To secure his financial future, he was careful with his money, but also started investing in real estate by creating Beach House LLC with his father and childhood friend Joseph Stanton. They went to work with small projects in Portland, as well as South Bend, Ind., where Connaughton attended the University of Notre Dame. They eventually moved onto bigger projects as Connaughton tried to use the connections he has made as an NBA player to their fullest potential. “When you’re in the NBA, that’s the greatest time that people want to meet you, they want to be around you, they want to know who you are,” Connaughton said. “For me, I’ve used that to get into rooms and develop relationships with millionaires and billionaires. I’m in rooms I should have no business being in and I use those people as mentors. I told these guys, ‘Look, everybody that sits courtside at NBA games wanted to be professional athletes at one point in time.’ As pro athletes, we make a ton of money, but we are not the wealthiest people in the world.”
