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Author of Your Money Playbook and former NFL linebacker Brandon Copeland sits down with Brad Smith in-studio to break down how professional athletes should be planning for their retirements.

"I had to tell my mind that I was a superhuman every single Sunday to walk out through the white smoke to hear 70,000 fans screaming praises or booing you, but to trick my mind into going and basically battling another 300-pound grown man and moving them out of the way. I had to tell myself I was superhuman and I couldn't lose, and I couldn't lose, and I couldn't lose," Copeland says about the mentality he took away from sports and refocused into his finances.

"And then now, what athletes are talking about is you get off the field and people tell you now you're human again, and plan for when this thing does not work out. And that's real."

Copeland advises athletes to realize the fact that high-income flows will one-day cease when they retire from the playing field: And so you need to protect it, and you need to save."

He encourages them to invest as much as possible during their prime earning years because it will likely determine their potential salary in the future.

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This post was written by Melanie Riehl