What can a young NFL player teach you about retirement?

Normally, I'd say to be careful of taking investment tips from star football players!

As a whole, this group has a reputation for being terrible at managing money. Getting rich too early in life comes with some tough challenges.

But this week, an interview with 27-year-old Jameis Winston caught my attention.

The New Orleans Saints quarterback threw five touchdown passes to help his team crush the Green Bay Packers by a 38-3 margin.

But according to Winston, his best play of the game wasn't one of his touchdown passes.

Nope, his favorite play was actually one that most people would consider a failure. But most people don't have wild success in the NFL — or their retirement accounts.

Today, I want to share three lessons from Winston's epic game that can help you build a Rich Retirement.

The Play That Never Happened

"Fake wide zone to the left, late in the first quarter. I think we were at the Green Bay 37. I threw the ball away."

That's the play Jameis Winston picked out as his best decision in the entire game: a pass that he decided to throw out of bounds.

In case you don't know the rules of American football, Winston had a chance to pass the ball to a teammate and potentially make a big play for his team.

But as the play developed, there was too much risk. Winston might have accidentally thrown the ball to the other team, or he could have gotten tackled for a loss.

Instead, he threw the ball out of bounds, choosing to give up on the play and take his chances on the next snap.

In other words, he managed the risk, kept the ball and set his team up to succeed later in the game.

It's a mature decision for a young quarterback to make — especially one like Winston who built a reputation for throwing interceptions earlier in his career.

Winston credits his mentor Drew Brees with helping him learn to play smarter, setting him and his team up for a huge success to kick off this year's NFL season.

So what can we learn from Jameis Winston's "failed" play where he threw the ball away?

There are actually three great takeaways that all of us (myself included) can apply to our investing decisions.

Lesson #1: Don't Force It

I love investing!

There's something special about researching an industry, selecting my favorite company and hitting that "buy" button in my brokerage account.

To me, there's a sense of accomplishment when I pull the trigger on a new position or send an alert to you to buy shares of a new opportunity.

But not every research dive turns up a great stock. And not every attractive name deserves a spot in your retirement portfolio.

It can be tempting to buy the first stock you come across in an attractive industry.

But taking the extra time to look at the different competitors, the potential challenges and your other options for the cash you want to invest can help you make a much better decision.

Sometimes that decision will be to pull the trigger and buy the stock. (And Jameis Winston threw five touchdown passes even while being careful to only pick the best situations.)

But there are also times when things don't quite line up the way you want to see them.

And in this case, taking a pass on the investment and waiting for the next opportunity is really the best move.

Lesson #2: Be Willing to Throw It Away

I was talking to a friend this week and realized how attached I can sometimes become to an investment that I pick out.

In a weird way, I can develop an emotional attachment to a stock that I've been following for a long time.

Maybe I know the management team or I invested in the company long before everyone else thought it was a good idea.

I may have thousands of dollars in profits accumulated.

In situations like this, it's easy to become too committed to a stock in your investment account — much the way a quarterback can zero in on a play that he wants to make.

But things change... situations shift... and a defensive safety can come into the picture at the last second.

And that's why you have to be willing to throw the ball away (or sell a position in your account) even though you thought it was going to turn out so well!

Some of the most respected investors in history credit their success to their willingness to bail out of positions.

It's a move that requires humility — which brings us to our third lesson.

Lesson #3: Be Coachable

Any time we become really good at something, it can be easy to develop a bit of hubris. Human nature can give us too much confidence and make us less likely to seek out help from others.

It would be hard to blame Jameis Winston if he had too much confidence.

After all, he was the youngest player to win the Heisman Trophy as a college football player and he was a first-round draft pick in 2015.

Even with this high level of success, Winston credits his teammate (and older quarterback) Drew Brees with helping him make better decisions on the field.

Brees taught the young quarterback to focus on his decisions rather than looking too carefully at the results.

That's a great concept for us to remember here at Rich Retirement Letter as well!

Building a process for finding the best stocks that help to grow and protect your retirement wealth is extremely important.

If you look too closely at the results of each stock you pick, you may get discouraged or overly confident.

That's because some stocks you buy will be wildly successful and some won't work out as expected.

But if you keep investing in quality companies with reliable earnings and generous dividend payments, that process should serve you well over time.

Most importantly, always be learning!

I have dozens of audiobooks written by investors that I respect and spend time every week dissecting positions that older and wiser investors are buying.

Hopefully, my coachability pays off for you in the form of better retirement strategies and investment positions.

What do you think?

Any other lessons we can take from Jameis Winston? Or maybe some lessons you've picked up from other areas of life?

I'd love to hear from you!

Please shoot me an email and check in. It always makes my day to hear from our community.

Here's to living a Rich Retirement!

Zach Scheidt
Editor, Rich Retirement Letter
RichRetirementFeedback@StPaulResearch.com