The NFL regular season ended on Sunday night and with it, so did the Fantasy Football season for the nearly 48 million people who play with friends, coworkers, and whoever else they can convince to join them. If you were lucky enough to win your league when all was said and done you might be getting an extra payday ranging from a few dollars to a few hundred dollars depending on how much your buy-into be in your league was. Now your looking at a wad of cash or large number sitting in your Venmo account wondering “How do I Spend this?”
Here’s five things you COULD do with that money that don’t include buying a gaudy trophies or something else to make sure your friends don’t forget all year who won the league.
1. Payback Yourself and Prepare for Next Year
Whatever you do make sure to pay yourself back the buy-in fee. Go ahead and transfer that amount back into your savings account right off the bat. If you’re planning on playing in the league again next year then put another entry fee into your account as well. Now your good fortune this year has paid off two-fold. You got your money back, paid for next year as well!
2. Pay for your March Madness Pool
If you spent the money to play fantasy football, you’re probably going to be shelling out more money to enter at least one March Madness Bracket Pool. Whether you set money in an envelope or put it in your savings account. Simply put. Let your sports gambling pay for itself!
3. Just Save it all!
This might seem like one of the more obvious answers, but don’t give yourself the temptation to spend the money. Put it directly into your savings account when you get it. You weren’t expecting the extra money so it won’t hurt you to immediately put it away.
4. Pay off Your Debt
If you’re completely debt free then move onto number five. If you have debt, not to repeat here, but you weren’t expecting this money. This means putting it all immediately onto your credit card won’t impact any financial choices you would have to make. Paying off your debt can help lift a burden off you and this can get you just a few steps closer.
5. Just go ahead and splurge
So saving money and doing something productive with it isn’t something you want to do at all. We don’t recommend you ignore your conscience and spend it all, but going ahead and buying that team hoodie to drown the sorrows of your favorite team missing the playoffs yet again just might be the boost you need to make you feel better today. Or if you want to earn brownie points, take your significant other out for a nice date. Chances are they had to hear you scream about a players performance, or made them watch a game they didn’t want to because you had a player in that game, and your fantasy match up was on the line. It might be in your best interest to spend at least a little bit on that special person.
Either way, chances are you don’t spend all the money you got in one place, so see options one through four for the rest.
In the end, whatever you decide to do with you earnings, congratulations on your winnings. May a strong end to 2019 lead to a strong start of 2020 and beyond.