There is a strong correlation between how Australians engage with sports and how successfully they manage their finances, including reaching goals, investing in the property market, and contributing extra to superannuation, according to AMP.
The AMP study found Australians who engage in a regular sport were 64 per cent more likely than others to achieve the majority of their financial goals, and were also 43 per cent more likely to think about future finances.
AMP surveyed 13 popular Australian sports and found golfers were the best savers, with more than a quarter (29 per cent) holding more than $50,000 in savings, whilst cricketers (51 per cent) were the most likely to seek financial advice and cyclists and netballers were the most financial savvy thinkers.
“It makes sense to me that active, sports-minded people would also be good at setting and striving for financial goals. Goals are a mental strategy or tool that people use to support all different types of performance. Like using any tool, practice builds skill,” said coaching psychologist, Dr Gordon Spence.
“Given that sport lends itself so naturally to goal setting, I wouldn’t be surprised at all if these sporty folk were simply transferring their skill with goals from one part of their life (sport) to another (their finances).”
Statistics collected as part of the study showed New South Wales residents were the most likely (25 per cent) to regularly participate in sport ahead of Western Australians (21 per cent) and Victorians (20 per cent), whilst three quarters (74 per cent) of South Australians did not play any sport.
