How Tua Tagovailoa Spent His First $1M in the NFL | My First Million | GQ Sports

Yeah, if you look at my resume, my

first

job is being an NFL quarterback, what's up everyone? This is Tuatango Vailoa and this is how I

spent

and saved my

first

million

dollars. I grew up in Hawaii, so I grew up in a town called Ewa Beach. We grew up in a three-bedroom, two-bathroom house. How did you get interested in football? I think football has always been something that I have always loved. My parents tried to get me to play other

sports

like baseball and basketball, but for me it wasn't the same with baseball, my parents really wanted me to play because I was left-handed, but I didn't think it was exciting, it just didn't give me an adrenaline rush. or emotion, so I limited myself to football and never played anything else.

Everyone will have a dream when, as a child, you know they will aspire to be an NBA basketball player, a major league baseball player, and an NFL superstar. I think you take it little by little. I never thought I would have the opportunity to be recruited by big universities and then you get to college. Now the next step is if I have what it takes to make it to the NFL. You know, it's crazy because my dream is. Now it's my reality so it's pretty awesome it's cool yeah my first job I ever had was my homework and that was it.

I never worked any other job aside from my duties, so if you look at my resume, you know my first job is to be an NFL quarterback. There really aren't many. You know guys from Hawaii who are skill players. You know in the NFL they're more on the offensive lineman or the defensive side of the ball, so being one of them. the few that are hawaii quarterback and to be able to represent our hawaii families and the state of hawaii, you know, i think it's a really cool thing when they drafted me well when the general manager called me for chris greer, I felt like I was a sigh of relief, all the hard work my parents have helped me, you know, get through all these years, the hard work I did finally paid off, it's one of those nights you'll never forget.

And it's one of those moments you'll never forget. Do you remember what the process was like when you were going to get your rookie contract? Yes, it was a long process, but thank you, thank the good Lord above, I had my parents to help me through that process, so my parents helped me find my contract agent and then from there I did the interview process with their financial advisors and we got people who are helping me with my foundation, so that process really couldn't have been done without my parents interviewed and then they split it into two people and I was able to go in and interview those companies, so I will live off my marketing money, so the sponsorship money that I get and then everything else goes to the side so you know the money that I'm making from my contract, that's put to the side so none of that is seen, really it's me in the app, you know how much money I want to transfer each month to my savings. you know and then I have your spending account and at the end of every month my financial advisors give me a breakdown of what I

spent

, how much I spent this month and really that's it, so do you remember how much your deal is? it was worth the total.

I don't really remember the total amount of my contract, but you can see it here. So we talked about how I saved my money. Now let's talk about how I spent the money. You may have seen this in me. social networks, but the first thing I bought was a car. I bought my mom a car. It was an escalation of 2020. I actually relied on my marketing guys to help me with that and literally on Mother's Day I ended up calling my marketing team and asking. They could help me get a car and you know, my mom was very happy, she was excited to get the car she always wanted, a really nice big family car, and that's why I got that car, so the car for mom 80 000.

So after buying my mom a car, I ended up buying two cars. I ended up buying a Ford Flex and then a BMW. The reason I bought two cars is one, so when my parents or my family members come over, you know they can use them. One of those cars and then the other one I bought because I knew no one else could get down, you know, that on the bottom of the car, so I knew no one else would want to drive it, the flex four I'd like to say was around 40. It was about 40. There you have it and then the BMW was almost the same as Mom's Escalade.

You know, I'm one of those guys, I just look at what I have in my closet and I'm going to wear it. that, um, but what it helps you know is having the support and therefore being able to have things shipped and you know, wearing them, wearing them even the shoes and the flip flops, it helps me save money at the same time because I don't I'm on my way out. Shopping anyway so I upgraded my clothes but luckily it's all free so I'm not a big fan of jewelry but I have an Apple Watch oh that's right yeah so for jewelry I ended up buying my watch from data, one of the Rolex watches. one of their classic watches that cost a lot of money and then I ended up buying some earrings.

I don't know what I was thinking when I bought these earrings. I don't know, maybe because they were real, but I think regardless. I could have gone to any store and bought earrings and people would have thought they were real anyway. What a bad bad investment, you guys should put that, like when I say bad investment, you guys should put the boo thing in the background. Look at dad. 10k earrings. and Apple Watch 4 400. When you got selected, obviously, it was a big celebration. You know you're going to the NFL. Did you invite everyone to dinner? Was there a rookie dinner with your teammates?

You never did anything more than bring snacks to the quarterback. they wanted, I had to do, I think that's what all the newbies had to do, they had to get whatever they wanted in their room, so that's what we had to do, we had some pretty unique options in others, there was gum , there were twizzlers, mountain dew pistachios, there was trail mix, Costco bill to buy snacks for the kids, about 200, any other major purchase you can remember, yes, I ended up buying a house, this is where we are, where we are doing this in my house, really the most important thing I have ever done.

I wanted a house that I was looking for was a patio because if a pandemic ended up happening again and we couldn't go to a park or couldn't go to a gym, I could just go out to the backyard. and just being able to do my footwork, shoot my shots, just be able to have everything here and after that, you know, I can jump in the pool, come home, watch TV and just enjoy, you know, when my family is done coming. It will be a nice and friendly place for them to hang out and relax before game days.

Then I also ended up buying gym equipment for my garage. I was about 30 years old, I'd say it's about 30. So the gym equipment costs 30 grand, so I don't have enough money to show here, but this represents one and a half of the house, so other than what I spent and saved, I'm also involved in a charitable foundation, so I partnered with Fox Sports. Along with my documentary, they are willing to donate $111,111 to the Boys and Girls Club in my hometown, which is Ewa Beach in Alabama, as well as here in Miami, and that's a representation of my jersey number, so I think which is something really cool.

And that's something I always wanted to do so I could give back to my community in Alabama, where I played and also where I am now. Are you happy with what you spent on? I would say I'm happy with what I spent, it was nothing more than that when I thought about the purchases, I also thought about everyone who would be involved in the purchase, except maybe one of them, which was getting the i8, in addition to the one I got . all knowing that you know if I have family coming to the house, you know everyone has a place to sleep, you know they're going to have a place to stay, they're going to be comfortable and then they're going to have a car to drive uh. things of that nature so what does it mean to you to be able to take care of your family?

Oh, I think that's it, being able to see my parents happy, I think that's probably the most important thing for me, seeing them enjoy the fruits. of their work with what they have instilled in me and my brothers, it is a pleasure to be able to see them take things calmly, you know, relax now and tell us that their children work to help them. I can. I'm not really saying that you know that you save your money, that you're going to do whatever you want with your money, you know that whoever you're talking to, but like everyone says, be smart with your money, but you know that you're having fun at the same time, so What do you know, enjoy. but also be smart with your money.

We have reached the end. I would just like to thank you all for listening to how I save and also how I spend my money. Now I have to get back to work, so I'll see you. the football field