Latest / Success Story with Scott Clary / Anthony O'Neal - #1 Bestselling Author & Fmr Ramsey Show Co-Host | The Debt-Free Millionaire Who Thinks Most Rich People Are Trapped

Transcript

Anthony O'Neal - #1 Bestselling Author & Fmr Ramsey Show Co-Host | The Debt-Free Millionaire Who Thinks Most Rich People Are Trapped · Success Story with Scott Clary

0:00
Freedom is the goal.
0:01
What does that mean?
0:01
I believe that freedom is better than being rich because I know a lot of people who have a lot of money, but they're not free.
0:07
I want to be able to do what I want to do, when I want to do it, with whomever I want to do it with, and go wherever.
0:14
Today's guest is Anthony O'Neill, a best-selling author, personal finance expert, and host of The Table with AO.
0:21
He helps people get out of debt, build wealth, and break generational financial struggles.
0:25
In this episode, we're talking about financial freedom,
0:28
making smarter money decisions, and building a life beyond just getting rich.
0:32
I think a lot of people focus on money first and they focus on life satisfaction last.
0:38
Where were you at in your life when that was happening?
0:41
Man, I was selling cars and I was a bill collector.
0:43
It was paying the bills, but it wasn't giving me a lifestyle that I desired.
0:47
We were just trying to focus on how can I make the most money, but not how can I put you in the best situation for your situation?
0:54
What's the healthier way to look at money?
0:56
Money is a tool to help me get to where I want to go
0:59
It is one of the tools in our toolbox to build the kind of life that we desire.
1:07
My fitness pal is a success story partner.
1:09
Now there's this thing that happens when you start paying attention to what you eat.
1:13
And I think we can all agree that we want to care about our health and our wellness and our nutrition.
1:17
But more often than not, we just kind of think we eat clean.
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We think we eat healthy, but we're not really, really paying attention to every single meal and what makes up every single meal.
1:27
But it's not.
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Just by paying attention and starting to log and track what you eat, you start making better choices without really trying.
1:35
And that surprised me because when I first started using the MyFitnessPal app, and I've been using it for a while now, it's a nutrition tracking app, and I started logging what I was eating, it started showing me my macros, which means how much protein, carbs, and fats I was getting.
1:48
And then I started to understand why some days I felt good, high energy.
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Some days I felt like garbage because those three things, proteins, carbs, fats, that's what your food is made out of.
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And the balance between them affects everything.
2:02
So my Fitness Pal app truly changed my life when it came to managing my food, which managed and helped everything else.
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Now, on the premium version of the app, it breaks down those numbers by meal.
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So not just seeing one calorie number for the day, I can see what's happening at breakfast versus lunch versus dinner, where my protein actually lands, whether I'm eating enough earlier in the day or piling everything on at night.
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And all of a sudden,
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When I'm crashing at 3, 4 p.m., well, I can take a look and see it's not so surprising anymore based on what I ate or what I didn't eat.
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So that's what I mean when I say that MyFitnessPal is a great app for awareness.
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It's not obsessive.
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It's not stressful.
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It's not time consuming.
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It's actually the opposite.
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Guessing is stressful.
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When you have all the information, the food you eat, your nutrition becomes way easier to keep up with.
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Also, a lot of people stress out that logging food is going to be very time consuming.
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It's not.
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And if it was annoying, I'd stop.
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But what I love about the app is that they've made it super, super simple.
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They've removed all friction in food logging, right?
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They have the largest food database out there.
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So whatever I'm eating is already in it.
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I can voice log so I can just say what I'm eating.
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They have a barcode scanner that handles all the package stuff.
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They have a tool called meal scan, which lets me point my camera at my plate and it breaks down all the macros and then logs it for breakfast, lunch, dinner, whatever.
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And the app remembers my regular meals.
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And I'm really just in and out of the app in seconds.
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And on top of that, it connects with over 40 fitness apps and wearables.
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So my workouts, my nutrition, they're all in one place.
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See, food is the foundation of everything.
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your energy, your sleep, your weight, your recovery, your performance at work, at home.
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And I really believe that when you start to pay attention to what you eat, every single part of your life improves.
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And to be honest, for me, it's the most useful tool because when I see the information, when I see what I'm eating,
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and I feel the effects of having good nutrition and good food at the right time, the decisions on what to eat become obvious.
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Not because someone told me to eat better, it's because I have the data.
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And the data makes it super, super easy to stay on track.
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So please do yourself a favor, go to podcast.myfitnesspal.com and use code SCOTT.
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That's S-C-O-T-T, all uppercase letters, for 15% off MyFitnessPal Premium.
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That is podcast.myfitnesspal.com, code SCOTT for 15% off.
4:22
My fitness pal premium.
4:29
The most important, in my opinion, idea and quote you've ever said, it's so simple.
4:35
Freedom is the goal.
4:37
What does that mean?
4:37
You know, I've coined this phrase of I believe that freedom is better than being rich.
4:43
Because I know a lot of people who have a lot of money, but they're not free.
4:47
But I don't know a lot of people who who are free and don't have some sort of financial wealth, if that makes sense.
4:56
And I think that for me, freedom is the goal because I want to be able to do what I want to do.
5:02
when I want to do it with whomever I want to do it with and go wherever.
5:07
Right.
5:08
And so I think oftentimes this culture and this community is chasing money, money, money.
5:13
And if I'm being honest, Scott, man, I'm, I'm single today because I was chasing money.
5:17
Um, I, I, I,
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There's a lot of things missing in my life because I wasn't free.
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And I thought chasing more money will give me the things that I desire in life.
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When the fact, but the truth of the fact is I actually lost more chasing more money.
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And so, man, my message is real, is really about how do I get you from struggling financially to freedom?
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Now, freedom for you may look different than freedom for me.
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You know, freedom for us may look different from freedom from your team that's here with us today.
5:51
So it's like for me, I want everyone to understand what is your definition of freedom?
5:57
Freedom for me is, man, my parents didn't have a wedding.
6:01
You know, my mom and stepdad actually had a, they got married south of the border in between North Carolina and South Carolina.
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I want to be able to give my wife that.
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Freedom for me is my...
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Growing up, we didn't have vacations.
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We didn't go out of the country or go on family vacations with my parents because they had to work two jobs just to pay the bills.
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So they couldn't afford to take a week, two weeks off and take all the kids to out of the country.
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I want to be able to take my family out of the country, man.
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You know, another example is.
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I didn't really see my parents date like that.
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You know, they didn't have like every single week or every other week.
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Hey, this is our day for you and I.
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And I want to be so free that, man, every Friday or every Monday or whatever day that is, that's me and my wife's day.
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And then every at least Saturday or every Sunday or whatever that is, that's family day and that's father and children day.
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So freedom to me, man, this is whatever, whatever I desire it to be.
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And you don't have to have a million dollars.
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$100,000.
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It's whatever you decide it is.
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Go after it.
7:19
What's crazy is so many people make so much money and they're still not free.
7:23
And I was just thinking about, so your book that dropped August 25th, Stop Living Paycheck to Paycheck.
7:32
When you think of the term, like stop living paycheck to paycheck, you think that somebody's not making money, is working some entry level job.
7:43
I was just reading on LinkedIn a story, very nerdy, but whatever, of this couple that they make a million dollars a year, and then they broke down all of their expenses, and with a million dollar a year income, they were still spending more than they were making.
8:02
So that million-dollar-a-year couple, lifestyle creep, the private schools, the mortgage, the shopping at the bougiest grocery store, they're still living paycheck to paycheck.
8:16
So it's not about how much money you make.
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And I think that that's lost on a lot of people.
8:20
A lot of very successful rich people that are stressed out financially because they still haven't figured out how to be free.
8:28
Now, they haven't figured out how to be free, but let's go deeper.
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The reason why they're not free is because they have no margin in life.
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I always say this is two things.
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Income teaches me how much money you make.
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Margin shows me what you can build and have.
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And so 49% of individuals who make over $100,000 are living paycheck to paycheck.
8:50
That is to me, that is crazy as hell.
8:53
That how in the world are you making minimum $8,333 a month to up to $100,000 if you're a millionaire and you're still living paycheck to paycheck?
9:04
It's because they don't have any margin.
9:07
One of the very first things that I have written on the very first day of my class, I'm a professor at Virginia University in Richmond, Virginia.
9:16
And day one, I write on the board, margin.
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Tell my students, hey, by the end of this semester and these next 16 weeks, you should be able to leave out of here and understand the importance of this word.
9:30
What do you mean?
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I don't care how much money you make.
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If you don't have any margin, you don't have any freedom.
9:36
I don't care how much your pay raise is.
9:38
If you don't have any margin, you don't have any freedom.
9:41
I think one of the most shocking stories for me was.
9:45
And I move with integrity, too, so I want to say too much to kind of give it away.
9:48
But there was this huge name makes close to about 16 million dollars a year.
9:55
And this particular individual only had at the end of that year, one hundred and thirteen thousand dollars to their name.
10:03
But when I looked around houses, cars, entourage, expenses here, expenses there.
10:09
And the very first thing I told this particular individual is we got to get you some margin.
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And so that is something that I live and I stress.
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And Scott, people get upset when I say it.
10:21
This is why I don't do debt.
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This is why I don't believe in borrowing any money, because the more debt that you have, the less margin that you have.
10:29
And I want to be able to keep the majority of my money for me and my last name and my legacy.
10:35
So what's wrong with the popular prevailing money advice?
10:41
I mean, a lot of it.
10:42
I mean, one of the most popular things which pisses me the heck off is leverage other people's money.
10:47
That's how every—outside of Ramsey, who's, like, got famous from doing this, and now yourself, who's also talking about no debt.
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Everyone else is talking about leverage and borrowing and debt.
10:56
I mean, you know, and I'll say this.
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This is the first time I've said it on your podcast.
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I wish half of them would just really shut up.
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And I would love to challenge some of them to come have a real honest conversation with me on my podcast.
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I come on their podcast and have this conversation because me and my homeboy saw my just just the other day.
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Debt gives this.
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perception that, okay, you're going to keep the money that you have and nothing in your life will change financially for the entirety of this loan.
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So if you go out there and you finance this car at $700 a month for seven years, what that debt is saying is, oh yeah, you'll be good.
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Cause you want to keep your money the exact same for seven years.
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But what happens when COVID happened?
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Well, what happens when you lose a job?
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What happens when life happens?
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What happens when your spouse has something that's out of their control?
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Your money goes down, but that debt stays the same.
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And that bill collector still wants their money plus interest.
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And they ain't giving you no room to play with.
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And it's like, for me, why do we want to push debt on someone?
12:00
Let's just look at the math.
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63 percent of individuals are living paycheck to paycheck.
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So we're going to tell that person to go leverage other people's money to get ahead.
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So wait, if I'm already living, let's say, for example, I make $5,000 a month.
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I got $5,500 going out and I listened to 90% of the financial advice that's online.
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Well, go get a credit card and use that.
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Well, that credit card now comes with a payment that goes on top of the $5,500 a month that I'm already paying.
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So I'm not saying debt is just this horrible thing.
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What I'm saying is this.
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If the majority of us are already living paycheck to paycheck, telling them to leverage other people's money is foolish and it is unwise.
12:43
Now, do I believe there's a category of individuals, a sub small number of individuals who can take debt on and leverage that to build wealth?
12:53
Absolutely.
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But I think that's maybe 10 percent of America.
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Well, what happens is you have people who listen to Robert Kiyosaki, who's a billion in debt.
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And they're paycheck to paycheck.
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And he's built an empire for himself on debt and he's killed it, but.
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Not gonna knock him.
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If you have no money and interest rates change or anything, you get laid, forget interest rates change.
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So you get laid off.
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Man, listen, how do you service it?
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How do you pay it off?
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2020, 2025, 850,000, yet alone just African-American women were laid off.
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That's 850,000 people who had a car loan, who had this, who had that.
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And out of nowhere, they have no job.
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And rents do, leases do, mortgages do.
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Child support, not child support.
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Daycare is still due.
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I got to have somewhere to take my kids.
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So for me, it's when I listen to this financial advice that is still out there, and I'm like, y'all, listen.
13:51
There's no guarantee that your income is going to stay the same.
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I'm an entrepreneur.
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And over the last six years, I've had some really good months, and I've had some horrible months.
14:04
But I don't stress because I don't have any debt.
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I don't have any consumer debt.
14:08
I do have a mortgage, right?
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I do have asset debt.
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But you have margin.
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But I have margin.
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And I have enough margin to last me up in six months to a year, right?
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But man, I get a little nervous when, like I literally just decided, me and you are recording this today, I literally just decided two months ago I'm paying off my mortgage within the next year and a half.
14:30
By the end of next year,
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I want to be completely 100% debt free on my personal side of things because I just I don't want the liability.
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I don't want to be stressed.
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And let's just be honest, man.
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You know, you have a young lady.
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I don't know if you're married, but I know you have you have a partner.
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And one thing I do know.
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from the ladies that I talk to, not dating, but just from, you know, ladies in general, a lot of them say, man, Anthony, your method actually will help me become a better wife and a better mom.
15:00
Because if you can take the stress off of me saying, I don't have to worry about bills because we don't have any bills.
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man, I'm going to love my husband even better.
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Like, I'm going to fully be in tune because there's nothing over me that's making me think, okay, wait, how are we going to pay this?
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How are we going to pay this?
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But wait, we got to pay this bill next week and we don't have it.
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And unfortunately, that's 63% of people in America today.
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And man, it bothers me when I hear that advice.
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And I don't attack nobody for their method, but I do believe that, man, make it make sense.
15:34
Help me understand.
15:35
How does your method help a single mother or a young man who's an entrepreneur watching us on the podcast right now want to build a business, but he doesn't have the capital, he doesn't have the margin, but he still has a dream?
15:49
We got to start him somewhere different.
15:51
You know, I don't think people understand
15:55
If you've ever had no money in your bank account, which I've had many times in my life, and bills are due, you are not the same person.
16:05
You are not.
16:06
Bro, look at how good you look.
16:08
I don't know if people know how old you are, but you're older than I thought you were because you look so, like, stress-free and rough.
16:14
But in all seriousness...
16:16
Like when you don't have money problems and when you don't have debt due and when you have a little bit of money to bank at that margin, life is just calmer.
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And then you show up better for your team, for your wife, for your husband.
16:29
I think people vastly underestimate how important it is to just feel financially secure.
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And that I'm going to be risky.
16:35
I'm a badass.
16:36
I'm going to take out debt.
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I'm going to leverage myself.
16:38
This is how you make wealth.
16:40
Okay.
16:41
But like you try, you try being, forget the fact that it's going to hurt you financially if things go sideways.
16:48
Like it can ruin your relationship with your kids.
16:50
People don't think about that shit when they take on a risky financial position.
16:57
I think that's a mistake.
16:58
It's a huge mistake, bro.
16:59
And we got to change it.
17:00
And that's why I teach what I teach.
17:03
One of the ideas that you wrote about, which I think is really relevant for people for this podcast because they are so ambitious.
17:10
The quote is, I spent years doing work that paid the bills, but didn't light me up.
17:16
I think a lot of people focus on money first and they focus on life satisfaction last.
17:23
Where were you at in your life when that was happening and what was going on?
17:26
Man, I was selling cars and I was a bill collector.
17:30
My very first job was a bill collector because I needed a job to pay bills.
17:35
And keep in mind, I'm getting up every single day and I'm calling people, telling them they need to pay this car or we're going to sue them when I owe the same car that they owe.
17:50
Wasn't passionate about that.
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But it was paying well.
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It was paying the bills.
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But it wasn't giving me the lifestyle that I desired.
17:59
But it was keeping my lights on.
18:01
It was keeping a roof over my head.
18:04
It was keeping my car from being repoed.
18:06
But every single day I woke up, man, I woke up stressed.
18:08
I woke up like, man, this is whack.
18:12
This is horrible.
18:13
And then I transitioned and went into selling cars.
18:15
And, man, I think that was the first time I ever made some real money in my life.
18:19
I'm making $100,000 a year at 23, 24 years old.
18:21
But I'm also lying to people.
18:28
I'm also seeing a mother come in who's 75 years old, got an 820 credit score, but she only has a disability check of $650.
18:36
But she wants to finance a car for her grandson, whose credit score was a 510.
18:42
He makes decent money, but clearly he don't know how to pay his bills.
18:46
So we said, OK, cool, mother, this is what we're going to do.
18:48
We're going to put the car in your name.
18:50
Car can't go into the son's name, but you got to pay $800 a month for this, bro.
18:54
She only makes $600.
18:57
But because she had an 820 credit score back in them days, you didn't have anything above a 700.
19:03
You didn't have to have any proof of income.
19:05
Just whatever we typed into the system, the bank would say, OK. We lied just to get a check, because back then we were buying cars for much cheaper because it wasn't that much competition because cars really weren't on the Internet like that.
19:19
So we can jack up prices and we can really sell some cars.
19:22
I mean, I'm I'm making, you know.
19:24
$1,000, $2,000 off of cars, selling 20 to 30 cars a month.
19:30
And I'll probably say half of them, man.
19:31
We just, we weren't really doing people right.
19:34
We were just trying to focus on how can I make the most money, but not how can I put you in the best situation for your situation.
19:42
Life at the Speed of Play is a success story partner.
19:45
Now, this is a book by Mark Pincus, the guy who founded Zynga.
19:48
I've actually had him on the show.
19:49
I met him in person.
19:50
And Reid Hoffman wrote the foreword,
19:52
calling him one of the best idea people in Silicon Valley.
19:55
The book is Life at the Speed of Play, Launch Products People Love, about 170 pages.
20:01
It's already a national bestseller.
20:02
It's his framework for figuring out whether an idea is actually worth going after before you put serious time and money into it.
20:09
Not theory, the way he actually does it, and he's repeatedly built successful businesses.
20:13
On top of that, you can read it in a weekend.
20:15
It can change your entire life and give you the right direction if you're an entrepreneur.
20:18
So right now, if you go to getmarksbook.com slash success, you get two copies for $32, that's $16 each.
20:25
Mark is paying for the second copy himself because he wants you to give it to somebody, a friend who's been sitting on an idea, someone who needs to push, whoever.
20:31
That's getmarksbook.com slash success.
20:34
Mark with a K, buy one, second one's free.
20:37
My Fitness Pal is a success story partner.
20:39
Now, a quick story.
20:40
A few weeks ago, I was in the middle of a very heavy recording week.
20:43
So five episodes back to back.
20:45
By Wednesday, I could feel it.
20:46
I felt tired and I pulled up my food log in the My Fitness Pal app and I could see why I felt tired.
20:54
I was heavily under eating.
20:56
I was not keeping up with my meals.
20:58
My macros were all off on weeks like that.
21:00
Staying on top of your fuel and your food and what you eat is the difference between being sharp on episode five and being flat.
21:07
And that's the kind of thing you only catch when you're paying attention.
21:10
And that's why I keep logging every single meal I eat in the MyFitnessPal app.
21:14
It's not because I'm obsessing over numbers.
21:16
It's not because I'm trying to diet because I'm trying to have an awareness about what I eat in the day.
21:22
And the app makes it so easy to maintain that awareness.
21:25
I can point my camera at a plate with meal scan.
21:28
It'll tell me exactly what I'm eating, all my macronutrients, proteins, fats, carbs.
21:33
There's an intermittent fasting tracker.
21:35
If I want to intermittent fast, it keeps my eating window honest and it all syncs with my watch and all of my fitness apps and it just runs in the background.
21:43
See, food is a foundation for energy, sleep, recovery, performance.
21:47
It is the one input that you cannot skip.
21:50
So do yourself a favor, track what you're eating.
21:52
It'll make you feel better, perform better in everything that you do.
21:56
Go to podcasts.myfitnesspal.com and use code Scott, all uppercase for 50% off MyFitnessPal premium.
22:03
That's podcasts.myfitnesspal.com, code Scott.
22:06
HubSpot is a success story partner.
22:08
Now,
22:09
Every entrepreneur, founder, CEO is listening right now needs to pay attention.
22:13
I have a question for you.
22:14
When a buyer asks AI for a solution or a product that your business sells, does your business come up?
22:22
The answer is that most companies have no idea.
22:25
They don't know if their name shows up in any of the AI tools, chat, perplexity, Claude.
22:33
And by the time they find out, they have lost tons of traffic and tons of deals to someone who did show up.
22:40
HubSpot AEO.
22:42
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22:49
It's before the first click.
22:50
It's before they fill out some form on your website.
22:52
It's before they fill out some form on your website.
22:54
That is the moment that HubSpot AEO is built for.
22:58
So if you want your company to show up in AI searches when your customer is looking, check out hubspot.com.
23:04
They are the agentic customer platform for growing businesses.
23:08
I think with a lot of people, I mean, it's degrees of, people have degrees of happiness with their job.
23:14
In some cases they're doing shit where they're hurting people, not good.
23:18
In some cases, they just hate their life and they're making a lot of money and they have golden handcuffs.
23:22
They're not necessarily hurting people.
23:24
That's a fact.
23:25
I think that when people just start out, like the main focus is money.
23:30
And I think that's the reason why businesses fail, why people are unhappy, why relationships.
23:35
And it's all about money.
23:38
So...
23:40
What's the first principles when it comes to money?
23:43
What's the healthier way to look at money so you don't make all of these career decisions, business decisions, poor relationship decisions?
23:51
Where does somebody start?
23:52
Because it's such a complex topic.
23:53
I think the very first thing for me, I had to realize that money is a tool.
23:57
Money is a tool to help me get to where I want to go in life.
24:00
That's it.
24:01
Once I understand it's a tool, then I'm like, okay, wait.
24:06
If you give me a hammer...
24:08
You tell me to go build something.
24:10
I know what this hammer can do for me in that process.
24:13
Right.
24:14
But I need more than a hammer to build a house.
24:18
But this hammer is a tool.
24:20
And I think money, when we can realize that it is one of the tools in our toolbox to build the kind of life that we desire, probably one of the most important ones.
24:30
Right.
24:30
To then I think you look at money differently before.
24:35
I looked at money as, oh, man, money will make me.
24:39
Excuse my French.
24:40
You know what I'm saying?
24:41
But I'm just going to tell you, too, I'm on your podcast.
24:43
I believe I'm that nigga.
24:45
If I had a lot of money, that's who I am.
24:48
Then I realized I ain't that guy.
24:51
I had all the money.
24:53
I'm just a typical dude who pursued money without no purpose, without no vision.
24:57
And where there is no vision, that's where people perish.
25:00
So when I realized that, yo, this is a tool to get me to the lifestyle that I desire, which is freedom.
25:06
Man, Scott, my whole life changed because you know what?
25:11
I hear a lot of people say, oh, I want to be, I want to make a billion dollars.
25:14
I'm going to make a billion dollars one day.
25:16
I never want to make a billion dollars.
25:19
I don't want the stress that comes with that lifestyle.
25:22
I don't want the responsibility that comes with that.
25:24
I don't want the taxes that come with that.
25:27
Man, listen, man, I tell everyone, man, let me just get a cool 15, 20 million sitting inside my investments to pay me a cool 4% to 5% a year.
25:35
I'm happy.
25:36
And that's your FU number?
25:37
That's my FU number.
25:39
And that's my FU number and that's my G number.
25:43
Goodbye.
25:45
You know what I'm saying?
25:46
Because it's like, I think, like, I was listening to this podcast, another dope young lady you should have on your podcast, Morgan Devon.
25:54
And years ago, she said, man, what's your number?
25:57
And man, I was making all this money and I never asked myself, Anthony, what is your number?
26:03
So I literally went in my office on that day, Morgan's after listening to Morgan's podcast.
26:07
Thank you, Morgan.
26:08
And man, I went down on my chalkboard and I wrote down everything that I desired monthly.
26:15
The house, if I wanted a chef to make me some meals throughout the week, like whatever that was.
26:20
And when I added that up.
26:22
I said, okay, cool, great.
26:23
Then I multiply that by 300 to give me my number.
26:27
I was like, that's all I need?
26:29
What?
26:29
I love this exercise.
26:30
I love this exercise.
26:31
Nobody does this.
26:32
Yeah, so this is my number.
26:35
This will generate this much per year.
26:37
That per year will generate this much per month.
26:40
Why the heck am I trying to go for a much bigger number?
26:43
And I think that that is the secret between...
26:47
I believe someone who's just going for the flow and following culture and rather someone who's moving strategically.
26:53
And the reason why, you know, I have less stress in my life is because I'm not trying to be like everyone else.
27:01
I know my number.
27:02
I know my goal and I know what I got to do to hit that.
27:05
And that's my target.
27:07
And watch this.
27:08
I may hit it before my target date.
27:10
And if I hit it before my target date, I'm not going to change that number.
27:14
I'm going to keep going to my target data when I want to stop having to exchange my time for money.
27:20
But let's say if I hit it in the next five years.
27:22
Cool.
27:22
Great.
27:23
I hit the next five years.
27:24
Whatever I add on to that, that's that's gravy.
27:27
I'm not trying to intentionally do that.
27:29
I'm not.
27:30
OK, well, she said this.
27:31
Let me go to double.
27:32
No, man.
27:33
No, no, because I want freedom.
27:37
I want to wake up one day and say, you know what?
27:38
I don't feel like getting out of bed at 5 o'clock in the morning.
27:41
I'm going to get up when I want to get up.
27:43
I want my wife to turn over one day and be like, hey, can we go to Mexico today?
27:48
Hell yeah.
27:49
Get the kids dressed.
27:50
Let's go.
27:52
I want that kind of freedom, man.
27:54
And I think...
27:56
If you move strategically, use money as a tool, have a clear vision.
28:02
The thing that's missing in between that, which is why I wrote the book, Stop Living Paycheck to Paycheck, is now what is the plan and the strategy to get to that number, to get to your financial goal?
28:13
Because every wealthy person that I've had an opportunity to work with, that I've been mentored by or I had a conversation with, all of them had a strategy and a plan that they were working.
28:23
Yeah.
28:24
And I'm like, okay, wait, what is my strategy?
28:26
What is my plan?
28:27
How do I have this conversation?
28:29
And so I was looking and reading books, man.
28:34
I didn't see a lot of books that really gave the average everyday hard working middle class person a solid plan just to get them out of paycheck to paycheck.
28:43
So my book is not for the millionaire who has crazy millions in margin.
28:47
It's not.
28:48
My book is for that entrepreneur, that everyday person who's saying, you know what, I make decent money.
28:53
Why is my life so stressful?
28:54
Exactly.
28:55
You know what's crazy, though?
28:56
It's just such a smart, important point.
28:58
I just don't want to gloss over it.
29:02
You set your own FQ number.
29:04
You set your own goals.
29:06
And when they're your goals, not society's goals, culture's goals, your parents' goals.
29:11
Uh-oh.
29:12
Uh-oh.
29:13
That's when you hit them.
29:14
That's when you hit them.
29:15
And you know, like, I think so many people are going after all these other people's goals.
29:18
And they never stop once for a second and think, is that what I actually want?
29:22
No.
29:23
Fact.
29:23
I was reading about sort of a little bit about your journey.
29:26
So you became a teacher at HBCU.
29:29
Yep.
29:30
But you were planning to do that by 50.
29:32
Yes.
29:32
No.
29:33
So my goal is by 50, I'm 42 today.
29:37
By 50, I want to honestly be a perfect, not a professor.
29:40
I keep saying that I want to be an HBCU president.
29:43
I got you.
29:45
So but it's your goal.
29:46
You're on track to do it for sure.
29:48
And I feel like when you when the goals you're going after are truly yours, not someone else's.
29:53
It's ways you to get them.
29:55
Oh, heck yeah, man.
29:55
When I told half of my people I want to be an HBCU professor, half of them said, what?
30:01
Well, there's no money in that.
30:03
But that's where my FU number comes in because it's like, well, wait a minute.
30:07
If I'm already getting paid for my number, I can go do whatever I want to do.
30:13
Right.
30:14
And so to me, it's important for me to get back to my community, to my culture, because I know what happens within my community, my culture.
30:23
And honestly, I wish somebody taught me in middle school or in high school and for sure in my college years about money.
30:31
Because think about it, man.
30:32
When you have kids, when I have kids, when you got to have kids, they're going to go to school and learn nothing about money.
30:39
They're going to learn how to read, write, process information, add.
30:46
All that to hopefully get them two things, either into a higher education or a job.
30:52
If they go into higher education, the higher education is so they can get, quote unquote, a better job, a better source of income.
30:57
But wait, if the end goal is to get a job and an income, why are you not teaching me what to do with that money?
31:03
So my philosophy now is like, man, let me get into education.
31:09
Let me go get my doctorate degree.
31:11
Let me start getting into, I'm a professor now, and one of the very first things my president told me, Dr. Lucas, he said, I want you to rewrite the curriculum for consumer economics for your class, and I want you to be the test pilot.
31:25
So I want you to teach consumer economics, but it needs to also teach financing and investing and education.
31:31
Man, I'm telling you, my kids walking to that class got bored.
31:35
By week two, the end of week two, they don't show up late.
31:41
Because I've learned how to explain economics and the economy in the way of this younger generation to help them understand the importance of money.
31:51
And they're like, yo, half of the things you're teaching me, I'm seeing my parents do right now.
31:57
And I said, and those things you need to avoid.
31:59
I never tell them don't go borrow money.
32:01
I just teach them both sides.
32:03
Here's what life looks like on both sides.
32:05
You make the decision.
32:06
That's it.
32:08
And so for me, man, it's like if you set your goals.
32:13
If you sit down, turn off your phone and watch this guy, this is where we all man, we jack this up.
32:20
We think and then we go tell the wrong friend.
32:23
Then the wrong friend who you like, who you really rock with, be like, nah, nah, bro, that's stupid.
32:29
That's dumb, bro.
32:29
Don't do that.
32:30
Don't do that.
32:31
Don't do that.
32:33
And then it's like now you go home thinking second thoughts.
32:37
Oh, shoot.
32:38
Did I make the right decision?
32:39
Dang.
32:40
My boy said don't do this.
32:40
My girl said don't do this.
32:42
No, bro.
32:43
That's your dream.
32:45
Go live your life.
32:46
And if your friends don't want to rock with you because that's your dream, that's your desire, man, it's your show.
32:52
I can't cuss like that, but F them.
32:54
You know what I'm saying?
32:55
Move on, bro, because that friend ain't going to cut you a check.
32:59
100%.
32:59
And people screw up their whole lives because of that.
33:01
Man, listen.
33:03
Don't get me started.
33:04
I see.
33:05
You know, but it's in every part, every, how do I say?
33:09
Like you're starting a business.
33:11
You build the wrong kind of business.
33:12
You take on VC or angel money because you think that's the cool thing to do.
33:17
Now, all of a sudden you're on someone else's clock.
33:19
You don't hit your returns.
33:20
You've lost control.
33:21
You're fucked.
33:22
Your parents say you should become a doctor, an engineer, a lawyer.
33:27
You want to be an entrepreneur.
33:28
You have a dream.
33:29
You have a passion, but you don't do it.
33:30
You wake up one day when you're 50, you resent your whole life.
33:32
You resent your family.
33:36
Every part of everyone's life, unfortunately, the majority of people listening to this, hopefully I listened to it long enough where they've...
33:44
They're not living this way anymore.
33:45
But most people's lives are actually someone else's lives.
33:49
And it's very sad.
33:50
Very sad.
33:51
And it fucks up everything.
33:53
That's a fact.
33:54
I just wanna like grab people and shake them and be like, bro, is the life you're actually living the life you want?
33:59
Because when you do figure out the life you want and you have that and you understand what that life looks like and you can figure out
34:07
what trips you want, what kind of house you want, what school your kids go to, then all of a sudden money becomes less scary because you actually don't need as much of it as social media makes you think you need.
34:17
And all of a sudden, like, you're regulated, your nervous system chills the fuck out, and you can actually live a life you enjoy.
34:22
I think your listeners need to try something that I did.
34:24
Still do to this day.
34:29
Because I'm still human.
34:31
Every now and then, I'll mute everybody on my Instagram page.
34:35
I'll mute them.
34:37
I'll just post, won't see nothing else.
34:39
Because I think sometimes you'll see your peers and see some of your competitors.
34:43
I don't say competitors, but other people who are doing what you do in the space.
34:47
And they'll paint this narrative that they're just winning, they're killing.
34:50
And you don't know the hell or drama or any issues they may be going through.
34:54
So you'll go out there and make dumb financial decisions and moves based upon what you see on social media.
34:59
So every single July, man, I honestly turn off social media.
35:01
I don't go on it at all.
35:03
But then when I start feeling my body and my brain starting to be a little jealous and starting to make decisions based upon what I'm seeing on Instagram, man, I mute everybody on my Instagram page.
35:12
You feel it?
35:13
You feel it when you're starting to be influenced?
35:15
I feel it because, I mean, for me, I'll start saying, okay, shoot, I need to go do this.
35:19
Or I better go do that.
35:20
Well, dang, they just did this.
35:21
Or he just did this.
35:22
She did it.
35:23
And then now my team is like, Anthony, bro, that's not us.
35:27
Why are we doing this?
35:28
I'm like, nah, you're right.
35:29
That's me.
35:30
Social media.
35:32
Social media is powerful.
35:33
You have been influenced.
35:34
For sure.
35:35
You know?
35:35
And so I'm like, even the best of us get influenced in a negative way.
35:39
I just think we have to be mature to understand, y'all, I'm being influenced right now.
35:43
Let me log off.
35:45
Let me step back for a little bit because I remember one time, man, true story,
35:56
Just moved to Maryland, was in my house, maybe about a year and a half.
36:00
A company I did a lot of money, multiple M's that year.
36:03
And, man, I saw someone on social media just go buy this dope house.
36:09
I was like, dang, that's dope.
36:13
I'm doing more than you.
36:14
The hell?
36:17
So...
36:19
One of my friends, he called me and was like, hey, bro, there's this lot available on the Potomac River.
36:24
You could buy that lot for $800,000.
36:27
I was like, what?
36:28
On the Potomac River?
36:30
Bruh.
36:30
I was like, yeah, bro, and it's already been approved for a deck.
36:34
And you can't get approved for a deck no more, a boat deck in the PG County area.
36:39
I said, what?
36:40
So I said, man, let me look at it.
36:42
So I go out there and I see it.
36:46
I put in the offer.
36:48
I get the land.
36:49
that I meet a builder out there to tell me how much it's going to cost to build on this thing.
36:56
Man, it was a beautiful layup.
37:00
Lamb was $800.
37:02
He wanted $2.8 million just to build the house.
37:05
That's a nice house.
37:07
It better be.
37:08
Bro, I said, wait, I'll be $3.6 million in this house, single man,
37:17
I'm only 5'6", 5'7", 5'8 on a good day.
37:22
No, you're 6, dude.
37:25
I'm like, that mortgage payment, 25 grand easy.
37:30
25 grand.
37:33
I went back home.
37:37
I said, what, Dad?
37:39
No.
37:43
Because I'm seeing things on social media.
37:46
Watch this.
37:47
I see that I'm making this good money.
37:49
I'm like, I could pay it off.
37:52
Man, I canceled that deal.
37:56
Just because I have it doesn't mean I need to spend it.
37:58
And I just unplugged from social media for a while just to reset my own brain.
38:02
You felt it.
38:03
You felt you were being influenced.
38:04
Yes, sir.
38:05
I mean, in my house, that house at the time is beautiful.
38:08
I still have it.
38:09
I have moved and purchased a nicer home on the nicer side of town, but it still ain't $4 million almost.
38:18
But that was someone else's goal.
38:19
That was somebody else's goal.
38:20
Yeah.
38:22
You know, and so I desire a family.
38:24
So I went and got me a family house in a family neighborhood, a family community.
38:28
I'm the only single person in my community.
38:31
But if you live there, you won't be for long.
38:32
You're setting your life up for the goals you want.
38:35
Yes, sir.
38:36
That's it.
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40:22
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41:01
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41:22
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42:00
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42:21
Walk me back to that gap that people are trying to figure out.
42:29
and they're paycheck to paycheck right now, and then there's this middle ground that they got across, right?
42:35
And that middle ground is what screws everyone up.
42:37
They don't know the next step they got to take.
42:39
They know what they want, but maybe they don't know how to do it, or maybe they don't have the courage to do it.
42:43
I don't know.
42:43
It's probably a mixture of both.
42:46
How do you get from, and when I say paycheck to paycheck, I'm going to say this one more time.
42:50
You can be making a million dollars a year and still be living paycheck to paycheck.
42:53
So it is not an income level.
42:54
It is a relationship with money.
42:58
I think it's going to be two things, right?
43:00
It's going to be more for sure, more mental.
43:03
And in second, practical.
43:05
I think a lot of people know they need to do better.
43:07
I think where people fail at is they don't have the step by step things on what they need to do to get across to that side of freedom side.
43:20
And so the very first thing I tell people is this.
43:22
I'm like, man, I need you to step back and come up with your why.
43:27
One of my good friends, another guy you need to have on your show, because he's all about success.
43:30
He's brilliant in this area.
43:32
Dr. Darius Daniels.
43:34
He told us one day in a small session, he said, if your why doesn't make you cry, then a price of commitment will make you cry.
43:43
Meaning that if you can't look in your future and get a little emotional about why you want financial freedom, why you want to stop living paycheck to paycheck, then then the commitment of what it's going to take for you to get from here to there to get to your freedom situation.
43:58
It's going to make you cry.
44:00
And if you're crying because of the commitment, because of the journey, you're going to quit and never get over there.
44:06
But if your why makes you cry.
44:09
If your vision gets you passionate, whatever obstacles, whatever issues may come in your way, whatever speed bumps may come your way, Scott, you're going to get through it because you want to get to it because of your why.
44:21
And so that's what I tell everybody.
44:22
Everyone says, Anthony, what's your why?
44:23
I'm like, man, listen, I watched my mama work two, three jobs just to make sure we had a decent Christmas.
44:29
Man, I watched my father have to go out there and travel across the world just to make sure that I could eat well.
44:35
And I said, man, my why?
44:36
To this day, I've never been to Disneyland or Disney World.
44:40
To this day, I've never had.
44:41
I'm 42.
44:43
Never been.
44:44
And I've been invited.
44:45
I said, nope, I'm not going until I'm going with my children and with my kids.
44:49
That's my why.
44:50
So when I have obstacles come up as an entrepreneur, when I feel like quitting sometimes, man, my why is like heck no.
44:57
Because if you quit, then you're quitting on your why.
44:59
And if you quit on your why, you're quitting on your kids that you haven't met yet.
45:02
And when you get them, you got to look them in their face and say, I couldn't sustain what was coming my way for you.
45:07
And that
45:08
I, man, I was about to cuss.
45:10
I was, but, but the hell with that.
45:12
I'm not going to look at my kids.
45:13
I'm not going to look at my wife and tell my wife, I cannot give them freedom because I didn't push through.
45:21
And I think that's the very first thing that you got to do is come up with your why.
45:25
And you got to go deep.
45:26
Don't just say, I want a house.
45:27
No, no, no.
45:27
Why do you want that house?
45:29
Don't just say, I want to be debt free.
45:30
No, no, no.
45:31
Why do you want to be debt free?
45:32
You got to go deep and really dig down in your soul because the journey is going to make you want to quit.
45:40
And every single day, you're successful.
45:42
How many days have you set up in your head and been like, dang, what am I doing?
45:46
Everyone.
45:47
That's what I'm saying.
45:49
Every single one.
45:49
That's what I'm saying.
45:50
I'll tell you this morning.
45:52
Yeah.
45:52
I was doing street interviews around Miami.
45:54
I woke up.
45:55
It was like the fucking wildest hurricane, torrential rains.
45:59
I looked outside.
46:01
I don't even know if I said this when I called.
46:03
In my head, at least I said, what the fuck am I doing?
46:06
Oh, man.
46:06
Yeah.
46:07
I understand it.
46:08
And we figured it out.
46:09
Yep.
46:10
And we got it done.
46:11
Yep.
46:11
But for like five seconds, I was like, I don't need to be doing this.
46:16
Why am I doing this?
46:17
And then I remembered why I'm doing it.
46:19
And then I got my ass out of bed.
46:21
We got it done.
46:23
But the difference is a lot of people will experience that setback and they'll be like, I'm out.
46:29
I'm out.
46:30
Yeah.
46:31
And then here's the thing.
46:32
Wake up a week later.
46:33
Dang, why did I do that?
46:34
Yeah.
46:35
And you regret.
46:36
Yeah.
46:36
Now you got to go start from scratch.
46:38
And then the next thing, a year later, you quit.
46:43
So now you're going back and forth.
46:46
Your why wasn't big enough.
46:47
It wasn't.
46:48
And it's like, man, trust me.
46:51
And I'll say this, to be vulnerable, there's been nights I've cried.
46:56
There's been nights I've had to call my best friend and like, oh, bro, if you don't talk me out of this, I'm going to quit.
47:02
There's been nights I've had to go and just get away and go chill out with my dad and play golf with him.
47:07
There's been those days that I knew that if I don't get the right person speaking into my life, Anthony O'Neal is not going to make it through as far as in...
47:15
I'm going to quit.
47:16
I'm going to say, you know, forget this business.
47:18
Forget this.
47:19
I'm done.
47:20
You know?
47:21
I, um, here we go.
47:25
I've never said this on any show.
47:27
Vulnerable moment.
47:30
Stop Living Paycheck to Paycheck came out August 25th.
47:33
We made every single list but New York Times.
47:37
Every single list.
47:38
The second week on USA Today, we were number 33 first week.
47:44
We was number 17 the second week.
47:48
When I found out that I didn't make New York Times bestselling author, I said, why the hell am I writing books?
47:55
Why the hell did I do all this?
47:57
I did 150 interviews.
48:00
I traveled the world.
48:03
I haven't seen my German Shepherd dog in three months that I've been traveling promoting this book.
48:08
I wrote this book.
48:10
I said, man, forget this.
48:11
I'm done.
48:12
I'm done.
48:12
I don't want to promote this book no more.
48:14
It didn't make New York Times.
48:16
But then my why hit me.
48:18
Did you write this book to become a New York Times bestseller?
48:20
I'm like, no.
48:22
Why did you write this book?
48:24
Because I wanted to help 100,000 people get out of debt.
48:29
You sold a lot of books.
48:30
I said, that's what it did.
48:33
Who cares?
48:35
I love New York Times.
48:37
I rock with them.
48:37
I bless them.
48:38
They didn't select me.
48:39
Okay, cool, great.
48:40
You know what?
48:40
Forget it.
48:41
But my why wasn't New York Times.
48:43
My why was I want to help 100,000 people get out of debt, stop living paycheck to paycheck via this book.
48:50
I wrote the book.
48:51
Man, people are calling me left and right, buying hundreds and hundreds of books.
48:56
You know, I'm in a church often, man.
48:57
They're booking me left and right.
48:59
So the message is resonating and we're selling like crazy and we will easily sell 100,000 books.
49:05
So I'm like, the message is working.
49:08
Don't let this one letdown distract you from your real why.
49:14
And I think, man, when people can really get that why, you're going to be hurt.
49:19
You're going to feel like quitting.
49:21
And honestly, that was just recently.
49:23
And I was like, dang, man.
49:24
Like, I was in my room.
49:26
Like, oh, what the heck?
49:27
I called some of my friends.
49:28
Like, yo, bro.
49:29
But then all of them kept reminding me my why.
49:31
And man, that's why I'm here today.
49:33
I leave you today.
49:35
I go to Texas to do two more interviews, to do news.
49:39
Then I leave there.
49:39
I speak at a conference in front of 3,000 people.
49:42
Go to Chicago.
49:43
It's like...
49:44
The journey got to go on, man.
49:46
Even though I didn't hit the list, which would have been amazing, but the why is more important.
49:54
The vision is more important than a reward than this.
49:58
When people don't have that why, this is why they quit the business.
50:04
This is why they quit the job when it gets tough.
50:06
This is why they quit the relationship when there's a fight.
50:09
And your why will always be tested.
50:12
Always.
50:13
I don't think that people really understand until they live through what you've gone through.
50:16
Blood, sweat, and tears for how many years were you doing?
50:20
You've been building the brand, teaching people.
50:24
And then it doesn't like, it's not the, the, you know, the, the Disney end to the journey.
50:31
It's not, it's not.
50:34
But your why has to be stronger than that.
50:35
Cause I think a lot of people, when they put so much effort in, they feel entitled.
50:39
They're like, I deserve that.
50:40
Which you probably do, but the universe doesn't give a shit.
50:43
Doesn't.
50:44
And the people that win have that why that's stronger than the doubt.
50:48
That's stronger than the time it doesn't work.
50:50
But you know, it's funny.
50:53
Like when the why is stronger, maybe it doesn't work the first time.
50:56
Oh.
50:57
But it does work.
50:58
Here's the thing.
51:03
Stop focusing on the battles and focus on the war.
51:07
And as human beings, my ultimate goal is not to be a New York Times bestselling author.
51:15
My ultimate goal is not to be rich and to be wealthy.
51:18
My ultimate goal is not to be famous.
51:20
Right?
51:22
My ultimate goal is that when I die, my children start off better the way than I started off.
51:30
So if I have kids.
51:33
In my whole life, I pursued the New York Times.
51:37
But my children are going to get to 22, 25, 30 years old and they're still living paycheck to paycheck.
51:43
I failed as a man.
51:45
If my wife still has to work two daggone jobs just so our family could live.
51:50
If our wife has to work one job just so we can live as a family, I failed.
51:57
And so when I when I write when I was writing that book, you know how many young people inherit their parents decisions, inherit their their parents habits, inherit, you know, stress rather than inheriting freedom, businesses, homes, land, wealth.
52:16
They say that nearly 80 percent of people in the world would die with two things, bills and benefits, and the benefits are only enough to take care of partial of the bills.
52:27
So forget all that other stuff, man.
52:29
Okay, you were rich.
52:30
Okay.
52:31
Or you was making a lot of money.
52:32
Okay.
52:32
What are you leaving behind?
52:34
Like, who benefits off of this?
52:36
And me as a man, my beliefs as a Christian man, all that other stuff is good.
52:41
New York Times, man, I would love it.
52:42
I would so love it.
52:44
Oh, man, he got a million followers on YouTube.
52:47
That's cool.
52:47
Yeah.
52:48
But if I look at my kids and my kids still got to go to college and pay and borrow money to go to college, if I look at my kids and they turn 25 and they're not homeowners after everything that I've learned and know, I failed.
53:01
So if you don't get out of paycheck to paycheck, you're just passing that habit down to your child and then your child's passing that down to your grandchildren.
53:09
Your why gotta be so deep.
53:11
My why includes the great, great grands I'll never meet, but they will know my name because I changed our family tree.
53:17
You know what's really interesting?
53:19
So there's, I love frameworks.
53:21
Frameworks are always good in the book.
53:23
And if you get the book, you'll understand this framework in depth, but there's
53:27
five phases to wealth.
53:29
You got stabilize, eliminate consumer debt, build savings and a financial rhythm, invest, all very good.
53:36
But the last one is legacy.
53:37
Absolutely.
53:38
This is really interesting to me because
53:42
I don't think a lot of people really understand what legacy means.
53:45
They don't focus on it.
53:46
They're not selfish, but a little bit selfish, focusing on surviving now.
53:51
And even, you know, you look at Hermosi's, like, I don't care about legacy because I'm going to be forgotten.
53:57
So it's interesting because everything that's your why is actually not you.
54:02
Right.
54:03
It's your legacy and your kit.
54:05
Why do you, one, have a radically different opinion on legacy than somebody like Hermosi?
54:11
Why is it important?
54:13
But two, why is that more important to you than your own life?
54:22
Why is your kid's life, your grandkid's life?
54:25
I think for me, man, it's just my spiritual backing.
54:30
You know, being a Christian, I do believe that it is my responsibility to leave an inheritance to his children's children.
54:38
And when I look at myself, I don't know my great grandfather's name.
54:43
Hell, if I'm being honest, I really don't know my granddad's name.
54:46
I know it, but I don't know it.
54:49
But I can name people who have impacted me who I've never met who are dead.
54:53
And they were dead before I even met them.
54:56
If that makes sense.
54:57
I read a book.
54:58
I listen to old podcasts.
55:01
And I'm like, man, I want my children talking to their children and then their children talking to their children about what I did.
55:11
And I say this respectfully.
55:13
I have great parents.
55:15
Right.
55:16
But they didn't set me up to win financially.
55:21
They set me up spiritually.
55:22
They set me up and taught me how a man should be.
55:26
But man, I didn't get no head start in life.
55:30
So for me, man, let me be honest though with you, bro.
55:34
I'm just now getting to this point of thinking like this.
55:38
In my 20s, I was like, I'm always like, I don't give a damn.
55:40
That's what I said.
55:41
I don't care.
55:42
What?
55:43
No.
55:44
And as I evolved, as I grew closer to God, I'm like, wait, this life has to be bigger than me.
55:50
What I'm building should not only benefit me.
55:54
It should benefit not just my family, wife and children, but it should also benefit my community.
55:59
It should also benefit my peers.
56:01
It should also benefit my church.
56:03
It should also benefit people beyond me.
56:06
So I say, you know what?
56:08
Let's do it.
56:09
And I'll tell you this much.
56:10
When I got that philosophy that this is bigger than me, I started making more money.
56:16
Because it was no longer selfish.
56:18
It was, yo, I'm building something that benefits others as well.
56:25
Prime example, I don't have any kids, but I have a 529.
56:28
I have five of them.
56:33
I need to get an extra one because we just had a new baby added to our family.
56:38
I have two siblings.
56:39
My younger sister, she has four kids.
56:42
My younger brother has one.
56:44
And so I opened up five 529s because I don't give my nephews and niece any toys.
56:53
I think Theo's the oldest.
56:54
I think he's right around 13 years old now.
56:57
Since he's been born, I've never given him anything.
57:00
But every year, I put a lot of money inside of his 529.
57:04
So when he graduates high school, when I will go to his graduation, I'm going to give him an envelope with a number on it saying, hey, that's how much money you have to either go to school or to put into a Roth IRA for your future.
57:19
So now his uncle's,
57:21
gives him maybe by that time, if I'm being for real, not exaggerating, $75,000 that I only put maybe $16,000, $18,000 in, but because of the power of compound interest.
57:37
Now that's legacy because now he's going to understand like, whoa, wait, my uncle gave me $75,000.
57:47
I don't know too many people who can say that their uncle gave them $75,000.
57:52
But then let's talk about this guy that had one more left.
57:55
That $15,29, the beneficiary of that is going to my estate, my trust.
58:02
But that $15,29 is for my first child.
58:05
Can you imagine the kind of conversation me and that child would be whether it would be a boy or a girl?
58:12
that when they graduate high school, that they'll have a check for at least a quarter million dollars by then.
58:19
Do you understand what they're asking dad?
58:21
Why did you do that?
58:23
The thought that I can say, hey, listen, before I even met your mom, I was thinking about you.
58:28
That I refused to go out and to go party in my younger years, to go drop money on this, to go buy that, because I wanted to make sure that you start off life differently than what your mother and I started off with.
58:42
Now, when they get a job, now, when they start evolving, before they even think about even relationships, what are they going to do?
58:51
Open up a 529.
58:53
Now, I gave them a quarter million.
58:55
By the time they have a kid, they're giving their kids a half a million.
59:01
Then it just repeats.
59:01
He said, everyone up for success.
59:03
That's legacy.
59:05
I just planted the seed.
59:07
Now, which I respect Hermonzi.
59:12
He's built something amazing, so I'm never going to knock someone's philosophy, but it's not really just about the thought.
59:19
It's about what did the O'Neal family generate?
59:25
My great-great-great-grandchildren probably would never hear my name.
59:29
but they'll never know what that looks like because I started something different in my generation that got down to them.
59:36
And to me, that's legacy.
59:39
You ain't got, you don't have to know my name, but you will feel my impact.
59:43
How has your life changed when you started to pursue something that was bigger than just you?
59:49
Did it make the why easier?
59:52
It made the why easier, but it also made the journey a little bit harder, if it makes sense.
59:58
Because when the obstacles come, I say, well, dang, I ain't got to do this.
1:00:03
I'm good.
1:00:05
You know, but I push through easier, man.
1:00:09
You take on bigger challenges, but you can push through them.
1:00:13
For sure.
1:00:14
You know, how do I say this?
1:00:18
You probably wouldn't even believe it.
1:00:19
Your team was saying, dang, you don't look 42.
1:00:22
If you would have saw me two years ago, I looked like I was 42.
1:00:24
Yeah.
1:00:25
I'm 5'7", right, and I weighed 200 pounds.
1:00:32
200.
1:00:33
Thought I was having a heart attack.
1:00:35
Went to the hospital to only find out I had gas.
1:00:39
Came back the next day, looked at that bill, I was upset.
1:00:44
Saw my primary care doctor and she told me, Anthony, if you keep this up, you'll be dead before 50.
1:00:49
It'll be a real heart attack next time.
1:00:51
Yeah.
1:00:52
She said, I need you to lose at least 40 pounds.
1:00:55
I was like, 40 pounds?
1:00:57
Got my trainer.
1:01:01
He said, hey, man, you're just going to run for the next 30 days.
1:01:04
You're going to wake up every single day.
1:01:05
You're going to run for 40 minutes.
1:01:07
You're going to do 100 push-ups, 100 sit-ups, and that's it.
1:01:10
I said, man, this ain't sexy.
1:01:11
I'm a man.
1:01:12
I need, man, put me on a bench.
1:01:14
I need to bench press.
1:01:15
I need to do some squats.
1:01:16
I'm a man running.
1:01:18
I ain't no woman.
1:01:18
I ain't no chump.
1:01:20
I said, okay.
1:01:21
Ran for a week.
1:01:22
Man, my calves, I'm hurting.
1:01:25
I called him and said, man, forget this.
1:01:27
I'm good.
1:01:28
I ain't doing this.
1:01:29
He said, okay.
1:01:31
See how long you live?
1:01:34
I said, man, whatever.
1:01:37
Get off the phone.
1:01:38
I go a week.
1:01:39
I go back to doing what I was doing.
1:01:42
Had heartburns again.
1:01:43
I said, oh, shoot.
1:01:46
I'll never forget, I was eating some chicken, macaroni and cheese, collard greens, and a pound cake.
1:01:56
And I looked at that fool and I said, it won't be you who kills me.
1:02:01
It'll be my decision to continue eating you that kills me.
1:02:07
Called that man back.
1:02:08
I said, listen, I ain't ready to die.
1:02:11
I want to live as long as I can.
1:02:14
I got back in that gym.
1:02:16
And every time my feet started hurting, my feet started swelling, my body started aching, I said, man, I want to live.
1:02:25
And I think that's the kind of mindset you got to have is what is your why and what's going to keep pushing you when you feel like quitting, when you feel like giving up.
1:02:35
And as long as you do that, and as long as you follow the plan that's inside the book on the finances, stop living paycheck to paycheck, or even if you get somebody else's book, I don't care.
1:02:44
The key thing that I really want your audience to get is to get their why and then find a plan or a strategy that they align with and stick to that plan and strategy so you can get to your why.
1:02:56
My ultimate goal in life.
1:02:59
is to get to a point to where I no longer have to exchange my time for money because my money bought back me and my family's time.
1:03:08
And that's my ultimate goal.
1:03:10
Where can people connect with you?
1:03:12
Man, they can connect with me on Anthony O'Neill dot com.
1:03:14
And if they're looking for, let's say they are struggling, they don't have 20 bucks to purchase a book.
1:03:19
Well, we need to get you that 20 bucks.
1:03:21
But there's a lot of free resources on my page that will get you started in a healthy way.
1:03:27
And you go there, find my podcast.
1:03:29
We got to have you on my show, bro.
1:03:32
and just that's where you can find everything.
1:03:33
All my social media channels, podcasts, a lot of freebies, anthonyonell.com.
1:03:40
If you had to, you know, you don't have kids yet.
1:03:42
You've spoken a couple times about legacy and having kids, and this is the last thing I want you to leave the audience with.
1:03:48
You've given over so much a thank you.
1:03:51
If you could only pass on one lesson to your kids, the most important lesson, you can only pass on this one.
1:03:59
What would it be and why?
1:04:01
The caliber of your future will be determined by the decisions that you made today.
1:04:07
That today at 20, your 80-year-old self is depending on those decisions.
1:04:14
And that your father at 42 was paying for decisions that he made at 19, which will impact his 80-year-old self.
1:04:24
If you want freedom, if you want a joyful life, a fun life, a prosperous life,
1:04:30
a life that is in your own hands, you've got to make the decisions today because those decisions do compound.
1:04:38
And you went positive when you get there.
1:04:40
You don't want to be in the negative.