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Anthony O'Neal Full Interview · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

0:00
Speaker 1: Money and education. Education and money. People tell you that
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Speaker 1: if you get a college degree, it would lead to
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Speaker 1: a better life, But what they don't talk about is
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Speaker 1: the money involved in that process. So many levels, my
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Speaker 1: next guest has helped hundreds of thousands of students make
0:15
Speaker 1: smart decisions with their money, relationships, and education. He's a
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Speaker 1: national bestselling author and travels the country as a Ramsey
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Speaker 1: personality spreading his encouraging message to have teens and young
0:26
Speaker 1: adults start their lives off right. His latest book, Debt,
0:30
Speaker 1: Debt Free Degree Not just this month. Please welcome to
0:33
Speaker 1: Money Making Conversations. Anthony O'Neill man, Good morning, Thanks so
0:38
Speaker 1: much for having me on, sir, appreciate the opportunity. Where
0:41
Speaker 1: are we calling you? Where are you calling in from
0:43
Speaker 1: my friend man? Right now? I'm onna book to her,
0:45
Speaker 1: so I mean Los Angeles, California today and tomorrow. Then
0:49
Speaker 1: we fly out to Denver, Colorado, then from there to Houston.
0:53
Speaker 1: So I'm just out here traveling the world trying to
0:55
Speaker 1: spread this message and help a lot of parents and
0:57
Speaker 1: young people as much as the post we can. You
1:00
Speaker 1: know were I just left Houston. Houston is my well.
1:02
Speaker 1: I was born and raised, have a home in Houston,
1:04
Speaker 1: so I know that's a great, great place to eat.
1:07
Speaker 1: I'll be in Los Angeles on Friday, so we're kind
1:10
Speaker 1: of like missing ourselves. I would not be in Denver. Denver, Colorado.
1:13
Speaker 1: It's Colorado's my favorite state. I love the weather, they
1:17
Speaker 1: I love the views in Colorado. So you're going a
1:20
Speaker 1: lot of places that I enjoy, which means that you changing.
1:23
Speaker 1: I'm looking forward to Denver to see the people, but
1:25
Speaker 1: not for the weather. It's snowing in code Black Brother.
1:29
Speaker 1: I don't know wherever I black, brother, but I love
1:31
Speaker 1: that cold. I'ld see us some photo. If you just
1:35
Speaker 1: like me, Mr O'Neill, you would not going to Denver,
1:38
Speaker 1: because brother, I got some clothes. Let's talk about you
1:42
Speaker 1: in this book, man, I read it and I enjoyed it.
1:44
Speaker 1: And UH had a twenty two year old daughter who's
1:47
Speaker 1: in college. She's a junior. I brag about it because
1:49
Speaker 1: she's a National Honor Society student. But of course she
1:52
Speaker 1: has her dad and her dad is paying for her education,
1:55
Speaker 1: so she's not hitting in these moments where you have
1:58
Speaker 1: to concern yourself about debt free Now that at what
2:00
Speaker 1: to college? And I had some grants that allowed me
2:02
Speaker 1: to go through college and then I work part time
2:05
Speaker 1: at night, so I left college debt free. I had
2:07
Speaker 1: no issues about credit card problems and things like that.
2:10
Speaker 1: So I clearly understand there is an issue. Their companies
2:13
Speaker 1: on TV right now to tell you if you give it,
2:15
Speaker 1: we can we can get you out of college debt.
2:17
Speaker 1: That people to the politicians trying to create formats where
2:21
Speaker 1: you can walk away from the debt. So this book
2:23
Speaker 1: and this conversation you're having is a national epidemic. I'm
2:27
Speaker 1: gonna use the word epidemic that people are trying to
2:29
Speaker 1: figure out how they can fix it. What is your
2:31
Speaker 1: book tell us what to do? Talking about that? Well,
2:34
Speaker 1: my book is really much pretty much the step by
2:36
Speaker 1: set process to how we can get our young people
2:39
Speaker 1: into college and through college debt free. We got one
2:42
Speaker 1: point six trillion dollars and student loan debt. The average
2:45
Speaker 1: graduate with about thirty five thousand dollars and student loan debt.
2:48
Speaker 1: But then the fifth of our students will graduate with
2:50
Speaker 1: a hundred thousand dollars or more. You know, so many
2:52
Speaker 1: people relying on the government for the student loan forgiveness
2:55
Speaker 1: program and all this other type of stuff. But here's
2:57
Speaker 1: my thing, and we need to start taking ownership for ourselves.
3:01
Speaker 1: And I graduated UM High School thirty five thousand. I
3:04
Speaker 1: wasn't dead homes Befriday night before. I was nineteen years
3:07
Speaker 1: old and took out ten thousand dollars student loans and
3:09
Speaker 1: nobody really explained to me what exactly will these loans
3:13
Speaker 1: do for my future? And so just after doing a
3:16
Speaker 1: bunch of research and just really diving in with my
3:18
Speaker 1: team and I'm you know, we literally came up with
3:20
Speaker 1: the process of saying, here here, it's a step by
3:23
Speaker 1: step process on how you can get your child into
3:26
Speaker 1: college and through college debt free. This is not just
3:29
Speaker 1: an encouragement book. This is from seventh grade through twelfth grade.
3:33
Speaker 1: If you follow this plan, your child will go to
3:36
Speaker 1: school debt free. Right now. The interesting thing before we
3:39
Speaker 1: started out, all right, it was something what is the
3:42
Speaker 1: I'm gonna answer this commercial because they kept popping up
3:44
Speaker 1: what is a Dave Ramsey personality? Because it's mentioned as
3:47
Speaker 1: part of your credits. Let's talk about that. Yeah, yeah,
3:50
Speaker 1: so Dave Ramsey, the financial group mentor minds and uh
3:53
Speaker 1: and and the pretty much the leader of my current career. Um,
3:56
Speaker 1: you know, everyone knows Dave Ramsey for the number two
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Speaker 1: number red talk radio show in the world, and so
4:01
Speaker 1: he's bringing in personalities who will help spread his message
4:05
Speaker 1: in our own messages. You know, Dave is preparing to
4:07
Speaker 1: for successions. Whenever he plans to retire or whenever God
4:11
Speaker 1: transitions him. He wants to make sure that his company,
4:14
Speaker 1: um and his message can still reach the world. So
4:16
Speaker 1: there's five of us. You have his daughter, that you
4:18
Speaker 1: have Chris Hogan, Ken Coleman, Chrissie right, then you have
4:21
Speaker 1: myself and then we're all in different different spokes. I
4:24
Speaker 1: would say I'm in the team Millennial and African American
4:27
Speaker 1: space is really helping young people avoid debt, get out
4:31
Speaker 1: of debt, and build wealth. Then you have Chris Hogans
4:33
Speaker 1: who's focus on helping people retire millionaires and in the
4:37
Speaker 1: NAT Spoken and Kim Coleman helping young people get into
4:40
Speaker 1: their dream jobs and careers. So we're all in our
4:42
Speaker 1: different spaces. Uh. Dave Ramsey is the head of personality.
4:46
Speaker 1: You know, we have nearly a thousand team members there
4:48
Speaker 1: in Nashville, Tennessee, and we're just here to help people
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Speaker 1: be good stewards of their money. Become debt free. It
4:54
Speaker 1: just build wealth and leave a legacy rather than dying
4:57
Speaker 1: with debt and just living paycheck to paycheck. Is great
5:00
Speaker 1: because I wanted to get that explained because a lot
5:01
Speaker 1: of people try. He's a mentor, but now he's a
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Speaker 1: business relationship as well, which is really good. Now, how
5:07
Speaker 1: did you come across creating this relationship with someone like
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Speaker 1: a Dave Ramsey? You know? For me, I was pastoring
5:13
Speaker 1: in Jacksonville, Florida, had the opportunity to serve up beneath
5:16
Speaker 1: the great Bishop Rudolph McKissick Jr. In Jacksonville, Florida, brought
5:20
Speaker 1: nearly thirty thousand members and they're what I was doing
5:23
Speaker 1: was taking my message into high schools, into colleges and
5:26
Speaker 1: traveling around the world speaking for people like Bishop td Jake's,
5:29
Speaker 1: Bishop Eddie Loan before he passed out the crftlo dollars,
5:32
Speaker 1: some big names UM and just really spreading the message
5:35
Speaker 1: of life skills to young people from a spiritual perspective
5:38
Speaker 1: and grew one of the largest youth ministries UM urban
5:40
Speaker 1: youth ministries in the world. And so with building something
5:44
Speaker 1: and such as that and traveling as much as I
5:45
Speaker 1: was traveling. I was getting different opportunities from different people, UM,
5:50
Speaker 1: and Dave Ramsey was one of them. Him and his
5:51
Speaker 1: team was looking for a good millennial guy to come
5:54
Speaker 1: in and spread the message. UM. And then they've seen
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Speaker 1: this young, sharp African American man who made some mistakes,
6:00
Speaker 1: who's a flawed brother, but he still has a passion
6:02
Speaker 1: to help people, but the Godfear message. And they asked
6:05
Speaker 1: me to come in and I joined the team five
6:06
Speaker 1: years ago. Actually. Okay, Now, early on in your book,
6:09
Speaker 1: when you talk about your father and you talk about
6:12
Speaker 1: how you will I have benefited you to go to school,
6:16
Speaker 1: the g I play or the yes. So my father
6:20
Speaker 1: served thirty five years in the army, and so I
6:22
Speaker 1: had my father's g I bill. We didn't know anything
6:24
Speaker 1: about college, We didn't know anything about scholarships, but I
6:27
Speaker 1: have my father's g I bill that I also had
6:29
Speaker 1: a partner of scholarship from the NFL, the National Forensics League.
6:33
Speaker 1: So when I went up to college, I honestly didn't
6:35
Speaker 1: need a dime for school, but I took out ten
6:37
Speaker 1: thousand dollars just to fund my lifestyle. I know, and
6:40
Speaker 1: I know, I know, it's it's great, you know, like
6:43
Speaker 1: I said, I saw my friends, the card and the clothes,
6:46
Speaker 1: the food, you know, the apartment and not realizing that
6:50
Speaker 1: guess what, somebody's gonna ask for this and you may
6:52
Speaker 1: not have that, you may not have the full time
6:54
Speaker 1: job to be able to pay it back. But god,
6:56
Speaker 1: you're living great. Let's go. Oh man, I had a blast.
6:59
Speaker 1: You know. I was treating all the young ladies out
7:01
Speaker 1: to eat. I was putting the rims on the car.
7:05
Speaker 1: You know I had it. But you know you're right.
7:06
Speaker 1: You know I'm looking at you on the cover here
7:08
Speaker 1: got your chanola watching onto everything. I'm looking at your
7:11
Speaker 1: brother like because I gotta know list so I know
7:14
Speaker 1: you got I know you got styled. I know I
7:16
Speaker 1: know you understand that swag conversations and let me ask
7:19
Speaker 1: you this, like, you know, I just finished a big
7:21
Speaker 1: contract with National Guard and and one of the things
7:25
Speaker 1: was about you know, they'll pay for the college education
7:28
Speaker 1: and served close to home weekend warrior. I didn't see
7:31
Speaker 1: anything like that. It's part of your book or any
7:34
Speaker 1: of the reserves or any of the all National Guardians
7:37
Speaker 1: as an option to be able to go to them,
7:40
Speaker 1: to be able to enlist and be allowed them to
7:43
Speaker 1: pay for the education. Any reason why you didn't choose
7:46
Speaker 1: to put any of them into your book, Well, they're
7:49
Speaker 1: they're briefly in the book. I didn't do a full
7:51
Speaker 1: chapter on the Army reserve or about the military. I
7:53
Speaker 1: didn't list out different options and different opportunities to do it.
7:56
Speaker 1: Um a lot of people are aware of with the
7:58
Speaker 1: army and the military rings to the table um clearly
8:02
Speaker 1: in the book. What I really wanted to do is
8:03
Speaker 1: just give everyone a clear route option um and all
8:06
Speaker 1: of the options. So I couldn't afford to go through
8:09
Speaker 1: every single thing, but we do mention and we do
8:11
Speaker 1: have a quick page or two in the book about
8:13
Speaker 1: what will the army in the military provide? UM for
8:17
Speaker 1: that as well. Let's star a huge component of it, though,
8:20
Speaker 1: absolutely absolutely. Let's let's talk about the book and who
8:23
Speaker 1: you're reaching and things like that. Start from the beginning. Okay,
8:26
Speaker 1: we talked about your story and eighteen homeless. You know,
8:30
Speaker 1: you you build a huge ministry, you're reaching millennials. And
8:35
Speaker 1: what is the number one mistake that a person in
8:40
Speaker 1: college about to go to college, graduate from college is
8:44
Speaker 1: doing with their finances? Well, there's two things, I would
8:47
Speaker 1: say the top two things that the top two mistakes
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Speaker 1: that I'm seeing with young people today and even parents
8:52
Speaker 1: is that they're taking out student loans and they do
8:54
Speaker 1: not have a vision and the plan for their life.
8:56
Speaker 1: So I always tell people up front, if you really
8:59
Speaker 1: want to go to college, let's go to college. And
9:01
Speaker 1: if you want to go to college debt free, we
9:03
Speaker 1: gotta take debt off of the table. And we gotta
9:05
Speaker 1: have a vision. We gotta have a plan for what
9:07
Speaker 1: we're going to do. Are you stepping back and are
9:09
Speaker 1: you doing the research to see what career, what career
9:12
Speaker 1: field do you want to get into, or if you
9:14
Speaker 1: don't know the career field, what's your major you want
9:16
Speaker 1: to get into. Once you identify that major, just let's
9:19
Speaker 1: make sure that it's profitable. Let's make sure you're not getting,
9:22
Speaker 1: you know, a major and something that you're only gonna
9:24
Speaker 1: be making thirty thirty five thousand dollars a year for
9:26
Speaker 1: the rest of your life. Let's make sure that you're
9:28
Speaker 1: getting something profitable. But then the student loans things, you know,
9:32
Speaker 1: we're seeing it right now. A study just came out yesterday.
9:35
Speaker 1: A twenty eight year old just paid off a hundred
9:37
Speaker 1: and eight thousand dollars and student loans, and she was
9:40
Speaker 1: just devastated. She was like, if I could do it
9:42
Speaker 1: all over again, I would go to school, but I
9:44
Speaker 1: would not borrow a dime for school because when she graduated,
9:48
Speaker 1: she had to spend the next six years focusing on
9:50
Speaker 1: that and living at home. So those are two top
9:53
Speaker 1: six that I'm seeing from young people. Well, you know,
9:55
Speaker 1: it's really interesting because those mistakes happen. And uh, I
9:59
Speaker 1: always tell people, if you can get something easy, you
10:02
Speaker 1: have to take a step back to realize what what's
10:05
Speaker 1: making it easy? What's making it Because getting college student
10:08
Speaker 1: loans it's not difficult to get. You apply for they
10:11
Speaker 1: don't really turn you down. They give you the money
10:13
Speaker 1: and next day. You know, that's the part of the
10:16
Speaker 1: I don't think that's enough good quality counseling that's tied
10:19
Speaker 1: to these student loans. There were short student Look, I
10:22
Speaker 1: know you want this, but check this out? Am I writing?
10:25
Speaker 1: When I'm saying that, I think that, no, you're you're
10:28
Speaker 1: hitting the debt on you know, I'm a junior and
10:30
Speaker 1: me and my dad went into the class and we
10:32
Speaker 1: were just asking our counsel like, hey, what do we
10:34
Speaker 1: do And they just said, hey, it's all good. He
10:36
Speaker 1: can apply for student loans. Boom, here are some books
10:39
Speaker 1: school looking at the school options. So, which is why
10:41
Speaker 1: I wrote the book, because, UM, there's really not enough
10:45
Speaker 1: information out there to help show young people the opposite way.
10:49
Speaker 1: The other way. We're just very big. Hey, you want
10:52
Speaker 1: to go to Harvard takeout student loans. You're gonna go
10:53
Speaker 1: to l takeout student loans. Go to these big I
10:56
Speaker 1: believe schools, and we can come back. We're doing it
11:00
Speaker 1: them back broke basically because very broken. A young kid graduated.
11:06
Speaker 1: He's twenty four years old, graduated from Anthon. Let me,
11:09
Speaker 1: let me, let me go to break back with Anthony
11:11
Speaker 1: and UH continuous conversation. We're talking to Anthony's book. He's
11:14
Speaker 1: on tour right now, calling from Los Angeles. Debt Free Degree.
11:17
Speaker 1: It launches this month by the book this month, Hi there,
11:21
Speaker 1: welcome back to money making conversations. On the phone. Is
11:24
Speaker 1: Anthony O'Neill. He's on his book tour. Book is called
11:27
Speaker 1: Debt Free Degree. Uh launches this month that he's traveling
11:31
Speaker 1: to the country. Um, he's under that big profile of
11:34
Speaker 1: Dave Ramsey. Uh. Personalities that really carve our different markets
11:39
Speaker 1: to really focus and and educate people about finances and
11:42
Speaker 1: how they can live a better life. Before we get
11:44
Speaker 1: started here, Anthony, it was something I wanted to read
11:47
Speaker 1: that party or knows this in According to the Wall
11:49
Speaker 1: Street Journal, the average college student graduates graduates with thirty
11:54
Speaker 1: five thousand dollars and student loans, and the average starting
11:59
Speaker 1: salad area for college graduates it's fifty fifty thousand per
12:03
Speaker 1: year before taxes. Yeah, yeah, yeah, And it's just startling,
12:10
Speaker 1: you know when you really think about it, like it
12:12
Speaker 1: was that investment a good return on and uh my investment,
12:17
Speaker 1: which and here's the thing. Colleges are expensive, but it
12:20
Speaker 1: doesn't have to be expensive if we can step back
12:23
Speaker 1: and just say, you know, let let me just do
12:25
Speaker 1: the quality research. For an example, you can go to
12:28
Speaker 1: U and see pin Broke and the average tuition there
12:31
Speaker 1: that you're gonna spend at this school is going to
12:32
Speaker 1: be five hundred all semester. So there's a thousand dollars
12:35
Speaker 1: for a school year, four thousand dollars for a bachelor's degree.
12:38
Speaker 1: So if you spend four thousand dollars for a bachelor's
12:40
Speaker 1: degree and you come out making fifty thousand dollars before taxes,
12:44
Speaker 1: now that's a good r O Y. But if you
12:47
Speaker 1: go to school and graduate the thirty five to a
12:49
Speaker 1: hundred two hundred thousand dollars, that's not a good r.
12:52
Speaker 1: I Again, it's expensive to go to school, but if
12:55
Speaker 1: you follow the plans in my book, it doesn't have
12:57
Speaker 1: to be expensive. Well, that's that's also can affect your
13:00
Speaker 1: relationships to you know, you know you dange somebody because
13:03
Speaker 1: people look at things differently. Now you know it is.
13:07
Speaker 1: You know you're deeply in debt. You got a hundred
13:08
Speaker 1: and fifty dollars, you're working a good job, but you're
13:11
Speaker 1: not kid can't live in a certain place, you have
13:13
Speaker 1: to have roommates to live. It really can affect your
13:16
Speaker 1: confidence and also your outlook on your future. So when
13:20
Speaker 1: you're talking about fixing the problem before they get to
13:22
Speaker 1: college so they can have a debt free degree, it
13:25
Speaker 1: really can affect you socially and also potential relationship. Because
13:29
Speaker 1: you mentioned that in your in your credits about how
13:32
Speaker 1: debt can affect a relationship. Yeah, I mean you're right.
13:36
Speaker 1: I mean young ladies today of them are saying, hey,
13:39
Speaker 1: they don't want to date other brothers because they're not
13:42
Speaker 1: financially stable. But so it's not just impacting their relationships,
13:45
Speaker 1: but it's also preventing millennials from purchasing homes. It's also
13:49
Speaker 1: preventing married millennials from half considering having kids, um from
13:53
Speaker 1: really going after their dreams or even just getting into
13:56
Speaker 1: their dream career field. Because if you're graduating with forty
14:00
Speaker 1: thousand dollars to a hundred thousand dollars two hundred dollars
14:02
Speaker 1: and student loan debt, you need to get that first
14:04
Speaker 1: job immediately because the student loans come due within six months.
14:08
Speaker 1: So they're rushing into a job and not really going
14:10
Speaker 1: into the career for the career field that they went
14:12
Speaker 1: to school for. Us. So debt is delaying and slowing
14:16
Speaker 1: and killing our dreams. Uh. And that's one thing I'm
14:19
Speaker 1: just really fighting against. Okay, let's get the education. Well,
14:22
Speaker 1: let's graduate going into our future not worried about our past.
14:25
Speaker 1: We know talking to you, your numbers got and it's
14:28
Speaker 1: really one of my degree is in mathematics, and numbers
14:31
Speaker 1: mean something to me when I see stuff like it
14:33
Speaker 1: takes an average or twenty years for people to pay
14:35
Speaker 1: off student loans, and when you know, if you've got
14:37
Speaker 1: at home, what did they give you. They give you
14:39
Speaker 1: two options. Thirty year mortgage, you're fifteen year more and
14:42
Speaker 1: so so you've got twenty years. You're sitting over here.
14:44
Speaker 1: You know you're in the middle of a mortgage opportunity
14:47
Speaker 1: right now that you have to make a decision on that. Also,
14:50
Speaker 1: when you're filing for these these loan applications, do you
14:54
Speaker 1: have to put this information down the loan debt? Now?
15:00
Speaker 1: You know you don't. You really don't. Man, you just
15:01
Speaker 1: feel out fast for you. They just ask you a
15:03
Speaker 1: couple of questions about your family and your parents and
15:05
Speaker 1: the income at your families having, and then boom, Yeah,
15:08
Speaker 1: I mean it's it's pretty much approval rates with the
15:13
Speaker 1: student loans, I'll say nine and nine point nine percent.
15:15
Speaker 1: But let's do the math though, Okay, you're gonna spend
15:18
Speaker 1: twenty years paying it back. If the average in state
15:20
Speaker 1: school costs you six to eleven thousand dollars, Let's say
15:23
Speaker 1: you stay at home, you eat at home, and you
15:26
Speaker 1: drive to school. So let's say worst case scenario, you
15:29
Speaker 1: spend ten thousand dollars a year. Your math guy, I'm
15:31
Speaker 1: a math guy, to buy ten thousand dollars over twelve months,
15:35
Speaker 1: that's eight hundred and thirty three dollars a month between
15:37
Speaker 1: parents and the child. You shouldn't be able to pay
15:40
Speaker 1: for that. So again it goes back, do you want
15:42
Speaker 1: to spend you know, eight hundred thirty three dollars a
15:45
Speaker 1: month for four years getting your degree debt free, or
15:48
Speaker 1: do you want to spend twenty years spending a lot
15:51
Speaker 1: of money and a lot that's going towards your interest,
15:53
Speaker 1: not even your principle. Really, there's there's a couple of
15:57
Speaker 1: things you said in the book that that I kind
15:58
Speaker 1: of naturally did that saved me. Like Frienstance, I graduated
16:02
Speaker 1: from the University of Houston, but I also went to
16:04
Speaker 1: community college, so which allowed me to spend less money
16:09
Speaker 1: at the community college, took courses that were transferable. And
16:13
Speaker 1: so when you when you're making these financial decisions, sometimes
16:16
Speaker 1: the ego got to get pulled back to No, you're
16:22
Speaker 1: absolutely right, man, I'm laughing because you're you're you're teaching
16:25
Speaker 1: everything in my book for me. Man, I mean, let's
16:27
Speaker 1: just do the math, though. I mean, community college is
16:29
Speaker 1: gonna be free to about five thousand dollars, and the
16:32
Speaker 1: state of Tennessee your first two years of community college
16:35
Speaker 1: is free, so you can go there. You're gonna save
16:38
Speaker 1: yourself twenty thod dollars right there. But what we're doing
16:41
Speaker 1: is we're allowing our kids to take a kid's approach
16:44
Speaker 1: to an adult decision. And they want to go off
16:46
Speaker 1: to Harvard. They're want to go off to these big
16:48
Speaker 1: schools because they're popular. That's where their friends are going.
16:51
Speaker 1: You know, they like the football team where they like
16:53
Speaker 1: the Greeks for the sororities over there, when really they're
16:56
Speaker 1: not thinking about the future, like whether they're future. Forty
17:00
Speaker 1: d Rose is going to be saying. So I am
17:02
Speaker 1: a huge, huge advocate for young people going to community
17:05
Speaker 1: colleges because two plus two weeks four whether you go
17:08
Speaker 1: to Harvard, Yale, Princeton Community College, as long as you
17:11
Speaker 1: get the four year degree, you're good. And how you
17:13
Speaker 1: get it, it doesn't matter. But to me, a person
17:15
Speaker 1: choosing to go to that community college route is smart
17:18
Speaker 1: because they're thinking about their future. Absolutely, my daughter, even
17:21
Speaker 1: though she is her education is paid for, she does
17:24
Speaker 1: work at a subway on the weekend. Just just let
17:27
Speaker 1: people know that a lot of people in their mind
17:29
Speaker 1: they feel that and she is a full time student.
17:31
Speaker 1: You can work, you don't have to put all your
17:34
Speaker 1: energy into your academics. You can work on the part
17:37
Speaker 1: time jobs and be able to pull some of those
17:40
Speaker 1: expenses back. The key in this whole conversation is pulling
17:42
Speaker 1: back on what you unnecessary expenses because those loans can't
17:46
Speaker 1: create unnecessary expenses. The reason I loved your book, and
17:49
Speaker 1: really when I looked at it and I was reading it,
17:52
Speaker 1: you start in middle school with this plan. You know,
17:56
Speaker 1: it's like it's like okay, because most people start in
17:58
Speaker 1: high school, which is really too late, because you don't
18:00
Speaker 1: have that mindset, that mentality about what you gotta do
18:04
Speaker 1: to you know, this is about money. If you're gonna
18:07
Speaker 1: start teaching people about money, you better start early when
18:10
Speaker 1: money money doesn't mean anything you're doing. You have to
18:13
Speaker 1: teach people that money does mean something to them. So
18:16
Speaker 1: you started in middle school. Talk to us about that. Well,
18:19
Speaker 1: I started in middle school because you know, when you
18:22
Speaker 1: go on social media, man, you see these elementary kids,
18:25
Speaker 1: five yearrows out there dancing and remembering hip hop music
18:28
Speaker 1: songs and dance moves, and it really started irking me
18:31
Speaker 1: because I'm like, if they can remember all this stuff
18:33
Speaker 1: that is not helping them, then they can remember money,
18:36
Speaker 1: you know. And so we're already teaching my nephews at
18:38
Speaker 1: the age of five six years old. You know how
18:40
Speaker 1: to work for money. You know why we avoid that,
18:43
Speaker 1: why we do not borrow money. Um. And so when
18:46
Speaker 1: you can have that conversation as early as that six
18:48
Speaker 1: and seventh great timeframe. What you're doing is you're just
18:51
Speaker 1: putting something inside of their minds. You're giving them something
18:54
Speaker 1: to dream, You're giving them something to really look up to, UM.
18:56
Speaker 1: And you're really having that conversation earlier on. It's about
18:59
Speaker 1: the time get to the ninth grade where their grades
19:02
Speaker 1: really do count. They're already they already have the mindset
19:05
Speaker 1: and they're already focused. And so in my book, I
19:07
Speaker 1: talked about, Hey, here's how you have the conversation in
19:09
Speaker 1: the seventh and eighth grade. And once we get to
19:11
Speaker 1: the ninth grade, I'm giving them the step by step process.
19:14
Speaker 1: Here the classes, here's what you need to be doing,
19:17
Speaker 1: here's he and grants, here's me. You start pressing, practicing
19:20
Speaker 1: for the A C T, the S A T duling
19:22
Speaker 1: world me classes like it is literally the detailed plan
19:26
Speaker 1: that I wish I had when I was getting into
19:29
Speaker 1: high school. Well, I had. You know, I kind of
19:31
Speaker 1: lived it, and which is why I'm enjoying your book.
19:33
Speaker 1: You know, it's really interesting that you know, I come
19:35
Speaker 1: from the inner city. Uh my father's truck, da mom,
19:38
Speaker 1: high school education, six us, two brothers. So but in
19:42
Speaker 1: at eighteen, I just knew I wanted good credit. For
19:44
Speaker 1: some reason in my mind, I just said I wanted
19:46
Speaker 1: good credit. And so I understood for some reason the
19:50
Speaker 1: value of money at that early age. When I see
19:53
Speaker 1: your book, debt free Degree, the step by step God
19:55
Speaker 1: to getting your kid through college with our student loans,
19:58
Speaker 1: so all along, all my friends, you know that someone
20:01
Speaker 1: with the prayer of view, someone with the Southern songwhere
20:03
Speaker 1: to Rice University song, where to Perdue University? All my
20:07
Speaker 1: thought was how could I not owe anybody? That was
20:11
Speaker 1: my number one mission was how can I not owe anybody?
20:15
Speaker 1: Because it was? And so what is happening is because
20:18
Speaker 1: people don't think like that. They don't they think they
20:20
Speaker 1: think they can just get something and then then then
20:23
Speaker 1: whine about it. Whoa, they didn't really tell me the fact,
20:27
Speaker 1: but nod hold on And so I see people just
20:30
Speaker 1: won't they won't even pay dad off, and they just
20:33
Speaker 1: walk away from Dad. They were, Oh god, I just
20:35
Speaker 1: take the hit. And so really, if this book is
20:39
Speaker 1: important to me to promote for you, because if you
20:43
Speaker 1: don't start telling people the responsibility of finances at the
20:46
Speaker 1: early age, they become horrible adults. Yeah, they really do.
20:51
Speaker 1: And that's something that you know, set Ramsey Solutions and
20:54
Speaker 1: myself and my team are really just passionate about doing.
20:56
Speaker 1: Because I didn't have the education. I was just told
20:59
Speaker 1: go to schollege to get a seven hundred credit score, um,
21:02
Speaker 1: and you'll be successful and get a good job. When
21:05
Speaker 1: all of my mentors from Dave Ramsey, Mark Cuban, it's like, man,
21:08
Speaker 1: forgetting credit score, Let's just get money in your bank account,
21:11
Speaker 1: you know, let's be just be debt free. Let's just
21:13
Speaker 1: go after our jeams has build wealth. And we're on
21:15
Speaker 1: a mission not just with this book, just even with
21:18
Speaker 1: you know, we have one out of three our high
21:21
Speaker 1: schools have our high school curriculum to where we're trying
21:23
Speaker 1: to bring this information down to the middle schools and
21:25
Speaker 1: high schoolers why they're in school so that way when
21:28
Speaker 1: they graduate they know how to budget, They know the
21:30
Speaker 1: difference between a credit card or debit card. They can
21:32
Speaker 1: start purchasing homes at an early age. They can start
21:35
Speaker 1: investing at age eighteen nineteen and building up the row
21:38
Speaker 1: four one case that the roth Ira. So what you're saying,
21:41
Speaker 1: you and I are on the same page that we
21:43
Speaker 1: have to make sure that we don't owe anybody, and
21:45
Speaker 1: we gotta make sure what it's getting this information out
21:48
Speaker 1: to our young people earlier on. But it also starts
21:50
Speaker 1: by getting this information to their parents, which is why
21:53
Speaker 1: I wrote this book, because they are the number one
21:55
Speaker 1: influencers in their lives. Absolutely, Anthony states, that's Anthony who's
21:59
Speaker 1: speaking on the phone. State. There are three main ways
22:01
Speaker 1: to pay cash for college, saving money, finding money, and work.
22:06
Speaker 1: And that's what this book amounts to. And also putting
22:08
Speaker 1: forth effort and realizing that look at look at your future,
22:12
Speaker 1: post graduate, look at your future, not at the moment,
22:15
Speaker 1: but down the line. And I think that was a
22:17
Speaker 1: natural thing for me that I picked up along the way.
22:20
Speaker 1: And so if I could figure out a way to
22:23
Speaker 1: not spend money on the bigger picture, spend money on
22:26
Speaker 1: the smaller picture, which will get me to the bigger picture,
22:29
Speaker 1: I understood that victory at hand, and now I'm not
22:33
Speaker 1: I grew up in the era where I wasn't not
22:35
Speaker 1: driven by social media. I was not driven you, No, Hey,
22:37
Speaker 1: I was when I was born at rotor Ridale telephones. Okay,
22:40
Speaker 1: so that's when. That's the era that I've lived through.
22:42
Speaker 1: And I've been fortunate to live through all these different
22:44
Speaker 1: breaks of technology to know that the system that I
22:48
Speaker 1: lived under works today. And that's what you have in
22:51
Speaker 1: this book, Anthony, I really really this is a book
22:55
Speaker 1: I'm recommending. And um, and if you come through Atlanta Police,
22:58
Speaker 1: let me know in your book to it so I
22:59
Speaker 1: can come and buying see you and uh tell my
23:01
Speaker 1: followers to come by and buy your book or buy
23:05
Speaker 1: it online. But you are you got something, my friend,
23:09
Speaker 1: and you keep winning me. I appreciate you, man, I
23:11
Speaker 1: really appreciate the opportunity to share this message. And I
23:14
Speaker 1: love what you're doing too. Man. Thanks for all what
23:15
Speaker 1: you're doing for our people, in our culture, in this
23:18
Speaker 1: entire world. Well, many main conversations about you. You know,
23:21
Speaker 1: if I don't have I would tell people that saying
23:23
Speaker 1: make America great again, it starts with individuals like you,
23:27
Speaker 1: and it starts with saying that individuals like us people
23:30
Speaker 1: will color have value. And if you don't promote the
23:33
Speaker 1: value of a process, then guess what you're Then you'll be.
23:37
Speaker 1: A different picture will be painted about you and uh
23:40
Speaker 1: as you toured this country as I've toured it many
23:43
Speaker 1: many years, and I will continue tour in the future.
23:46
Speaker 1: Different shades will allow people to think of you differently.
23:50
Speaker 1: Mr O'Neil, thank you for coming on my show. I
23:52
Speaker 1: will promote this book. Tell your crew to send me
23:54
Speaker 1: some banners so I can put on all my social
23:56
Speaker 1: media and we'll keep winning.