What I have learned in Football and Financial Planning
Being a one of the Football
Managing Staff and Financial Planner are both different things and aspects.
Both professions have similarities that can be applied in realistically. This
in hand can be useful in many ways of motivating oneself to reach its
potentials and goals in life.
Copyright 2010 - 2011. PinoyMoneyVantage| Personal Finance Help Philippines
By: Benedict F. Baluyut
Football or Soccer has become a
passion for me after rediscovering it again in 2010. I haven’t played a major 11-aside
tournament after leaving high school and proceeding to college more than a
decade ago. Other than running and badminton, this sport have become my outlet
recently in relieving stress, renewed motivation to exercise and be fit and
meeting with old and new friends who shared the same passion as well.
I learned how to play the sport
at age 11 in early 1990s. It was fun time of learning the basics of football.
In football playing countries learning the sport at age 11 is already old but I
started to pick it up at that age and stayed away from playing basketball at
the moment and become one of the Euro football fan (from Dutch and Italian
Serie A) and recently with English Premiere League, Spain’s La Liga, German
Bundesliga and our very own United Football League Philippines.
In the past two years, this sport
has been earning throngs of fans from all walks of life after that faithful and
triumphant battle in the 2010 AFF Suzuki Cup Semi-finals. It has become an
exciting sport after seeing the Philippine National Football Team – Seniors
Division a.k.a. as the Philippines Azkals in action. The Azkals made a breakout
in this tournament giving glory to our country.
Reaching the semi-finals brought tremendous hope and a bright future for
Philippine football scene. Last March
2012, the Azkals won the bronze medal on one tough match against Palestine in
2012 AFC Challenge Cup in Kathmandu, Nepal. Although there are many issues
surrounding the players but still they have shown off that they are proud
Filipinos – pure blood or half-blood.
With renewed interest of playing
this sport again we started out a small Football Association (FA) club composed
of guys with same interest in playing recreational and competitive football. We
organized this club in the interest of propagating the football grassroots
development program in our area and at the same time play together as a team, compete
on a 7-aside tournament in Metro Manila or play 11-aside friendly games with
other clubs within or near our area and represent our community in the province.
As one of the founding members
and one of the managing staff involves huge task of handling and organizing
people, finance, training, equipments and at times coaching the players, etc. All the principles of the personal financial
planning can be applied here as well.
Training the players
It involves lots of routine exercises from
running, ball handling, skills developments and others. It is for sure needs lot
of discipline in order to reach the peak of your performance and become one of
top players as what most coaches will tell you and make you do when playing
this tough sport such as football which is very competitive. It took time for
us recall the old instincts plus the muscle memory of playing the game again.
Like football, you must learn how
to save, instill unto yourself the discipline of not overspending and setting
certain amount of your money through budgeting and keeping expenditures
monitored. Although, saving money is hard for others but once you save at least
a portion of your money (10%) this could be a small step then you can go to
higher amounts. Motivating on ’s self to save money and invest for the future
in reaching one’s goal in life.
Maintaining the club
Currently, we do not have
corporate sponsors or affiliation with a local sporting organization or local
government unit that could help us strengthen the team more. All of the players
and staff are setting aside a small portion of their own money and pooled it into
a trust fund if the case arises that we need to pay for the registration fees,
transport fees and other expenses might be incurred in future events and
tournaments in Metro Manila or elsewhere outside of our province.
In financial planning
perspective, discipline of setting aside for emergency cases or contingency
plan if the case of the need to use the fund arises might come in handy. At
least the cash needed for this could up to 6 months to a year in case of losing
a job or looking for a job etc. Organizing the way you spend and the change in
lifestyle could help you achieve more in saving enough funds for important
future purchases for a future home, a car, dream vacation abroad or even for
retirement.
Merchandising the goods
We come up with this bold plan of
merchandising our team brand of T-shirt and marketing it to a local state
university nearby in order to create positive cash flow in the coffers of the
club. It got noticed with buyers from college students and local football
aficionados who are friends of ours and supporters of our team with the use of
social media network and by word of mouth as well. We invested a portion of our
personal money unto selling and revolve the profits in order to create more
products and services as long as the demand is still there in return we still a
10% profit sharing from the team members who invested in this plan.
Learning and discovering
entrepreneurial side of running a small business on a part-time or full-time basis
could help you develop business skills and probably earn more cash. Business
venture such as retail could be excellent and could give you firsthand
experience into venturing more into a more lucrative business if you take the
risks at the same time the return of profit can be break even, low or higher.
Taking the opportunity of earning on the side doesn’t not knock twice. It only
comes once in a life. If it comes to your doorstep then grab it.
Setting a Timeframe and Goal
In a coach’s perspective in
football training and practice, you must set a timeframe of training especially
when preparing for a competition or tournament. As most athletes do they tend
to practice and do routine exercises in order to keep them upbeat in meeting
the challenge against other competing teams in which your aim is to reach the
finals, win and settle the a champions cup or gold medals for individual
players and have the bragging rights of earning the trophy of being the best.
The purpose of setting a
realistic goal is the start of making a good financial plan in which you set a
time or schedule on the dream you want to achieve from buying a car, a house
and capitalizing a business in the future. In retrospect, you be motivated to
achieve this by sacrificing a lot to reach your aims, wants and desires.
Remember, dreaming is free but there are deadlines if you want to it happen
now.
Paying it forward
The team practices in a nearby
sporting complex and we always see kids from poor families watch us but it turn
out they want to play or kick the balls. It was a worthwhile and
self-fulfilling experience when you teach a 7 year old boy on how to kick the
ball, how to run fast and striking the ball into the goal post. You shared
something of yourself by sharing your knowledge of this sport. Some 12-15 kids
of different ages from 8-14 years old would watch us when we come late
afternoon to practice and try to learn as much as possible on how to play
football / soccer. Maybe one of this days we might discover the future Pelé, Diego
Maradona, Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldhino, David Beckham, Cristiano Ronaldo or
Lionel Messi (the current big names or legends of football / soccer, just to
name a few) among one of these boys or girls.
To summarize it all, personal
finance requires skills, motivation and the stiff discipline of saving in your
personal output and input of cash flows and setting realistic goals in achieving
that dream of yours through proper management and applying knowledge gained
from experience and books and advises from a financial planner could aid and
support all the way as your personal coach.
In football, I never expected to
be part of a young upstart football club in our community and it was an honor
and privilege to be part of the core group and management of this local team,
Futboleros United Club, in which I am one of the founding members. Working and playing with these guys totally
earned my respect for them as I see their dedication and fighting spirit amidst
winning or losing a game. It is a
worthwhile learning experience for me to be part of this team.
"NEVER GO THROUGH LIFE
WITHOUT GOALS"
Copyright 2010 - 2011. PinoyMoneyVantage| Personal Finance Help Philippines
