You think your checks are heavily taxed

Most people know the feeling - excited about a first job, a promotion or a raise, and then when the paycheck arrives and you see how much was withheld for taxes, the hopes and dreams of where you were going to recklessly blow that money are crushed. Things are no different for professional football players, and safety Tony Jefferson of the Baltimore Ravens recently weighed in on social media regarding exactly this.

If you do the math, the withholding on Jefferson’s check works out to around 48%, which is quite a bit, but at least he has a good head start on maxing out his FICA taxes. That means that when he starts earning his fully guaranteed weekly checks of $352,941.18 during the season this fall, he won’t have quite as much held back on that Week 1 check to max out his 401(k) and FICA withholdings.

Now, before you start feeling sorry for Jefferson needing to pay for a wedding, if he can’t pay for a wedding at this point, then he has no one to blame but himself. It was barely over a year ago that Jefferson signed a free agent contract with the Baltimore Ravens that included a $10M signing bonus and earned roughly $3M more through salary and bonuses during the 2017 season.

In short, he should have the money, and if he doesn’t I have exactly zero sympathy for him.