Patriots rookie CB Joejuan Williams estimates he saves 90% of his NFL salary

Lorenzo Reyes | USA TODAY

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New England Patriots rookie cornerback Joejuan Williams has been active for just three games, but he’s making them count, at least, as far as his bank account goes.

Williams told the Boston Globe that he estimates he invests at least 90% of his salary from game checks, though he said that percentage was smaller for his first few because he paid off his mother’s student loan debts and bought her a car.

Williams signed a four-year, $6.6 million contract that pays him a base salary of $495,000 this season. His deal includes $4.1 million in guaranteed money.

“I’m going to sacrifice now for me to be happy later,” Williams told The Globe. “I can go buy me a really nice car, I can go buy me a really nice house if I wanted to, I can go buy me a really nice chain — multiple chains — if I wanted to. But that’s not going to suffice me for when I’m 40, 50, or 60 (years old). Who knows when I’m going to need that bread.”

Williams, 21, was picked by the Patriots with the 13th selection in the second round (No. 45 overall) of the NFL draft. He has just one tackle in his three appearances and hasn’t played much in large part due to the talent and depth ahead of him on the roster. He is listed as the third-string right cornerback on the depth chart behind Stephon Gilmore and Jonathan Jones.

“In the history of this league, there’s a higher chance that you’ll never see a second contract,” Williams told the Globe. “If you’re spending so much money, like, ‘Oh, I’m going to make it back next year. I’m going to make it back the year after that.’ If it doesn’t happen, then you’re back at square zero.”

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Williams said he first became interested in saving money after he took a personal finance class at Father Ryan High School in Nashville, Tennessee. He went on to major in economics and Vanderbilt and continued to learn about the different ways to invest and grow his wealth.

Williams said that he plans to set up a financial literacy program to help spread the lessons he has learned over the years, to help people from lower-income backgrounds.

“They have a head start in this race,” Williams said of those who have begun saving and investing. “For a lot of public schools in inner cities, it’s not required to take any personal finance classes to graduate or even learn about money in that sense. That’s not the real world. The real world revolves around money. It really puts a lot of inner-city kids who don’t have much at a disadvantage.”

Williams isn’t the first NFL player to save and invest a large portion of their salary. Former wide receiver Ryan Broyles once said he lived off of $60,000 per year and put away the rest of his earnings so that he could save for the future and start businesses. Broyles now runs a real estate management company.

“I want to be set in the future when I’m not working,” Williams said. “Grind now, sacrifice now, be happy later. I’d rather live like a prince for the rest of my life than live like a king for my NFL career and then go back to square zero.”

Follow Lorenzo Reyes on Twitter @LorenzoGReyes.