She won two Olympic silver medals. She played for top clubs in Russia, Japan, Italy, Switzerland, Croatia and Germany. She earned serious money and at that time nobody taught her what to do with it.
This is the story most athletes don’t tell. Here is the story of Elizaveta Tishchenko that she shared with us:
«I grew up in Soviet Ukraine. When the Union collapsed, life became genuinely hard for ordinary families — including mine. So when I signed my first professional contract in Japan at 20 and started earning serious money, my first instinct wasn’t to invest. It was to help my parents. And I did, without hesitation, and I don’t regret that part. But neither they nor I had any real financial education. We didn’t know what to do with money beyond using it to live better. So that’s what we did — we upscaled our lifestyle. It felt like success. It wasn’t wealth-building.
For years I had no financial advisor, no investment strategy, no plan. I was earning well and spending reactively — the way most athletes do, the way most people do when nobody has ever taught them differently.
The turning point came through my coach. During a tournament in Montreux, Switzerland, he took a group of us — some of the best-paid players on the national team, all earning abroad — and literally walked us by the hand to a Swiss bank. He introduced us to a manager who explained how to open an account, how to think about investments, how to make money work rather than just sit. That conversation changed something in my thinking. It was the first time I understood that money isn’t just for spending — it’s a tool, and if you don’t manage it intentionally, it manages you.
But even then, I didn’t go far enough. I understood the principle and didn’t fully act on it. I could have invested in real estate — and didn’t. That’s a decision I’ve thought about many times since.
The one investment that paid off faster and more completely than anything else was education. After my playing career I went through King’s College in London and AISTS in Lausanne. The ROI was immediate — credentials, confidence, and a completely different professional trajectory.
If I could tell my 20-year-old self one thing, it would be this: invest in assets, and invest in yourself. The lifestyle can wait.
The mistakes I see most often in athletes mirror my own: earning well but saving nothing intentional, supporting family without structure or limits, buying things that signal success rather than building it — and waiting for someone to take them by the hand rather than seeking that guidance themselves.
Don’t wait. Find your version of that bank manager before someone has to drag you there.»
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