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Bankrate: Car racing can bring in some big bucks or none at all, so what has
been a financial lesson you learned the hard way?
Danica Patrick: I wanted to go on a spring break trip with one of my friends
when I was 18 and my parents made me earn the money to go. So I had to pay for my flight, hotel and everything; I realized
just how quickly that money goes when you're the one earning the paycheck and you're the one spending it. That was a pretty
good lesson for me. I had always been lucky in having my parents pay for everything before that, so that was my first real
big lesson in finances.
Bankrate: Do you ever save for a rainy day, since any sport can be such a tenuous
occupation?
Danica Patrick: Absolutely! I know that an athlete's career is not of a normal
length and in general, is relatively short. Hopefully you can be in a situation where you can make good money, you make good
decisions with it and you are able to set yourself up for the rest of your life financially. I think one of the lessons my
old boss Bobby Rahal taught me was that he said save your money because when I retired from racing, I wanted to maintain the
same kind of lifestyle that I had when I was doing it, so I knew I needed to start doing some other things like investing in
different areas and making sure that the financial flow would keep coming after you were done.
Bankrate: You've received negative comments about your ability as a woman to race
successfully. When you hear these comments, what is your reaction?
Danica Patrick: I would say that if anybody spoke negatively about me, they don't
know me and they're uneducated in what I've done in my career. It's not important, and to be honest, it doesn't affect me. Those
are not the kind of things that I read every day, and that I set out to learn about. Unfortunately, in this culture, people
get as much attention from the negative -- if not more -- than the positive, so you can't dwell on it. You just have to be
confident in yourself.
Bankrate: What was your first big splurge?
Danica Patrick: Probably my car. I bought a Lamborghini a couple of years ago and
that was my first really big splurge. I didn't want to scratch it because I thought it would be too much money to fix.
It's silver.
Bankrate: What is your No. 1 stress reliever?
Danica Patrick: Pedicures. You can find them anywhere and it's 30 minutes of your
own time that you can grab that's not too greedy or expensive.
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