This starts with understanding the fundamental differences between investments and expenses.
“In youth sports today, the masses view expenses as investments and investments as expenses.
Remove ‘youth sports’ and replace it with ‘the world’ and the above statement is still true.
That’s why we’re at where we’re at.
That’s why ‘it’s just the way things are these days.’”
-Ray Zingler on Twitter
I’ll preface this post with telling you I’m not an accountant or a financial advisor, only a person smart (less dumb) enough to know the value in hiring the above two professionals.
Investments and expenses, what are they?
Per Oxford, an investment is “the action or process of investing money for profit or material result” and an expense is “the cost required for something; the money spent on something.”
Put simply an investment is something that yields a favorable return over time i.e. think purchasing a house that increases in value over time that you eventually sell for a profit and an expense is something that you pay for with your money and/or time that yields no favorable financial or material return i.e. think renting a home. You pay the landlord and get no return on your money at the end of your lease.
Generally speaking, home ownership is an investment and renting a home is an expense.
I’m not here to tell anyone what they should or shouldn’t invest in nor am I here to tell anyone what they should or shouldn’t expense.
A boat is a large expense to most people, however to the man who sells and trades boats for a living, they are huge investments with huge upside.
I’m simply generalizing and using our consumer debt crisis as evidence to infer that, from a mass market perspective, we don’t have this concept of investment vs. expense as down pat as we’d like.
So, what the hell does this have to with youth sports?
I’ll tell you.
The same consumers’, again from a macro perspective, who do not understand or practice the concept of investing, but the concept of expensing are the ones who are making decisions for their children in the realm of youth athletics.
Many folks are choosing to expense their children’s development with flash bang constructs that catch their eyes, assuming they are investments, when in reality they are costly expenses, that yield no return.
We’re at where we’re at in youth sports today because of a lack of developmental literacy.
Consumer behavior in the sports realm parallels that of the real world, and yeah, the kid’s are literally paying for it.
Real development is an investment and sound investments require education and conscious decision making.
