Current players can pick a thing or two from the lovely couple.
Not a few players found themselves trapped in a quagmire of financial woes after their PBA careers.
You may be the highest-paid player today. But if you’re not handling your finances well, there’s a big chance you’d end up scratching your head thinking about the money you squandered.
Former PBA player Doug Kramer had to learn this the hard way.
In an episode of “Family Matters with Doug & Chesca,” the former San Miguel Beermen big man and his wife Chesca shared the best lessons they learned in taking care of their finances.
Among them was “don’t spend more than what you’re earning.”
“I feel like that is a very big lesson for a lot of us, where you earn 20, 30, 50, even a 100,000, doesn't matter how high, but if you’re spending more than what you’re earning you're gonna be digging yourself in a hole,” he said.
“And as the months and years go by, sobrang lalim na ng hukay and for Chex and I. We were there at that big problem that we had to resolve this monetary issues.”
He recalled making a splurge on an entertainment showcase during his heydays in the PBA, which he did on the pretext of “I deserve this.”
“I’ve been in the pros, I was already in the PBA, and I wanted to reward myself. In our bank account there was P350,000, and I wanted to buy a 50-inch plasma TV and I wanted to buy some JBL speakers. The total for that was P250,000,” he said.
“In my head talaga, ‘I deserve this.’ Nag-ipon na ako. Nag-set aside na ako ng ganito. I think I deserve this and anong ginawa ko? I bought it. I was so happy. Guys, when I say happy, nag-set up ako, bumili ako ng mga bagong Blu-ray.”
Then the bills started piling up. Enter a new lesson: happiness is temporary.
“'Yung consumer in me took over, pagka-gastadero ko lumabas without having to plan the financials properly kasi I’ve been working so hard, I deserve this. And true enough negative, negative until I had to borrow money from my best friend, from my mom who didn't even have enough,” he recalled with a pang of grief.
His mom had to pawn her jewelries just so she could lend him the money he needed. It broke his heart.
“She calls me back, ‘O sige Douglas, meron na, Isangla ko na lang jewelry ko.’ I said thank you but it broke my heart in many places. I had to make my mom suffer. I took away certain things that we could have done for my family all because I wanted to reward myself at the wrong time,” he said.
That’s why the 6-foot-5 banger believes the greatest lesson is “there is a time for everything about finances.”
“You guys might be at that point where its just saving, hardwork, saving, hardwork, na parang nauubos savings and then ulit lang naman. I want to encourage you to just trust the Lord and the plan that He has for you,” he said.
“And I pray that there will be breakthroughs in your life kasi it took us 5 years for certain investments, fruits to finally bloom.”
Current players can pick a thing or two from the lovely couple.
Watch the whole video here: