Wayne Gretzky, Financial Advisor: Financial Advice from The Great One

Wayne Gretzky has an estimated net worth of $220 million and we all know he didn't just get there by accident.

While other athletes have lost money thanks to bad investments, bad business deals and crooked representation, The Great One has remained largely unscathed and that's without playing the stock market or acquiring too many of the high profile toys common among professional athletes.

There's no financial guru working behind the scenes to steer him in the right direction. In fact, he gives all the credit to one man -- his father, Walter.

"I remember in 1978, I was making $24 a week playing junior hockey in Sault Ste Marie when I opened my first TD bank account. In June, I signed with the WHA and got a tremendous signing bonus of $250,000, which back in those days was a huge amount of money, and I remember, like every typical 17-year-old, the first thing I wanted to do was buy a car. I remember I was flying from Indianapolis to Vancouver to do a press conference and my dad was flying back from Indianapolis because he had to go to work the next day and I remember saying what I always said, 'Can I borrow $20?' and he gave me $100 and said, 'I know you'll pay me back now.' So, I said, 'I want to buy a car' and he said, 'Okay' and he wrote me a cheque for $5,000 and said, 'Go get whatever you want.'"

That car was a $3,800 used Pontiac Trans Am and Gretzky uses those conservative values, spawned from his father's hard-working Russian stock, to govern every financial decision he makes in his life. Hey, if they've worked for the greatest hockey player to ever lace up a pair of skates, who knows? they might work for you too.

"I was not a big risk-taker. I was not an adventurous guy and I never invested in things I didn't really know anything about, so I was always pretty conservative,"

So conservative in fact, that he never plays the stock market, he keeps all of his money in the bank, he only enters into endorsements with companies that he has already had long relationships with and the only houses he buys are the ones his family actually live in.

"The advice I always give the young guys coming up in the NHL is, just be a hockey player and put your money away," says Gretzky. "There are only so many people that are great investors in real estate, businesses and the restaurants that they own, so I was always very conservative. From a young age, right until '78, my passion was to be conservative and financially secure for the rest of my life and not to be a risk-taker. This is the advice I give my kids and the advice I give any young hockey player."

While players in other sports were buying cars, houses, flashy clothes and jewelery, that was never Gretzky's style. His blue collar upbringing made sure that while friends, like former Los Angeles Kings owner Bruce McNall, were wallowing in jail and facing financial ruin, Gretzky always managed to stay well above the fray.

"My mom and dad were never over spenders. They were never outlandish. I mean, my goodness, when I was 10 my dad was borrowing $10 from his mother so he could buy my hockey skates for the upcoming season. We came from a close family, but we didn't come from a wealthy family by any means. I think you learn hard work and the effort you put in to not be a risk-taker, so I've always sort of lived that way," says Gretzky.

"I'm not a flamboyant guy and I'm not the kind of guy who needs a lot of cars or needs to buy a lot of things to make myself feel good, so I've always stayed conservative and I live the same way today."

Those who think all of the excitement in Wayne Gretzky's life was on the ice wouldn't exactly be accurate. For his admitted lack of investment prowess, Gretzky has invested in two businesses that have done very well -- Wayne Gretzky's Restaurant in Toronto and Wayne Gretzky Estates wine. (Read more about them in part one of our Wayne Gretzky, Financial Advisor series) Of course, he had help along the way, that's part of his strategy: surround yourself with the right people.

"The one thing I've learned in my lifetime is, you don't know everything, and those people who think they do are the ones who really get themselves into trouble. If someone wants me to make an investment, we thoroughly read through it and discuss what are the good things about it, what are the bad things about it and most importantly, I don't risk more than 10% of my family's net worth. It's just not worth it to me to risk everything, and I've worked too hard to get to the position I'm at."

Gretzky's kids have followed their father's legacy of conservatism with money and though 56% of Canadians told TD Waterhouse that they don't talk to their kids about finance, Wayne Gretzky isn't one of them.

"The very unique thing about our kids is that they are very good kids and they are very respectful and my son was very fortunate to get a baseball scholarship and get drafted in the second round with a very nice signing bonus when he turned professional. I remember being 18, thinking that I knew everything and realizing that I didn't and I sat there thinking, 'Okay he probably thinks he knows everything, but I know he doesn't.'"

They sat there weighing the pros and cons of the college route and turning pro, just as Gretzky had with his dad, and when his son decided to turn pro and get his signing bonus, Gretzky did the exact same thing his father did:

"I said, 'That's good and it's going in the bank and you're not going to touch it,'" he admits. "You teach them at a young age that money isn't the end all, it's about how you treat yourself, how you treat life and how you respect yourself."

So everything has come full circle in the Gretzky household, right? Well, not quite, Gretzky's son did benefit from one change:

"He was a little bit luckier than I was," says Gretzky. "He already had a car at 18 and that was a luxury I never had."