PGA Tour - Retirement Accounts

[Wally Fairway]

I had no idea that PGA players earn retirement money from making the cut in an event; and winning the Fed Ex cup $1million of the stated prize money goes into their retirement account with the lower places having their entire Fed Ex prize put into retirement accounts. And based on the article it is not just the top guys who can get a hefty account.

Seems like a pretty good gig, if you can qualify

 

Quote

Currently over 600 golfers have over $1 million in their retirement funds, and 114 have more than $3 million.

There are two ways golfers can earn retirement money. One is by making the cut at a tournament, as long as they play in at least 15 events. Typically 144 golfers try to make it into a tournament and the 70 with the lowest score after 36 holes generally make it. Each time a golfer made a cut this year, it was worth $4,800 into their retirement account, and each one they made over 15 was worth double that.

Here’s how much pro golfers earn in ‘free’ retirement money from the PGA Tour - MarketWatch

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This year the top golfer will win a FedEx bonus of $15 million, and $1 million of it will go into his retirement fund.

 

[iacas]

Yep. Tiger's retirement account is MASSIVE.

Charles Howell III's is pretty damn good too. 🙂

[Wally Fairway]

3 minutes ago, iacas said:

Yep. Tiger's retirement account is MASSIVE.

Charles Howell III's is pretty damn good too. 🙂

Yeah Tigers would be huge, if it only included the money from just making the cuts.

[Dr. Manhattan]

Wonder what Tiger's retirement number might be. I remember years ago there was an estimate that Justin Leonard was around $80 million, meaning Tiger would have been likely way over $100 million. But they are now saying those earlier projections were way too large for all players. Anyway, seems they are doing pretty well for themselves regardless. 

T. Woods - $20+ million
P. Mickelson - $7.5+ million
S. Stricker - $7.5+ million
V. Singh - $7.5+ million

Golden Retirements: PGA Tour Pros Get A Gift That Keeps Giving - Golf Digest

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Beyond their tournament winnings, PGA Tour pros have a gift that keeps giving: a sweet pension.

 

 

Edited April 24, 2019 by Dr. Manhattan

[Wally Fairway]

Reading the article @Dr. Manhattan posted - Bernhard Langer reportedly has earned $4.5 million (as of the start of the 2016 season) in year end Charles Schwab cup bonuses.

Also I looked up Brian Stuard, tour player who grew up near my hometown, who has 1 tour victory but has made 122 cuts (in 214 events) - that would give him over $600,000 in contributions to his retirement account for his 6 years on tour. And that is for someone that virtually nobody know or follows on tour, except family and a few from his hometown.

[dennyjones]

This is great for the big names that we see on TV regularly.   The $600k that @Wally Fairway posted for Brian Stuard won't go very far in retirement.  To maintain their current lifestyle they will need a lot more if they were to just live off of their retirement. 

[Dr. Manhattan]

8 minutes ago, dennyjones said:

This is great for the big names that we see on TV regularly.   The $600k that @Wally Fairway posted for Brian Stuard won't go very far in retirement.  To maintain their current lifestyle they will need a lot more if they were to just live off of their retirement. 

He has made about $8.35 million during his career, even before touching the pension money. Let's call it $3 million after taking out taxes and various expenses. Seems like a pretty good living to me. He's only 36 years old, so he still has many years to keep piling up the cash earnings along with a bigger pension. 

[bkuehn1952]

It would be interesting to me to see how the taxes are handled.  The Tour pros are not employees yet somehow the Tour is able to deposit money into an annuity without any current tax liability.  And there is no real limit to how much the Tour can put in, unlike 401k plans.

We all need the financial guys at the Tour to work on our retirement plans!

Edited April 24, 2019 by bkuehn1952

[Wally Fairway]

14 hours ago, dennyjones said:

This is great for the big names that we see on TV regularly.   The $600k that @Wally Fairway posted for Brian Stuard won't go very far in retirement.  To maintain their current lifestyle they will need a lot more if they were to just live off of their retirement. 

That is what the contributions were, he could be one of the players with over $1million in his account when you take investment return into account, and he is 36 so it has plenty of time to grow.
Also this is on top of his $8.5 million in career earnings, so I think he might be alright.
I know I didn't have $600,000 (plus investment earnings) at age 36...then again I was just a tad under $8.5 mil in cumulative earnings at that point in my desk jockey career.

[3jacker]

Well that $600K in 30 yrs (he'll be 66) will be $4.5M at 7%.  

I'm not sure where it said any of this was tax-deferred or deductible.  I would imagine they've blown past all the IRS thresholds for that.

[dennyjones]

How ever you look at it, it's a sweet deal for them.

[Edsland]

Give me an account like theirs and I’ll pay double tax