Success Story
Sam Rowe
Talking Finance With Former Carlton Football Club Star Sam Rowe
Catch The Rising Tide’s team of financial planners in Melbourne are helping sportsmen and women to plan for the future.
A career in AFL is something many young Aussie’s dream about, and when spending time with your mates playing a truly great game is all in a days work, it’s no surprise why. Then on top of that there’s the salary – which, let’s face it – is certainly not something to be sniffed at!
So for those lucky few that make it all the way, the team at Rising Tide Financial Services reckon it’s always a smart idea to start thinking about the future beyond footy.
Like many others, Carlton Football Club star Sam Rowe wanted to make the most of this career opportunity, but without having much background knowledge into the world of finance, knowing where to begin was a bit of a challenge.
By chance, Sam met Rising Tide’s Senior Financial Planner and Director Matt Hale at a Carlton event and was eager to learn more about how to best manage his finances, especially knowing that the average AFL career is only 6 years.
“I was lucky enough to meet Matt Hale at a club function. I’ve never really had financial advice before, but after speaking with Matt I wanted to find out more. I decided to go in to meet the team and it just felt like a perfect fit,” says Sam.
Sam had recently begun working towards a goal of buying his first home, and after that had planned to do an extension, but with so much different information out there, it was becoming confusing trying to work out how to get started with it all.
“When I was buying my first home and getting started with the renos, I didn’t have a whole heap of cash available, but Matt Hale and Tom DeFegely specialise in working with professional sportspeople – and they fully understood the uniqueness of my situation,” says Sam.
“Using their skills and knowledge of my industry, they were able to come up with creative ways to find enough cash to complete extension, which was a really great help.”
“I’m a carpenter by trade, and now looking more to the future I’d like to start my building company. The guys at Rising Tide have been able to provide some really sound advice on how to structure the business, and have been really helpful in setting it all up.”
Now that Sam is in a place where he is comfortable with his finances and confident that he has his cash working for him, there are certainly a few things about finance he wishes he knew when he was younger.
“Looking back, I wish I’d have known some of the tricks behind banking, and the specific issues related to being a professional footballer,” says Sam.
“I had no idea about how loans were structured, and if I had have known I probably would have got into the property market earlier,” says Sam.
To other young people starting out the way he did, Sam can’t stress enough the importance of talking to an industry expert that’s not attached to one of the super funds, who’s there to look out for your best interests.
“In my opinion, it’s extremely beneficial to have financial planners in Melbourne like Matt and Tom in your corner. Their service is individual based and everything they do is to get the best result for their client. It’s good to have people you know and trust in your corner, and knowing that they’re doing what is best for you, even though that might not necessarily be best for someone else,” says Sam.