by Alison Storm | 03/12/10

A new article from Yahoo! Sports is highlighting the mistakes made by many pro athletes. According to the article, nearly 80% of National Football League players are on the brink of bankruptcy within two years of retiring. NBA players are only slightly better with their money as 60% are broke within five years of walking off the court. How do athletes and celebrities end up this way? Experts say it's poor financial planning, over-spending and bad decisions.

The article highlights seven athletes with major money problems: Scottie Pippen, Evander Holyfield, Lenny Dykstra, Latrell Sprewell, John Daly, Jack Clark and Mike Tyson. The article pinpoints some of the major spending these big name athletes did over the years including the $4.5 million Tyson spent on cars, $2 million on a bathtub and another $140,000 on two Bengal tigers.

Of course athletes aren't the only ones with money problems. Daymond John, creator of FUBU and investor on the TV show Shark Tank, told USA Today there were years where he worked on building his company "not understanding how little things financially make a big difference down the line." It wasn't until recent years that he really started to understand financial concepts and how foolish it was to spend money on frivolous things. "I was always told, 'Jewelry is an investment,' but it's not," he says. He says he spent about a million dollars on watches that are worth only about $50,000 now.

Late actor Corey Haim admitted publicly that he had money problems and a drug addiction. According to an interview with MTV, the actor blamed his great financial success after starring in several hit movies in the 1980's as a teen for his ultimate downfall. "When you're young and have money, you become the CEO of life," Haim said. In 1997 Haim filed for bankruptcy after allegedly running up huge medical bills and owing more than $200,000 in back taxes.

While plenty of Americans have money problems of their own, most will never experience the massive debt that some celebrities rack up. The best thing to do is learn from the mistakes of celebrities and realize that often the more money you have, the more problems you have, too.