The long game: Supporting young athletes without sacrificing your future

There’s no denying that raising children adds new dimensions to your financial plan. By one estimate, the cost of raising a child to adulthood is over $300,000²—and that doesn’t even include the cost of college, which is around a quarter-million dollars for four years at a private college³. Having a child also requires smart planning around insurance coverage, estate planning, budgeting, and more. 

And if your children play competitive sports, it can introduce further costs and complications. Youth sports come with various expenses, from equipment to registration fees to travel. And for families whose children aspire to compete at the collegiate level, it adds a new layer to the college planning process, especially when athletic scholarships are in the mix.

With this in mind, New York Life surveyed more than 1,000 parents of young athletes to learn how they’re approaching financial preparation and to better understand their unique financial needs. Here’s what we learned. 

Youth sports spending by the numbers

The parents we surveyed spent an average of around $900 for one season of their child’s primary sport; one in five respondents said they spent more than $1,500 per season. Parents identified registration fees, travel costs, and equipment and uniforms as their biggest expenses.

Those costs multiply if you have multiple children playing multiple sports, and 2 out of 3 respondents (67%) said their child plays more than one sport. On average, parents said they spent around $3,000 a year for all of their children’s youth sports activities. And 21% of parents said they spend more than $5,000 a year on youth sports for all their children.

Michael Grinnon, a managing partner at New York Life, has first-hand experience with the world of youth sports: he played travel basketball throughout high school and earned a full scholarship to the University of Maryland, where he went on to win a National Championship. He encourages parents to find ways to support their children’s passions without compromising their financial future.

“Do not give into the peer pressure of keeping up with the Joneses—buying the nicest equipment, investing in the latest technology to get ahead, hiring extra coaches," says Grinnon. "Give your kids a good, solid experience, but put a financial strategy in place.”

Financial compromises

Encouragingly, the vast majority of parents we surveyed said they were comfortably managing these costs. Still, a significant number reported making some difficult trade-offs to keep up with the high cost of youth sports. One in four parents said they had pulled from their emergency fund or other savings to afford youth sports, and one in five (19%) said they needed to deprioritize long-term financial goals, like retirement. In some cases, families even took on debt, with 12% saying they went into debt to finance their children’s athletic pursuits. 

“Making meals at home and foregoing going out to eat—those are reasonable trade-offs,” says Jessica Ruggles, corporate vice president of Financial Wellness at New York Life. “Not contributing to your 401(k) is not a reasonable trade-off.”

Indeed, the de-prioritization of retirement planning is particularly concerning, with 40% of the parents surveyed saying that they didn’t have any retirement savings at all. 

Most people underestimate just how much savings they’ll need for retirement. Life spans keep getting longer, and most people retire earlier than they expect, whether due to health issues or layoffs. The result is that you may need savings to cover more years of retirement than you anticipate. And when it comes to savings, skimping a little now could mean losing out on a lot later.

“The most important thing you have on your side when it comes to retirement savings is time,” says Ruggles. “Don't forego that compound interest and the time value of money to make ends meet for a short-term need."

Great expectations

Our research uncovered one possible reason parents are willing to deprioritize their long-term financial goals: Many of them have high expectations that their children will achieve success at the collegiate and even professional levels. Half of all parents we surveyed said that they were either “extremely” or “moderately” confident that their children would get an athletic scholarship to play in college. Three out of four parents believe their child has the skills to play at a professional level. 

"Parents have high expectations for their kids," says Grinnon. "That’s especially true when it comes to sports."

Seen in this light, the high spending on youth sports may be more than just support for a child’s passion—some parents may view it as an investment, one they hope will pay off through a scholarship or even a future in professional sports.

But in reality, those outcomes are rare, and the return on that investment isn’t guaranteed. According to the NCAA, just 2% of high school athletes receive an athletic scholarship⁴, and the vast majority of those are partial scholarships, rather than “full ride” scholarships that cover full tuition, room and board. Professional sports success is even rarer: Just 2% of college athletes in sports with professional leagues actually go on to play professionally. 

“Parents need to make sure they're continuing to save for their future, regardless of whether they think their kid will end up getting a scholarship,” says Grinnon. “I’d advise any young family hoping their kid gets a scholarship to have a backup plan in place.”

That “backup plan” might include:

• Saving for college, preferably through a tax-advantaged account like a 529 plan or cash-value life insurance
• Gift aid, which encompasses all forms of aid you don’t have to pay back—financial aid, scholarships and grants
• Student loans

The bottom line

None of this should dissuade families from encouraging their children’s athletic passions.

"The skillset that your child is building playing sports is so much more than the path to going pro,” says Ruggles, who played Division 1 tennis in college. “You build confidence and learn valuable, transferrable skills playing sports: strategic thinking, how to be part of a team, the importance of communication.”

Indeed, nearly every parent we surveyed (96%) thought that participation in youth sports helped their child develop life skills. A similar percentage (95%) said they were confident that investing in youth sports would benefit their children’s long-term future. 

But it’s important to be realistic about what the return on that investment might look like. Youth sports are a great way for your child to chase their passions, stay active, and learn valuable life skills. But if that investment is coming at the expense of your broader financial goals, it may be time to reassess your expectations and revisit your financial strategy. 

¹Methodology: This survey was conducted between March 1 – 6, 2025 among a sample of 1036 parents with children aged 7 – 18 who participate in youth sports. The interviews were conducted online. Results from the full survey have a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
²Brookings Institute, 2022
³The College Board, 2024
⁴NCAA, 2024

SMRU # 7813037.1
Exp. 4/3/2028