--- --- # Hoops, Hope and Home-buying: How Sydney Colson Builds Financial Stability with Ally  Sydney Colson has been saving her money in the hopes of one day buying a home—so when she thinks about whether or not she needs to buy something, a lot of her decision-making goes back to that future home. Financial independence has always been something important to Sydney—as a kid, paying for college wasn’t an option, so she considers signing her commitment letter to be one of her greatest career achievements. Colson has often thought about the intersection between her basketball career, finances, and what “success” actually means to her. “For me, it doesn't have to be about money. It doesn't have to be about fame. There are so many ways to measure whether or not you're successful at what you're doing,” Colson says. “It takes a certain amount of self-awareness to know what you really want for yourself.” It’s advice that Colson herself, with a college championship and two professional titles under her belt, has taken to heart throughout her basketball career. She began playing basketball because she and her sister wanted to copy whatever their brother liked doing. But as she got older, playing professionally crystallized into something possible. “We played against the boys in the neighborhood,” she remembers. It was around middle school when Colson got her first college offers, and her dream of becoming a professional athlete was within reach. “I grew up watching women’s basketball. I always aspired to be at that level.” Seeing women’s basketball gain popularity has been something that Colson has loved to witness, with big celebrities courtside at games and popular rookies expanding the audience. She admits that she didn’t expect to see this sudden groundswell but mentions how relatively young the league is—they are just starting to reap the benefits of people finally catching on. “I'm glad to be playing in a time where it's getting more coverage and hopefully players will get more pay with our media rights and TV rights deals coming up. I always try to give kudos and credit to the trailblazers of the league who were here before because they really ushered in all of this,” she says.  Colson notes that social media has changed the game when it comes to being an athlete, especially in terms of visibility and being able to connect with young fans. Knowing that her fans are always watching, she tries to be a good role model and a kind, supportive teammate. “There are a lot of games where I don't play a lot of minutes, but I make sure that I'm being a great teammate on the bench. Kids might message me or tell me in person that I cheer so much on the bench. I'll make sure that I'm doing that in my next game, and to me, that's bigger than if I was playing a lot,” she says. Colson is especially excited about the growing popularity of women’s basketball. In fact, in 2024, for the first time ever, more people watched the women's championship game than the men's, according to Nielsen ratings. Additionally, this year's women's tournament generated 60% more earned media coverage than the men's tournament, while also setting viewing records across all six rounds. Colson hopes that this increase in enthusiasm will allow players to stay stateside instead of having to go overseas for a bigger paycheck. She also hopes that business partnerships, like those with Ally, will continue to popularize the sport and lead to more financial stability for players. As for her own finances, Colson has always been tight with money, even since college when her fellow players would make fun of her for not going to the mall to shop with them. But she likes to see the numbers in her account go up. While being able to pay rent with her first big paycheck (alongside a designer bag) was exciting for her, her priority has always been to save money. To do so, she puts a lot of thought into how she’s currently spending, deciding whether or not she needs to get takeout or evolving her own budgeting strategy. While saving has always been important to her, she’s seen firsthand the ebbs and flows of how an athletic career can change and why it’s crucial to have a safety net. “I experienced being cut from the league early. I played my rookie year and then I was out of the league for two years. And I quickly saw that things can change. Don't just spend money right away because of your current situation. You have to be planning for what could happen,” she says.  That’s not to say she doesn’t have small splurges like the aforementioned designer bag, a penchant for takeout, or a relaxing vacation with her girlfriend. Many of these splurges center on experiences like vacations or doing something for her family. But she’s still focused on the her goal of buying a home—an endeavor she is not naive about when it comes to everything else that goes into it. “There's the house that you have to pay for because you bought the house. Then, you have to furnish the house. And then, you're paying the bills on the house. It's not just a house purchase. So I think that's in the back of my mind, ‘What's coming?’ I spend on things in the short term that I need or something that I want, but I know that more expenses are coming.” Knowing that more expenses are coming while simultaneously wanting to save for the future, in Colson’s case, centers around her desire to own a home. Ally’s savings buckets answers this question of how to organize money within a savings account, without the need for multiple bank accounts or complicated math. Using these buckets to divide savings into different categories, goals can be made easier to visualize and reached even faster. Aside from basketball, Colson is also building a future outside of sports with the unscripted buddy comedy, The Syd & TP Show, that she stars in alongside former teammate Theresa Plaisance. But no matter what she does both off and on the court, she’s learned important financial lessons along the way, especially during COVID. “Money can come and go. You can never be too comfortable where you are financially. During the pandemic, people were fearful of being homeless. I saw a quote somewhere that really struck me. It was along the lines of, most of us are three missed paychecks closer to being homeless than we are three paychecks to being rich. You can be without work out of nowhere. These jobs are not promised forever and things can change as the economy changes. So I try to spend in a way that reflects that I might not be in a good financial situation all the time.” While things can always change, Colson remains optimistic about the future–thanks to her financial preparedness and the power of planning, perseverance, and passion. #### Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account  The bank that’s your ally. Our Spending and Savings Accounts offer tools that work with each other to help you meet your goals faster. Ally Bank, Member FDIC. [Find Out More](https://www.ally.com/go/bank/checking-and-savings-accounts/) Hoops, Hope and Home-buying: How Sydney Colson Builds Financial Stability with Ally ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/branded-content/ally-financial/how-sydney-colson-balances-finances-and-basketball/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/branded-content/ally-financial/how-sydney-colson-balances-finances-and-basketball/"},"headline":"Hoops, Hope and Home-buying: How Sydney Colson Builds Financial Stability with Ally","datePublished":"2026-06-18T14:27:51.867Z","dateModified":"2026-06-02T16:40:13.466Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/branded-content/ally-financial/how-sydney-colson-balances-finances-and-basketball/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/branded-content/ally-financial/how-sydney-colson-balances-finances-and-basketball/","name":"Hoops, Hope and Home-buying: How Sydney Colson Builds Financial Stability with Ally"}}]}] ```