Paul Lewis: Lomu far from alone in financial woes

Dhyreille Lomu follows the hearse as it departs the public memorial for Jonah Lomu. Photo / Getty

Nice woman though she undoubtedly is, broadcaster Hilary Barry's heartfelt tweet that Jonah Lomu be left to rest in peace with his financial affairs undiscussed was not only naive (given she works for a news media outlet) but misguided.

Celebrity always attracts public interest (good and bad) and, if the world had known about Jonah's finances beforehand, maybe the $90,000 spent on his public farewell could have been directed to family coffers we now know need filling.

A national 11-second silence up and down the land at 11am on a certain day (the 11th of December, maybe?), with the nation briefly stopped in mourning, would have marked the passing of an icon forever associated with the number 11.

It is beyond sad when people in the limelight feel they have to appear more affluent than they are. It added an extra element of tragedy to Lomu's early death and it has brought out the misanthropic worst in some Kiwis.

"He earned more money than I could ever hope to and there are better causes" is a consistent reason for not contributing to the trust set up for Jonah's kids - but you can bet the mortgage most of those sourpusses will not be contributing to, for example, the City Mission to ease record numbers of poor seeking food and presents for kids this Christmas.

Jonah's 'missing millions' shouldn't have been a shock. It was obvious, when the family set up a crowd funding appeal so soon after his death, they were feeling the cold fingers of penury.

Big-time sport is littered with people who earned squillions but wound up skint - Mike Tyson (earned US$400 million), NBA basketballers Scottie Pippen and Allen Iverson (US$120m and US$155m respectively), Premier League footballers Keith Gillespie (US$11m) and David James (US$31m) and former world No 1 tennis star Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario (US$60m).

US sports media say 78 per cent of NFL players are bankrupt or nearly so two years after retirement; the NBA says 60 per cent of their highly paid basketballers are similarly affected five years after retirement.

It's true Lomu did not earn at that scale nor the amounts on offer should the giant wing be starting his professional career now. It is just as true that, in 2003, Lomu was ranked in the National Business Review's Rich List as amassing a $10 million fortune.

So how do such earners end up like this? Jonah was renting a house and had finance on two Mercedes cars but had little else in the way of conspicuous consumption, partly explaining the surprise many felt when his financial situation was revealed. Several things can go wrong. Some stars fall foul of more than one:

-No money skills/brief careers: Lomu's career was shortened by illness but NFL players, for example, have a career of only 3.5 years on average. If athletes come from a humble background, their money skills - like many of us - may not be good.

-Overspending: Some go on spending sprees fuelling ultimately unsustainable lifestyles like Iverson and Tyson (mansions, cars, tigers...). Iverson, with a career on the slide, had monthly bills of US$360,000 when his income was down to US$60,000 a month.

-Extended whanau: Many have large families (boxer Evander Holyfield has 11 kids) from different wives, vast alimony and child support, a small army of agents, lawyers, minders and others they feel responsible for. In the case of well-to-do Pacific Islanders, money can also be channelled to church, extended family and community causes through feelings of obligation.

-No other career: When the cheques stop coming, there is no alternative career to help fill the gap. Lomu may have suffered from this.

-Money management: Some are ripped off by trusted money managers; Sanchez-Vicario said she lost her fortune because of her father. Poor investments are a common story while some (like former baseball pitcher Curt Schilling, who lost his entire $50m fortune after founding a video game company) put all their eggs in one basket, failing to spread the risk.

-Divorce: Lomu had two. Many of sport's elite quote marriage break-ups as major drains, like the NFL's Terrell Owens, Premier League footballers Lee Hendrie (worth about US$25m before divorce and bad investments bankrupted him), James and many more.

-Gambling: A biggie. Golfer John Daly, Iverson, Tyson, Gillespie, George Best are among those whose fortunes were splashed across the tables.

-Jail: An even bigger biggie. Prison kills celebrity and earning power - come in Tyson, world champion athlete Marion Jones, former NFL star Michael Vick (US$100m in earnings) and former baseball star Lenny Dykstra who, in 2008, was worth US$58m. A year later, he was down to US$50,000 and US$50m in liabilities, jailed for bankruptcy fraud, concealment of assets and money laundering.

Ironically, his downfall was partly due to money invested in his Players' Club - a club for professional athletes which included a glossy magazine with information, you guessed it, on how to manage your money.