What would you do with your life if you were retiring at age 33 and had a nest egg of, oh, $20 million?

Two chicks at the same time.

Eric Chavez made over $75 million, with a $3 million payout to buy out a team option in 2011. Why would he only have $20 million to play with?

Eric Chavez made over $75 million, with a $3 million payout to buy out a team option in 2011. Why would he only have $20 million to play with?

Ask Jamie Dimon.

What would you do with your life if you were retiring at age 33 and had a nest egg of, oh, $20 million?

Besides two chicks at the same time.... nothing.

Eric Chavez made over $75 million, with a $3 million payout to buy out a team option in 2011. Why would he only have $20 million to play with?

1) Living in CA with the state + federal taxes, that's only like 40 million after taxes.
2) 5% agent fee, that's a couple million, 38 million.
3) If he has a nice house in the Bay Area that can easily run $10M no problem. 28 million.
4) So now you have a guy who has been a professional baseball player for 15 years. Is it that unreasonable that such a player could spend $600K/year? I mean, that's a lot, obviously, but that doesn't seem unreasonable, especially if you throw in some mild (not Dykstra-caliber) investment suboptimality.

I guess this is all hypothetical since that 20M is just a guess by #1, but having 20M doesn't seem odd to me.

He probably also helps pay some of the bills for his extended family, buys his parents cars and probably at least one house, etc.

$20 million was just a quick guess, keeping in mind some of the factors in #6.

Problem is, once you've done two chicks at the same time (man), you've still got to live the whole rest of your life.
Well, that's not exactly a "problem." But you know what I mean.

$20 million doesn't remain at $20 million. If he has competent people managing his money, he'll be well over $40 million, I'm sure.

If I were in Chavez' position, with a large but not infinite fortune, I'd probably go to school, get an MBA, and start a charity, over which I would try to retain a substantial amount of personal control. What kind of charity? I think you could spend three years trying to figure out where there's a substantial need for another organization, maybe longer. I'd be quietly involved in a couple of political causes -- gay rights, immigrant rights, nothing like running for office or backing partisan candidates. I'd try to take at least a month every year to go to some part of the world I'd never been to. I might endow a chair in the Brooklyn College English Dept.

And I'd light my cigars with $100 bills.

On the other hand if he has had Wall Street investing his money, he's probably down to $10 million. It hasn't exactly been the best 15 year period in which to invest $20 million -- the stock market's return over the last decade is negative. Real estate hasn't been so hot either -- the return on that's still positive, but it could drop further. Maybe he had the whole lot in Indonesia and Brazil, which would have done well, but probably not.

I'd buy a bottle of Westvleteren 12 and then tell everybody it's overrated. (I dream big.)

A junkie came into the bookstore today and spontaneously told me all about the great deals he's made on guitars. So musical instruments are probably your best bet, right?

Besides two chicks at the same time.... nothing.

####, you don't need $20 million to do nothing. I'm basically unemployed and I don't do ####.

I heard Chavy is in a business venture with Eric Munson (?-or some other old teammate) to market a new design of catchers' mitt.

"If I were in Chavez' position, with a large but not infinite fortune, I'd probably go to school, get an MBA,"

is this what YOU would do if you had a pro baseball career behind you?
I did spend enough time around these players to say that not many could get an MBA - well, I'll leave it at that.

And grant that this player of course might be an exception.

Eric Chavez was drafted out of high school. He would have to go to college first before he can go get a MBA. Man, being able to have the college lifestyle but actually having money? That would be cray cray.

Eric Chavez was drafted out of high school. He would have to go to college first before he can go get a MBA. Man, being able to have the college lifestyle but actually having money? That would be cray cray.

It is pretty fun. I wasn't a millionaire or anything like that but I did the college life for two years in my early 30's and it was a blast. When you go through college in your teens and early 20's you don't really appreciate the awesomeness that is college life. Spend a decade or so in the real world and college life feels like paradise.

I graduated and spent one year in the real world. About one month into that year, I started looking for a way to get myself back into college without having to do all that theory-laden grad school stuff, which I thought was BS. Thus, J-school. I was fully clear on the awesomality of the college lifestyle at 22 and was eager to grab a couple more years of it without having to leave reality behind. (Upper division history classes were already too ivory towerish for my taste.)