- My first million, take one.
[clack]
Hey everyone, this is Will Hernandez,
and this is how I spent and saved my first million.
[upbeat music]
I started playing football my freshman year of high school.
First time I've ever touched a football.
First time I've ever stepped on a football field.
I started going through some growth spurts,
and let's just say it was probably this way as well.
Right away, my position was offensive line.
Big guy, offensive line.
I've dedicated everything I've ever had to sports.
But I did have one job in college.
I was a bouncer at a night club
downtown in El Paso, Texas.
I made a good, honest $10 an hour,
which at the time was a lot for me.
During the college times, it was a little hard
to go out and just spend money.
I was a big Dollar Menu guy.
I'd wear my college clothes basically 24/7.
I was just UTEP all the time.
As a kid, I lived in a rough neighborhood,
and the only day I can actually remember having
I was blessed enough to have
a full ride scholarship,
so I didn't have any student loans
or anything like that.
But I did have a debt with the lady that used
to live across the street from me.
She sold tacos out of her garage.
She had her own little business there.
I loved those tacos.
I would go across the street almost every day.
My mom would give me money, and I'd go eat.
It got to a point where I was going so much
that my mom was like, "Forget it,
"I'm not giving you any more money."
I still wanted to eat.
I was hungry and I went over.
I told her, "Hey, I don't have any money,
"but can we get a tab going or something?"
She said, "Yeah, go ahead.
"Order whatever you want and we'll keep track."
I said, "Okay."
That tab piled up, piled up.
I forgot about it, went off to college.
After my first season, I came back
and I was able to repay her that taco debt I had.
She never told me anything about it.
She never chased after her money,
but I ended up paying double what I owed.
That was my thank you to her.
Just a little bit of interest.
The bill actually ended up being
about like, I would say, $600.
She lost count after a while.
She was just feeding me at this point.
She liked me.
Nothing's ever even came close
to the feeling of getting drafted.
Something you've been chasing and chasing after
for so long and then you realize
that it's finally within your reaching.
It was a great feeling.
When I hired an agent, as much as I wanted
to get educated on the process,
I kind of let him do his thing.
I wanted just to focus 100% on football.
They direct deposited it.
I was a guy, all throughout college,
I'd constantly would be checking my account.
You know, I gotta make sure I got enough
before I buy this.
I gotta make sure I have enough in my account
before I buy that.
You know, it was just another one of those times.
I checked my account, woke up, and boom.
I'd seen maybe one comma throughout my whole college career.
I wake up and now I got two in there.
I remember I jumped out of my bed
and I was excited.
As much as it hurt to see how much money
was going to go taxes, I was just so happy
to have money for once.
Yeah, it stings a little bit but it's okay.
Saving money was very important to me
from the very beginning.
My current strategy right now is
one, being diversified,
and two, saving 70% or even more.
I did buy a few things that probably
weren't necessary, but at the same time very necessary.
It is a contact sport.
High risk.
You can be playing today and not tomorrow.
It's kind of hard to think about that
when you first get money
and when you first start playing.
Because you feel like you're invincible,
and you wanna play, and injury's
one of the last things that's on your mind.
All your focus as a player is getting better
and doing good and performing and earning your spot.
When those thoughts do creep into my mind,
it definitely humbles me a little bit
and gets me to spend a little bit less.
This can end all tomorrow.
I wanna try to gather up what I can now
and definitely save and invest.
It's very important to save your money.
But this is how I spent my first million.
So the very first thing I bought,
and this is on me, I've always wanted
to buy for my family, was a house for them.
It was our family home.
I bought the house in Las Vegas, Nevada.
You know, I grew up there.
It was when my parents first came.
We settled there.
All our family's here now.
So I wanted to keep everybody together.
I just got it in Las Vegas, Nevada.
If I ended up saying how much the house was
right now, this interview would probably
be over right now.
We didn't even live in a house
part of my life growing up.
We were living in this shed.
The roof was literally about five-foot seven high.
I had to walk around the house like this.
So this was very, very important to me.
Especially seeing my mom, my sister,
my dad kind of living in these conditions.
I've always thought they deserved the world,
so this was something, as soon as I was
able to do for them, I did.
[upbeat music]
I always wanted a bidet.
The bidets are like these toilets.
Require no toilet paper.
I tried one for the very first time
at a casino here in Las Vegas.
And I was like, hell yeah, I want one of these.
No toilet paper.
Think about the investments.
All that toilet paper money
going right towards the investments.
That was the very first thing I got,
and I don't regret it at all and I'm happy with it.
The toilet was around $4,500
but very worth the investment.
Again, not an expense, it's an investment.
Toilet, $4,500, well spent.
[ka-ching]
[upbeat music]
I'm a big dude.
I'm not that fast, I wanna be able to go fast.
So I bought a GT-R R35.
I would say that was my next biggest purchase.
GT-R came out to $115,000.
The thing about the GT-R, very fast
but also very silent.
Kind of sounds like a vacuum when you first get it.
So what I did right away was I threw in
a cat-back exhaust, make it a little bit louder.
I bought the car originally white
and I wrapped it, blacked it out,
satin black with the black gloss details.
So the GT-R, $115,000.
Upgrades around $10,000.
Car, $115,000.
[ka-ching]
[upbeat music]
- [Director] Did you get anyone else a car?
- Yes, I got my dad a truck,
only because he's been driving his work truck
pretty much his whole life.
He's never had a car to himself.
I got him a big Chevy Silverado, 2018,
Black Widow edition, with the six-inch lift,
big 35-inch tires.
Awesome truck.
That ran me about $68,000.
Truck for pops, $68,000.
[ka-ching]
As much as I love cars, and I'm a big car guy,
as soon as you buy that car
and you push the start button,
that's how much is going out your pocket
just for pushing that start button.
[upbeat music]
I'm very into superheroes, comic books.
One day I was just strolling by New York City,
saw a comic book store.
Went in there and there just happened to be
a life-sized six-foot five Batman action figure.
I was like, wow, that would look awesome
in my living room.
I went, picked it out, grabbed it, three grand.
[ding] And took it back to my place.
Put it right up in my living room.
[ka-ching]
[upbeat music]
One more random item that I got
was the the Infinity Gauntlet.
I actually have it right here.
I take this thing everywhere with me.
I saw it, I was like wow, this is awesome.
It's actually real steel.
It has a big rubber glove in there
so you can actually put your hand in there
and actually move these things around.
The Infinity Gauntlet ran me up a grand,
but it was another one very well spent
and it looks very nice in my kitchen.
[ka-ching]
[upbeat music]
I got the standard big couch, the big nice TV.
I have an Xbox, a PS4 and a 70-inch TV.
I also have a massage chair where you can
get in there and it gives you a good massage.
$20,000 living room setup.
[ka-ching]
[upbeat music]
The very last car that I bought was
a 5.0 Mustang convertible for my little sister.
You know, the reason I bought this one for her
is one, she deserves it.
She's gotten straight A's since she was a first grader.
She's in college now, working to be a doctor.
So I wanted to give her something as a gift.
She's always been content with whatever it is
that she drives.
She never asked for anything.
My parents have never had to worry
about getting her the top name brands
clothes, cars, or anything like that.
She's always been happy with what she has.
So this was a motivation for me even more
to get her something nice.
The Mustang ran me $45,000.
Mustang, $45,000.
[ka-ching]
[upbeat music]
So I've never been too much into fashion
and expensive clothes and really expensive jewelry.
Like I said, I shop at Burlington.
I rock Jack Daniel tee shirts and Selena tee shirts
at least once a week.
I still wear my college gear sometimes.
Coming into the NFL, of course,
there's a certain standard.
There's a lot of events, there's a lot of parties,
a lot of NFL get-togethers and you have to be
well-dressed and presentable.
I did have to buy certain standard clothes.
I would say I spent around $20,000.
And the suits for game day and nice jeans
and shirts and things that I can wear
to these events and conventions and NFL parties.
Suits and clothes, $20,000.
[ka-ching]
[upbeat music]
I went on my first real vacation
with my family to Hawaii.
This was a place that I've,
ever since I was a little kid,
I wanted to go to.
When I finally got the chance,
I took my family out there.
It was a great time and I got to do cool things
like swim with the dolphins,
get to explore the island, go hiking.
Drink of water straight out of a coconut.
Cool things like that.
This was my very first vacation
and definitely one I won't ever forget.
As much fun as we had, and this was
a family vacation and everything,
it was a little costly.
Flights and hotel, I would say around
$4,000-5,000.
Now you got all the activities that we did
on the island, probably another three grand, four grand.
Mom and sister wanted to buy this and that
and I would say around, total value of the trip,
around $10,000 to $12,000.
Trip to Hawaii, $12,000.
[ka-ching]
[upbeat music]
So as far as expensive meals,
I had recently just gotten into sushi.
I kept hearing from the guys on the team
that Nobu was the spot to go to in New York City.
So I went down there, took my family with me.
I had never been to this place before, and I was
very, very hungry when we got there that night.
I get there and I'm looking through the menu.
I'm just ordering random things off the menu
and not even looking at the prices.
I know, I know, big baller.
All of a sudden, I have 10, 12 plates in front of me.
And the thing about Nobu, it's quality not quantity.
Very little pieces of fish here and there.
I eat a lot.
I'm surprised at how good this stuff is.
It's a really good place.
But the biggest surprise of all
is when I get the bill at the end.
I was just like, damn, like what did I just do.
But you know what, again, let's just
see it as an investment.
Very good food and definitely would go back.
Investment for the memory.
The bill was, for the four of us, around $3,000.
Dinner at Nobu, $3,000.
[ka-ching]
Everybody knows about the rookie dinner.
Eli Manning, he actually invited us all
to this really high end restaurant.
So it was all the offensive linemen
and the quarterbacks.
So there was around 20 of us.
Everybody starts ordering, everybody's eating,
had a great time.
And all of a sudden it's bill time.
Eli Manning is the one that invited us,
so we're all like, I thought I was
just getting invited.
The waitress comes and puts the check in front of me.
Everybody starts going, "Ooh, mm."
People are laughing.
I'm freaking out, because I see
a bunch of food, steaks, wine bottles, everywhere.
I haven't even gotten paid by the NFL yet.
The only money I had was a stipend
that I've gotten from my agency.
So I'm freaking out.
I see the bill, $27,000.
My heart just starts pumping and pumping.
All of a sudden, I just look up at Eli
and he tells me, "Thanks for dinner, Will."
And everybody just starts saying,
"Thanks for dinner, Will."
I'm trying to see how it even came out to $27,000.
I just see private room, $8,000.
Wine, $4,000.
It looks legit.
I'm like, wow, okay.
So I take my credit card out and I had
just enough to cover the bill
in my bank account, but that was
all the money I had.
I didn't want to be that guy and not pay
and say I'm not doing...
I just threw my card in there.
I was just ready to get it over with.
That's when Eli comes up
and just starts laughing and says,
"Hey, man, just messing with you, Will.
"We already took care of it.
"It's all good."
Everyone starts laughing.
That was pretty much my first dinner
with Eli Manning, and my welcome
to being a rookie.
[upbeat music]
When I was 18 years old, I got this
half sleeve going.
During this off season, I added this whole forearm
and made it a 3/4 sleeve.
What it is is Aztec and Mayan art.
This is my roots, this is where I came from.
Also, it's motivating for me.
These guys were warriors.
These guys were survivors.
These guys would go out and hunt
and provide and survive.
It had a lot of meaning to me.
The stuff I just did was around $3,000.
$3,000 tattoos.
[ka-ching]
This is roughly $300,000 right here.
With mom and dad's house, that definitely
puts me at a million.
[ka-ching]
All right, well this how I spent
my first million.
Having it right in front of you
definitely makes you think twice about spending it.
- [Director] Are you happy with
how you spent it so far?
- Yes, no regrets.
Everything that I've ever done is,
I try to think about it.
I did it, I learned from it, that's it.
I don't regret things, I just learn from them.
So there's one more thing that I did with my money.
I donated some money to charity.
This was to the El Paso Youth Foundation
and the El Paso Community Foundation.
I donated this money because there was
an awful, awful tragedy that happened.
There was a shooting in the Wal-Mart
in El Paso, Texas.
A lot of people lost their lives.
A lot of families were affected.
So this was something that hit home for me,
because I basically really grew up in that city.
I was there for five years.
The El Paso community was very good to me
during my time there.
So I donated some money to that charity
to help fund the youth and kids
being able to take that next step to college
and get an education.
All right guys, well this is how I spent
and saved my first million.
See you guys at a Giants game next year.
[boom]