The big headline yesterday was three-time MVP Albert Pujols leaving St. Louis after 11 years to accept a 10-year, $254 million contract with the Los Angeles Angels. It’s the second highest contract in baseball history, and comes just six weeks after Pujols led the Cardinals to a thrilling World Series win.
It brings up the question of loyalty vs. money. While this isn’t exactly a LeBron James situation, die-hard Cardinals fans were obviously hoping Pujols would take a bit of a hometown discount to stay and finish his career in St. Louis. Do you think his sleazy agent had anything to do with the decision?
This week on Moneyville I wrote about email transfers and about using cash to stick to your Christmas budget. On Canadian Finance Blog I looked at whether new graduates should pay off student loans or build up their savings.
Here are some other interesting personal finance articles from this week:
- Out of Your Rut listed 4 easy ways to save money, time and stress on Christmas shopping
- Million Dollar Journey asked, is my defined benefit pension safe?
- Michael James wrote about loyalty points as currency
- Retire Happy Blog looked at buying income paying investments in Canada
- Budgets are Sexy thought about buying some Green Bay Packers stock
- Free Money Finance said that dividend investing is not the perfect solution for yield
- Thirty Six Months looked at car insurance for high risk drivers
- Give Me Back My Five Bucks posted a breakdown of an average student’s budget
- Oblivious Investor wrote about playing catch-up with retirement savings
- Couple Money explained how to check out a business to avoid getting ripped off
We were also featured in the following blog carnivals this week:
- Carnival of Wealth
- Carnival of Financial Camaraderie
- Carnival of Personal Finance
- Self Directed Investing for Retirement Carnival
- Festival of Frugality
- Totally Money Carnival
Have a great weekend everyone!
It will be interesting to see if Pujols ends up being one of those athletes who manages to blow an insane amount of money and end up broke. I guess we won’t know for several years. Thanks for the mention.
I can’t comprehend that kind of money. He isn’t getting the negative publicity that other athletes have gotten, but I’m sure St. Louis fans are bummed. Maybe they’ll go after Prince Fielder now?
I don’t understand how some one who plays sports for a living needs to make that type of money. No disrespect, but there are tons of professions that provide a service a society and don’t anywhere near that. Anyway, I’ll stop my rant.
Thanks for the mention!
Entertainers like actors, signers, athletes should be getting a wage that reflects their contribution to society which is very small.
Entertainers do provide joy which has some value but I enjoy playing tennis more than 95% of the movies that I’ve watched.
Entertainers don’t improve society in any way and they shouldn’t be paid such rediculous sums of money.
Great mash up thanks for the list.
I am a huge sports fan, but I really really disagree with this overly-simplified view of “loyalty vs money.” This isn’t college athletics. Owners have no loyalty to players. If Pujols had blown out his knee, would they have paid him anyway out of a feeling of loyalty? Not a chance! If Pujols thought his overall compensation and standard of living would be better in LA then who are we to say he shouldn’t relocate? When we leave our job for a better offer are we being disloyal?
@T.M. – Unfortunately, it is that simple in the world of sports. You can’t compare Albert Pujols to some guy working at a meat packing plant in Brandon relocating to Lethbridge for more money. He doesn’t have millions of fans cheering him on.
Regarding the owners not having loyalty to players – baseball contracts are guaranteed, so Pujols would still get paid if he got hurt. Even in the NFL, where contracts are not guaranteed, Peyton Manning is still collecting a cool $16 million without playing a down this year.
Pujols could have stayed in St. Louis for somewhere around $210 million. Far from what he got in LA, but still ridiculous money. It comes down to the legacy you want to leave behind. Guys like Cal Ripken and Steve Yzerman are rare.
I understand the guys like Ray Bourque, who played for years with one team but they want to leave for a chance to win a championship before they retire.
Hope you had a great weekend my friends