Wow talk about investing in yourself! We commonly hear stories about athletes, especially football players, running through all of their money and being broke within a year of retiring. They are just spending and not even thinking about life after retirement.

Well Detroit Lions’ corner Glover Quin will not be making that mistake. Quin is something like an anomaly in his field. Unlike most football players he has been living off of 30% of his salary while investing the other 70%. Although he has a lot of self-discipline, he did admit it wasn’t always easy. He has the opportunity to witness his teammates spending what he spends monthly on a daily basis. They’re buying new cars, new jewelry and anything else you can think of while calling him cheap. But is he cheap or smart?

Quin does have a financial advisor but he does a lot of his own independent research before making an investment. His investing skills are self-taught and has him in a position to double his money by the time his contract expires in 2017. His contract with Lions was for $23.5 million, he is on track to earning over $21 million from investments.

Far too often we are trying to keep up with the Jones’ instead of saving for our futures and building generational wealth. Quin is driving a 2009 Yukon Denali which I’m sure some of his teammates would never do. It’s about planning for the future, what’s the point in being wealthy if it’s only for a season. We have to start steering away from materialism and focusing on generational wealth. More and more athletes are being more responsible with their earnings hopefully Quin will inspire more.