reduce your financial stress, but also help you connect with others who share your same financial wellness mindset.

A huge shoutout to Nav.it for sharing their knowledge, resources and time to our amazing athlete community. You can view the full episode here: How to Become Financially Well: Prepare for Life after the Podium