KEY POINTS:
He's only 27, but battered All Black captain Richie McCaw has already got a rest home firmly in his sights.
And not in his beloved Canterbury, but the enemy territory of Auckland no less.
In the shameless use of a celebrity, McCaw was yesterday put before students at Christchurch's Riccarton High School by Westpac bank to talk about money management.
The fact he earns far more than most of them ever will didn't seem to matter.
The "Westpac ambassador" revealed he's hoping investments he makes now will put him in good financial stead after he's hung up the boots.
"The main thing is an investment in a rest home in Auckland, which isn't for me, but ... hopefully for a long time ahead it will give me income so that I can do all right."
Investing hasn't always been smooth sailing for him, he admits _ he once put money into a firm that went "belly-up".
He reckons KiwiSaver sounds pretty good, but admits he's not in it himself.
"I haven't found out too much about it to be honest."
McCaw reckons he was always a good saver, putting money he earned from working on his dad's farm into a term deposit while boarding at Otago Boys' High School.
By 17, he had saved enough to buy his prized first car _ a Mazda 323.
It was a great feeling, he says, having bought it himself.
Now in the prime of his life as an All Black, his money goes on mortgage repayments, travel, dining and cellphone bills. His worst financial "slow leak" is lollies.
When he sat down with an adviser and did his first budget a while back, it was "a real eye-opener".
"When I sat down with him it was three times more [spending] than what I thought it was".
Students who sat through the seminar, largely presented by a Westpac staffer, seemed to have their minds on things other than money-management when they got a chance to ask McCaw questions.
So what's he going to do after rugby, the students wanted to know.
"I have quite a lot [of ideas] but it keeps changing," McCaw says.
"The one philosophy I have got is to keep your eyes open to anything. When the time comes I will have a pretty good idea of what spins my wheels and what doesn't."
