Your Money Playbook: How to Earn More, Build Wealth, and Win at Life

by Brandon Copeland

From an NFL linebacker turned Ivy League professor, discover modern strategies for building financial freedom.Brandon Copeland has always been different. His determination to succeed and create the life he wanted launched him from Baltimore to the University of Pennsylvania and then to the NFL. Over his ten-year playing career, he saved and invested the majority of his earnings, created other business opportunities, and motivated his teammates as the locker room’s money professor. He returned to the same Ivy League classrooms midway through his football career to launch his Life 101 financial education platform, reaching thousands of students in-person and online. Now, in this guide, Copeland breaks down his life-changing course into four digestible The Art of Hustle—optimizing opportunities and generating multiple streams of income.The Power of Growth—demystifying investing and making money work for you.The Commitment to Smart Spending—saving on major expenses and reducing everyday costs.The Promise of Legacy—unpacking dreaded topics like insurance, wills, and estate planning.Your Money Playbook is a bold, practical, and action-oriented blend of candid introspection and strategy to help readers confront their financial insecurities and commit to building new, game-changing mindsets and practices. This accessible and inspirational guide puts the playbook for creating the life you’ve always imagined right in the palm of your hands.

Genres: Nonfiction

288 pages, Hardcover

Published September 10, 2024

Reviews

[Patty (IheartYA311) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Your Money Playbook is a gritty and easy to read guide on how to score a touchdown with your hard earned money.

I'm not keen on football, but the formatting of this book was smart and immersive. This book touches on a little bit of everything without being overbearing, too wordy, or heavy handed (is that a football analogy?). This would be a good book to have a physical copy of so one could annotate and refer to it often. Most finance books are bogged down by anecdotes and complicated scenarios, but the author did a very good job of keeping the information simple and understandable to the layman. The author delightfully sprinkled in his own life experiences throughout the nuggets of education he presented, making it feel like you're having a conversation with him instead of feeling intimidated and overwhelmed.

Thank you to NetGalley for offering this title in their catalog. The review above is entirely my own.

[Sally · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book! I am an accountant so this is a topic that I am familiar with but I think this would be a great book for those just entering the workforce. I plan to recommend this to both of my adult children. There is a lot of great information about growing your money and life in general.

I listened to the audio book and I thought that was great. There were a lot of references to football but a love of football is not necessary to enjoy the book.

Thank you to NetGalley for the audio arc in exchannge for my honest review.

[Tara Koup · Rating 4 out of 5]

very thorough intro to finance! I liked his inspirational tone and football setup too.

[Frank · Rating 5 out of 5]

Following a ten-year NFL career Brandon Copeland (“Cope”) has made it his mission to teach others the skills they need to be financially free. His bio details numerous platforms he’s used to share his message. Your Money Playbook is his first book. The audiobook is narrated by Adam Lazarre-White, a film and television actor who has also voiced numerous books including one of my favorites, All the Sinners Bleed.

Cope’s NFL experiences allowed for a logical layout to his book with sectional divisions such as training camp, the four quarters of the game, and postgame. I found his approach to be fun and his advice to be relatable. If someone was to turn to this book truly seeking something life-changing financial improvements, I believe they would find his teaching easy to follow. Cope gives homework assignments throughout which seem critical for success. The book is geared more towards those who know little to nothing about money but he does cover topics that could teach people who already have a good sense about money management, such as Roth IRA’s, improving credit scores, new versus used cars, and wills. I truly hope all college athletic departments bring someone like Cope in for a presentation to their athletes.

The audiobook is about eight hours long. I listened to it my normal speed of 1.25. The narrator has an incredibly smooth voice and is a perfect choice for a book seeking to educate its listeners about money. I was never bored and didn’t find my mind wandering. One thing I liked about the narrator is that he came across more as a mentor than a professor.

Thanks to NetGalley and Brilliance Publishing for providing me the opportunity to listen to this excellent audiobook. The above opinions are my own.

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one’s a keeper - and works surprisingly well as an audiobook. I tend to roll my eyes at the mention of most personal finance books - they’re usually written by people who lived most of their lives in a different era, and the entire frame of reference is so different from today’s economy that it’s like decoding a historical document. And they’re generally either religious or based on some highly moralistic secular belief system. This one, however, is different.

Here we have someone who has been all over the economic map in his relatively young life - he grew up around normal working class people, but then through playing football in the Ivy League and then the NFL has seen how stupidly rich people manage their money - for better or worse. Because he’s not beholden to any kind of financial tradition, he’s seen money do great things and terrible things to people, and he’s really good at breaking those things down into understandable processes.

Using the football framework is helpful, since most of us have probably spent far more of our time thinking about football than finance, so it takes it out of the mysterious realm of formulas and symbols and breaks down action steps.

Normally, something like this would work better in a visually readable format - but the author is so good at laying out the steps that the audio is the way to go here- especially for couples or families that may want to experience it together as part of a shared financial plan. It would also make the perfect gift for a high school or college graduate- but I’m far beyond those years and I learned quite a bit, so don’t skip listening to it yourself if you’re gifting.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

[SD · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not being a sports fan I wasn’t sure I would like this book. I wondered if the sports analogies and such would put me off from the message the author was hoping I would get. I fretted for nothing. The friendly, casual, conversational tone for a topic that sometimes can be a bit dry along with information broken down was easy to follow. This book covers all of life’s major money woes, encourages the creation of your own playbook, and provides direction for creating generational wealth. Life lessons and stories are shared as examples. I applaud the author for being so vulnerable. Single people reading this book get a lot of good, relatable and actionable tips though there is a heavy emphasis on family and generational wealth. Reading this book, I thought of the cousins that could benefit from this book because the book is not a lecture in book form nor does it tell you that you’re bad because you are in debt or have no clue how to build wealth. The tone and language would speak to them like a friend who happens to be having a conversation about money.

Thank you to #NetGalley and BenBella Books for the opportunity to read and share my thoughts on this book.

Happy Reading!

[Chad · Rating 5 out of 5]

Phenomenal Read

[Kerri Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book every young athlete should read (and hi, if you're the parent or coach of a young athlete you should buy this book for the young athletes in your life)—though there's plenty of wisdom here for people of all ages to glean, especially if you know there are places you could be more financially savvy.

I wish this book had existed back when I was a young athlete; I would have been excited to receive it from pretty much anyone in my life in both high school or college.

I'm so glad it exists now for anyone navigating new (and old), challenging, seemingly built-to-be-confusing financial systems.