derek jeter net worth

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Hey, Derek Jeter: Don't blow all your money!

At a recent event, Derek Jeter said that 10 years from now he'd like to have a family. "I look forward to that," he added, "but I also want to be an owner of a team."

One can only imagine the number of baseball fans across America who would line up for tickets to see the house that Jeter, legendary and newly retired New York Yankees shortstop, might one day build. In the meantime, they can log onto The Players' Tribune, a new sports website Jeter's helping to bankroll as founding publisher. The site will be, in Jeter's own words, "a place where athletes have the tools they need to share what they really think and feel"—cutting out the sports reporter middleman.

The so-called "player-turned-owner" dynamic is certainly not a novel occurrence—or a necessarily successful one, at that. Great players certainly don't always translate into great owners, as demonstrated by the widely reported so-so experiences of the Mario Lemieuxs and Michael Jordans of the erstwhile player elite. Some financial experts think Jeter, who has earned a reported $400 million in salary and endorsement deals, should rethink making such a decision—a decision that could ultimately wipe him out.
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"Is the pursuit of that passion worth the risk of ruin?" asked certified financial planner Mark Cortazzo, senior partner at Macro Consulting Group. "Don't do something that will potentially jeopardize your needs being addressed in pursuit of your wants."

Good advice. Team ownership is essentially the same as investing in the most risky stock in the market. However, this is Derek Jeter we're talking about. The captain has made a career out of risky decisions. And telling Jeter otherwise may strike him as foolish.

Stacy Francis, certified financial planner and president and CEO of Francis Financial, thinks that an advisor should never say "no."

"You can’t tell him that he can’t buy a team because that financial advisor will be fired. Instead, you have to figure out how to make it happen." -Stacy Francis, President and CEO of Francis Financial

Making Jeter's ownership dream come true will take careful financial planning.

His net worth is reported to be around $185 million, according to Cortazzo. Partial ownership, which would be the only option at this point, will be very expensive for him. A smart financial advisor would strongly suggest Jeter protect a good amount of his money against a potential catastrophic setback.

Tom Henske, certified financial planner and partner at Lenox Advisors, thinks Jeter needs to do three things in order to ensure a steady source of income, as well as protect his money for himself and his family in the long run.

"I would want him to have all his insurance squared away—meaning things like life insurance, for more estate tax reasons," Henske said. "Liability protection—he now has his nest-egg and I'd want to make sure he is protected from any potential lawsuits as he'll always be a target.

"And finally I would advise him to bifurcate his money," Henske said. "I would make sure he segments his money into two pots—money that's ridiculously safe and all the other money that he'll put in various investments and such."