The School of Greatness - The 5-Phase Plan to Stop Living Paycheck to Paycheck | Anthony O’Neal

Episode Date: August 17, 2026

You could hand two people a million dollars and one of them would be broke again within a year. The other builds a legacy. The difference has nothing to do with luck. Anthony O'Neal, author of Stop Living Paycheck to Paycheck, walks through the five phases that took him from borrowing money for car speakers to building a real estate portfolio he pays for in cash. He breaks down why 48% of people earning over $250,000 are still living check to check, and why your credit score might be lying to you about your actual wealth. This conversation gets honest fast. You'll hear what it actually felt like to write a will in your 30s, why his family assumed something was wrong the moment he brought it up, and the real reason his bank account resets to zero every few months even now. There's a moment near the end where Anthony explains the difference between being rich and being free, and it will change how you think about your next raise. You'll walk away with a completely different definition of what winning with money actually looks like. AO on Instagram AO on YouTube Pre-Order AO's New Book: Stop Living Paycheck To Paycheck Take Your Seat at the Table: Live an Authentic Life of Abundance, Wellness, and Freedom Debt-Free Degree: The Step-by-Step Guide to Getting Your Kid Through College Without Student Loans Destroy Your Student Loan Debt: The Step-by-Step Plan to Pay Off Your Student Loans Faster The Graduate Survival Guide: 5 Mistakes You Can't Afford To Make In College In this episode you will: Discover the five-phase strategy for breaking the paycheck to paycheck cycle for good Learn why your credit score can quietly work against you and what to check instead Uncover the psychological reasons you overspend even when the money isn't there Build a system for merging finances with a spouse without losing your freedom Understand the real difference between looking wealthy and actually being wealthy For more information go to https://lewishowes.com/1968 More SOG episodes we think you’ll love! Get More From Lewis! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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Again, thank you so much for being here and listening to the School of Greatness. Make sure to follow right now to stay up to date on the latest and greatest. Winning with money is not just about making money. People, I think, know the basics of I need to pay my bills. I should save a little bit. Outside of that, they really don't know the strategy. And so they're living paycheck, not because really they lack information. It's because they don't have a right strategy.

that's basic and simple for them to understand. He is a personal finance expert, a top podcaster, and bestselling author who went from homeless to becoming a net worth millionaire. Please welcome Anthony O'Neill. 48% of individuals who make over $250,000 living paycheck. Come on. Really? Most common thing between everyone, someone making $60,000 a year up to a million dollars. It's just the amount of extra debt they brought into their life.

When you have seen yourself stretch and give more to your church or charities, do you find that more money comes to you? You know what, Lewis? I've never said this on a show before, but you're my brother. I've been on here so many times. So why do you think so many people are actually living paycheck to paycheck in America right now? You know what, Lewis, it's a good question to start off. Again, thanks for having me back on the show. But a lot of people will say because people are living paycheck.

paycheck because they don't know any better. And I actually said that's not the case. I say a lot of people live in paycheck to paycheck for two main reasons. One, the lack of information and then two, the lack of systems and accountability. You see, wealth in my opinion, winning with money is not just about making money. It's about, okay, if I give you a million dollars, then I give this guy a million dollars. What's the difference between YouTube? It's simply the strategy that you put into place with that million dollars. So people are getting it. a paycheck. People I think know the basics of okay I need to pay my bills. Okay, I should save a little bit. But outside of that, they really don't know the strategy. And so they're

living paycheck to paycheck not because really they lack information. It's because they don't have the right strategy. That's basic and simple for them to understand. This is something you talk about in your book. You have this kind of five step strategy to getting out of living paycheck to paycheck. And there's a new study that found that 39% of American workers say just living paycheck to paycheck would actually be an improvement to where they are right now in their life. If they were actually living to paycheck to paycheck,

it would be an amazing thing for them. Yes. Most people are not even doing that because they're in so much debt and they're trying to borrow, to constantly get out of debt, and they're just trapped and they feel stuck. Yes. So you have this five phases of getting out of this paycheck to paycheck lifestyle.

And phase one of the plan you teach is about stabilizing your finances first and casting a clear vision, a clear money vision of where you are going. But for a lot of people, this feels overwhelming. Yeah. Like stabilizing feels overwhelming because they don't know how to do it. Getting clear on a money vision is hard because they can't even think far enough in the future. They don't even have enough money to think about next month. So how does someone start stabilizing their finances and cast a clear money vision for their life? Lewis, let's go back to the word stabilizing because I think a lot of people want to hear that word, they get a little frustrated, a little overwhelmed, which is so confusing to me a little bit because stabilizing can save your life. One of my good friends came home one day and she's a ER doctor.

And Lewis, she said something to me into the whole room that just it just woke me up. She said, man, every time someone comes into the ER doctor, they want to go from whatever their issue is to fix within a matter of an hour to perfect health perfect health right so she was like no no no if you're coming in here let's say for an example she had a unfortunate this particular person had a gunshot wound she said they wanted me to heal them within an hour no my first priority to get you stable to get your heart beating at a stable rate on his own to make sure that everything's good once i get you stable then from there i can assess what needs to be fixed in you and how do we go from there but it's not going to be done with an hour.

So the reason why I wrote phase one is to stabilize your financing and clear division is we need to get your finances at a point to where they're least stable, to where you're not, you're not creating any more holes, you're not creating any more issues in your life. You know, you're just getting stable. How do you get stable? The very first thing I'm talking about in the book is go ahead and set aside at least one month of your net pay, right?

I used to teach back in the days, you know, this Lewis save $1,000, right? Well, we're in 2026,000 dollars in today's day and time. It's not going to keep you stable. It won't even get you four branding tires on the car. I want you to have at least one month of your net pay. Here's why. If something in life happens to you today, studies show that we tend to operate off the two sides of our brain, our fast brain or our slow brain.

And so if you only have $1,000, but you have a $5,000 issue, you're going to operate off of your fast brain. When you operate off of your fast side of your brain, you're going to make the wrong decisions. So if you have at least 30 days in your account and you're going to operate off your fast side of your brain, life happens, you're going to operate off with a slow side of your brain. So, okay, wait, I can cover this. I can pay my rent. I can pay my mortgage.

I can still send my kids to school. I can still get my hair done. When we're in our slow side of our brain and we're in our comfort zone, right, with a little bit of tension, we'll make better calculated decisions. And I believe that that's where I want you to go. It's to be stable. And then for me to get out of phase one, it's like you said in the very beginning, is have a clear vision.

What would you say is the difference between someone who has a clear money vision and someone who doesn't have a clear money vision? Oh, it's clear. If I walk up to you and say, hey, where are you going with in the next year with your finances? What are you doing this year? Okay. We're in this month of 2026. If you can't tell me what you're going to do for the rest of this year, you don't have a clear money vision. What does their life typically look like compared to someone who is clear?

There's no stability. There's no consistency. We can see you all over the place with your finances. You see, with me, I can tell you right now what I'm doing for the rest of this year of my finances. I want to purchase a home. When I purchase a home, I want to remodded a home. If anything that comes into that does not align with that, it just doesn't flow into my budget. Even in this new season of me right now with certain things going on around my life, it's like, wait a minute, if it doesn't align with this vision for my money, I just can't do it.

And sometimes, if I'm saying no to something, I'm saying yes to something else. So if I'm saying no to this thing over here, it's not a permanent no, but I'm now giving myself even more permission to stick to my money vision. Yes. And I think that's very, very, very important. The reason why a lot of people are still living paycheck to payche at the paycheck is because we haven't set the time to sit down and say, you know what? I'm going to pay off my consumer debt this this month. I'm going to go after this $5,000 credit card for the next six months. Hey, you know what?

I just had a baby. I just had twins. Congratulations. Thank you. And I want to have a $5,000. 29 set up for both of my kids. That's a vision. Here's what I believe.

We have a lot of people who are dreaming, but they don't have vision. And the difference between a vision and the dream is, is it written down and it's action behind it. So we have a lot of dreamers, but we do not have a lot of visionaries. And a lot of people who are struggling with finances are dreamers. One day I'm going to have this,

and one day I'm going to do this. But when you start getting right with your money, it's because you have a vision with the execution strategy and it's written down. Yeah. And you have the systems in place where you automate things. Yes, sir. When it's automated, it's automatic. Yes, sir.

And it's more automatically going to happen. Come on, yeah. Because you're not thinking about, oh, I need to put this money in here. I need to do this next month or in six months. You're sticking to the clear vision. You're automating it with a system. Yeah. And years pass and your goals just are accomplished because of the systems.

But you've got to get the information first. So phase two is actually eliminating all consumer debt. And again, 39% of American workers today say that just living paycheck to paycheck would actually be an improvement in their life right now. And a lot of it is because people are in a lot of consumer debt. And this whole, I guess, buy now, pay later for like groceries, for like everything. I get it if you're in a bind and you have to do that in an emergency. if you're not stable.

Yeah. But that shouldn't be a regular, monthly, yearly thing. That should be a once in a, once a year, maybe at the beginning of your season of earning money. Guys. Not, oh, I'm five years in my career and I've blown all my money. Yeah. And now I've got to use this by now pay letter method. Like, for me, that doesn't make sense.

No, let's go deeper, Lewis. 48% of individuals who make over $250,000 living paycheck to payche. Come on. come on no way really yeah wow i think it was uh and don't quote me on this one it's not in the book but i was reading a study just the other day uh nearly 30 percent of millionaires are living paycheck to paycheck that's crazy to me and to me what what i'm seeing here is when i really do all this research and i and i'm studying okay what's happening the most common thing between everyone someone making 60 thousand dollars a year up to a million dollars it's just the

the amount of extra debt they brought into their life. Now, listen, I believe that 95% of people in America today cannot handle consumer debt. Let's be real. What does that mean that can't handle it? I think that there's 5% of people who can take debt, leverage that debt to build wealth. Yeah. To buy assets. To buy assets.

Yeah, yeah, right? Anthony O'Neill, I do well financially. I still don't borrow consumer debt. I won't borrow money. I won't do things. I do have an American Express now that I pay off every single Monday. But I do believe that the majority of American people cannot borrow money and use it to seriously buy assets.

And those assets are paying off the consumer debt. And so what we're seeing here is that people, we are borrowing money. There's two types of people in this year. And I have to be honest, there are certain people who unfortunately, last year we had over 300,000 people lose their jobs. So I do believe there are certain people out there who are borrowing money because they need to survive. I have sympathy for them. But let's also be honest, there's a lot of people who are buying things that they do not need.

Why do you think so many people overspend and overconsume when they don't have the money? I think because it's like, man, we are impatient people. And I'm going to put on myself when I was that guy here in L.A. You know, I'm sitting here borrowing money. Man, I was driving a 1987 Nissan Maxima that could not go in reverse. And I borrowed money to put two 12s in the back of the trunk with a thousand watt amp. I didn't need that, Lewis. Sounded cool, though.

Yeah, exactly. It sounded cool. It sounded cool. Everyone was doing it. I remember, man, I went viral. It was a few years ago. I was living in Nashville. And, man, I had the money, right?

I went up there and bought me a $3,000 Gucci bag. during COVID. And I got the backpack, came home. I was like, why did you buy this backpack? You ain't going nowhere. Hanging up in your home? It's like, you're not traveling.

Airports are shut down. And I'm like, why did I buy it? And I had to be honest with myself. I bought it because everyone else had one. Everyone had a Gucci bag or a Louis Vuitton bag. And so my philosophy now is, man, if I can't afford to pay for it twice and pay for a cash, I just won't buy it.

And if it's over $500, I think about it for $48, period. And at the end of the 48 hours, if I have not committed to, I'm going to get that for me, not for so Lewis can see me in it, not so I can post it on social media. I mean, did you know, Lewis and tell me to be quiet when this is your show? I'll just let it talk. But did you know that 58% of vacations are purchased on the quality of the Instagram pictures that people can post online. So they'll swipe their credit card to go to a destination that they really don't want to go to.

They just want to go there because it looks good on the ground. To get the photo. Just to get the photo, just to get the TikTok reels. So we're financing a lifestyle, but we're not disciplined to change our finances around so our life can be different. And so for me, man, I want people to get out of consumer debt because I really do believe that if we really are honest with ourselves. We're getting up Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, sometimes even Sunday. The majority of people are working two jobs to get their paycheck on Friday to pay back this particular bank, to pay back that particular company, check this out, come back home

Monday and the families get the leftovers of their paycheck. And then it goes back to the 39% by the end of that week, they're broke and they're trying to figure out how do we get to the next Friday for payday. And for me, you've got to get sick and tired of where you currently are. Yes. Because that is frustrating to get up every single day to go pay back someone else. And let's just be honest. If you really, I don't want to name the banks on your, on your show, but there are several banks that are named after families. So you're borrowing money from this particular family. You're paying them back interest so that their great, great grandchildren can go to school debt free and build wealth while your children at home are struggling trying to

figure out, mom, dad, I need some new school shoes. Mom, dad, I want to go and be a part of this soccer camp, but you pay somebody else's family to do it, and we haven't done anything for our family. What do you think the psychological wound is that causes so many people to overspend then when they don't have the money? Is it just, oh, I want to feel like I fit in or belong or I look good or, you know, why overspend when we don't have the money psychologically? Matt, I was talking to a guy and I asked him that same question, and he's a little bit older than me. And he grew up more so specifically in an African-American space. He grew up right around when slavery, not slavery,

when racism was a little bit more live out there. And he said, Anthony, the reason why I finance things and the reason why I'll go out there and spend my check is because I've earned it. Because like, back then, I couldn't do certain things. Now I want to go buy a suit. I want to go, you know, step out here and have a good time because I've earned it. And I said, I agree that you've earned it, but at what cost to you? have you earned it.

What's the price you have to pay? Exactly. You know, so you're not, you're not leaving your kids any income. You're not leaving your kids in any wealth. There's a study and I forgot the numbers, but it says this particular number leaves their children's bills and benefits. And the benefits as far as an insurance benefits are only enough to take care of partial of the bills, not all of it.

but we'll leave behind a Mercedes-Benz, a Chanel purse, a little biton purse, a Gucci backpack, some shoes. But none of that is transferable. None of that is going to really help set the next generation up to end. And that is why that book is so important to me because if we can really get control of our consumer debt, if we can stop financing someone else's lifestyle, and I firmly do believe that before you even get another credit card, you need to be consumer debt free for at least 24 months build the habit of using your your cash build a discipline so that when you get back into it yes if you have an amex card okay now you're paying it off every month you're not paying any interest is your money and now you're getting the

rewards of the points and stuff like that which is absolutely amazing but I still would not go for points just so I can have a credit card just so I could buy things that I can't afford to buy You're pretty deep in the spiritual faith world as well. Yes, sir. From your experience in the communities that you're in, do people who have a faith-based practice, are they more prone to getting out of consumer debt earlier and investing in their future by saving and spending less? Or do you also see people in faith and spiritual communities getting an extreme consumer

debt, living paycheck to paycheck as well, whether they're financially less off or financially more off? You know, man, I think in the faith world, they're still human beings. So with me being a strong Christian, I can say this respectfully, no, they're not trying to get out of consumer debt quickly. Really? They're still human beings. I mean, not they.

We are still human beings. Right? So we still have our personal desires. What I do see more prevalent within the Christian world is we are strong and a faith. and giving. And so, tithing and giving and generosity. So I do believe that the spiritual element that what I believe in is that because we are generous, because we are tithing, and because we do operate off of faith, there is a level of blessing that comes with that. But then, too, also, I can say this

as well, I do feel as if sometimes within a Christian world, we go a little bit too far into that and we get away from the practical. So we'll give our church, you know, our light money. I totally disagree with that. No, give your tith and offerings, but go pay your life bill. Right. Give your tithe and offerings, but go pay your rent, go pay your mortgage. But do not. Don't do it at the expense of putting yourself more into the whole. Right. And there are certain organizations and leaders within all organizations of the spiritual realm that will say, hey, trust God. Give them your last. And I will sit there on the front row and be like, yeah, I'm not giving you my last. I'll give you what I can give you and even stretch a little bit, but my first ministry, my responsibility is to make

you that my home is good. Yeah, put your mask on first. Your oxygen mask. Got to. Don't starve of oxygen, no, you know, and then say, someone help me. Facts. You know what I mean? You got to take care of yourself. Yeah, you know, I'm taking care of myself. I'm taking care of home, but I'm also going to take care of my church. Me, you know, and I, one of my goals is, is to be within the top 1% of the givers within my local church. I love what my church and what my pastor is doing. And I'm very strong when that in my church, I do believe that generosity and tithing is a secret, is a secret investment that a lot of people do not invest in. So I teach give and that's in one of my phases. I teach the whole invest, but I really do believe the number one investment you can make is in tithing offerings.

Really? For sure. When you have seen yourself stretch and give more to your church or charities or causes you believe in, do you find that more money comes to you? You know what, Lewis? I've never, said this on a on a on a show before but you my brother I've been on here so many times I had to be very unique with how I maneuvered the first three years of starting my business I'd be very unique hopefully I can say hopefully I'm saying that correctly hopefully you're picking up what I'm sure and I told God I said God I'm still going to give you my tie than beyond I gave him 12% spiritually speaking should he gave him 10% for the Bible but I gave him 12% I said because because, God, I need you to figure out a way to get me through these next three years.

Wow. And Lewis, I gave 12 percent tithing offerings. I was even within my organization, every time someone gave us money on our YouTube channel, like as a super chat or something like that, we gave all that money to single mothers. So Anthony O'Neill, nor my company profited that money. So I think within my first year of business, man, we probably gave away a little over $100,000. Second year, we gave away a little over a quarter million. Lewis, I've never going down a year.

I've always going up. And I do believe that it's because God knows that, hey, in this area of life, I can trust you. You're going to be a good steward of your finances. And it's not even just spiritually. It's like, man, I give to my fraternity. I give to other nonprofits. I've given to other churches. I've given to people just because I just felt need.

Like I had a friend went through something with his particular family, gave that particular friend $10,000. Hey, here you go. Well, no, no, no. I just want to be a blessing because I firmly do believe that while God asked for 10% back, the other 90% of the money he's allowed me to keep, still not mine. He just calls me to steward it well. So if I want to make $20 million a year, I need to show God that, yo, if you give me $20 million, I'm not going to be selfish.

I'm going to be a blessing to others. I'm going to be a blessing to my church and to my community. If Lewis is doing something that's a great cause, I'm going to sow into Lewis' great cause that's impact in the world because I want to make sure that I'm not a selfish guy with my money and that God can trust me a little more. Why do you think God allows bad people to have a lot of money, some bad people? I mean, I believe that God gives us a choice.

You know, he gives us free will. I do believe that just because God allows you to have, a lot of money doesn't mean internally you are prosperous yeah you're not rich you're not rich yeah right and so I would rather have five million dollars and be rich internally than have 20 million dollars would be miserable and just literally going through you know what internally right and so I used to always ask myself that well god but why does he out there doing a B, C, D, EFG and he making way more money than me he's yeah but you're sleeping with at peace you know you're you you you you you you you can walk down the street and not have to have 10 people watching your back.

Right. You know, he was like, just because you see someone living well within, quote, unquote, your version of well in my permissive will, Anthony, you're living perfect within my perfect will for your life. And so I'm really, I'm always just saying, okay, what, stop looking at other people's platforms and what they have. Just focus on where God has you. Yes.

And I have to be okay with that. And trust me, I'm human. I wake up every single day. I get on Instagram every single day. Like, God, I could do that much better. Right. And then God convicts me. It was like, it's not about better.

It's not about more. It's about who are you called to? Who are you helping? Focus on that. Yeah. And Lewis, man, I mean, when I really sit back and think about it, there is nothing that I want right now that I don't have. I bought my estate home.

I got real estate. I have an amazing portfolio. I'm driving my dream car. I'm on a Lewis house show. You know what I'm saying? Like I have an amazing company with an amazing staff and team. There's nothing that I want. Like from my birthday this year, man, I'm going to Greece on a private yacht.

So it's like, yeah, I may not make as much money as them, but I'm living the life that I want. Man, my dad told me this years ago, Lewis. And I try not to get emotional when I say it because as I'm getting older, I've noticed that, man, things in my life change. And now I get even more what my dad said. We were playing golf on a Tuesday afternoon at 1 o'clock in the afternoon. My dad's in his 60s. And he stops. We just hit off the T-box.

And in the middle of us going to our balls, he stops. I said, all right? And he says, son, I'm wealthy. I looked at my dad. I said, Dad, I know how much money you made, man. You ain't wealthy. You know, you got a good retirement check from the Army. Thank you for your service.

But that's the thing to my head. I said, why you say that pops? It was like, it's 1 o'clock in the afternoon. I'm playing golf with my son. And I don't have to go to work tomorrow. Wow. I don't have to clock in and I don't have to be worried about how I'm going to pay my bills. Like, I could do what I want to do well.

And I want to do it with whomever I want. When I leave you, he was like, boy, go out and see a movie so I can, you know, have a conversation with your mama tonight. Like, it just felt good. And I was like, huh. He said, so yeah, I may not have as much money as you, but I'm wealthy. Wow. And that stood out to me that wealth is not just about money, but it's also about freedom.

And I think a lot of people get it confused that you need to make a million dollars to have freedom. No, no, no, no. You can have freedom off of $50,000. You just got to know the right strategy and the right system to put it into place. And from $50,000 to $60,000 to whatever that is, you can have freedom. And that's where I'm at, is I have freedom. There's actually a lot of wealthy people who aren't free. Facts.

They have all the money in the world, but they are struggling. Now, there are also wealthy people who are free. Yes, sir. You know what I mean? They do what they want to do. They say what they want to say. around the people they want to do. So I'm not saying having money makes you trapped, but there are a lot of people that are, have a lot of money and they have a lot more stress or responsibilities

that they don't know how to navigate emotionally or mentally. And therefore, it just causes more problems for them. I'm not saying everyone, but I'm saying there are people. And if you don't understand how to navigate money and how much expense things cost having, you. money. Like when you have money, things cost more. Yes, sir. Even if you don't buy a lot more stuff, there's just fees and expenses and taxes and, you know, you know, you push your hand in your head because you know the pain of paying taxes on the money, the harder money you make and just seeing multiple six figures, seven figures, gone. Gone. And you're like, I just spent six months of my life to give this much

money to the government or to the state or to whoever. Yes. And you have to navigate. that in your mind. You have to. I spent how much sleepless nights, how much effort, how much work building something where almost half of it goes to a government that I don't know where the money is going to. And if they're putting, if they're stewarding it, there's 100% chance that they're not stewarding it 100% well. Facts.

And so you have to live with that. And you get to live, it's a blessing to live with that. But if you don't know how to navigate that, first few years for me, I was angry. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I started making more money. And I was like, man, half of my year is just goes towards paying the government. Yes. And then paying for this fee and then paying for this tax and then just housing the money somewhere, cost money.

You're just like, what? Yes. Where's all my money going? There's a cost everything. Everything, man. It's like, where'd all the money go? Right. Right.

And so it's learning how to navigate the levels of money that come to you. And listen, it's hard when I was broke on my sister's couch. That was hard. Yeah, yeah. It was hard having no money and not being able to. mentally, emotionally, spiritually pay for things and navigating that. That's it. It was hard paying my first rent, $400 a month.

I was like, where am I going to get the money to pay for this rent month after month? That was hard. There's different levels, right? And learning how to navigate it. That's why I wanted to talk about what does it mean to be a good steward of money? And how do we know we've graduated spiritually, emotionally, psychologically, psychologically with the amount of money we have that we're ready for next levels of wealth? If I was to sit down with someone and someone asked me,

am I a good steward with money? My answers will be based around this. Can you tell me where you are financially? That lets me you're a good steward. Because if you don't know where you are financially, then you can never get better. So do you know I suck with money in this area? Or do you know, I actually do pretty good with money in this area?

So I know my shrimps when it comes to money, and I know my weaknesses when it comes to money, but I also Lewis can tell you the last time I spent $1.50 cents because I'm tracking every single thing that I spend. Now, that's just me because I'm in the money space. I don't know if someone needs to track every single dollar the way that I do, but it's like for me, I can tell you if I spent $0.55.

Because that's just how I am, because I'm very anal about getting to my goal and I know every dollar, every penny, that it can get me closer or it can take me away. So for me, how you know you're getting really good with finances is number one. Do you have a solid, clear vision that is aligned with a good budget? Then from there is what is the system and strategy that you're following? I've never met a millionaire who said, I woke up the next day and I made a million dollars.

And then I just, I have no system and strategy. I just, I just make money. Every person and when I say this, every net worth millionaire, when I say net worth, I'm talking about someone who may make 80,000. $1,000 a year, but they have a portfolio of a million dollars. They follow some strategy to get there, whether that's the 401k strategy combined with the IRA strategy, combined with a couple of index fund strategy, combined with, you know, real estate strategy. No matter what it is, everyone follows a strategy.

And then you know you need to upgrade is when they start, when you can look at your income and feel like, hey, you know what? This is too much for me to manage. So for example, when it comes to me, man, I still, you've graduated. I haven't graduated yet. I still get upset when I have to cut. I get upset for a couple days. Then I'm like, okay.

It's not, but it used to be months. Months. I'd hold on to like, I can't believe I just all the money I had saved on my bank, gone. Gone. Down to zero. It's like, how is that even possible? But you know what I did? You know what I started doing about five years ago?

It was I hired a CPA firm that in the first three months of the year, they go through a tax strategy. So now I'm only upset like you for a week because I know what's coming. Yeah, yeah, right? And I think that's also good stewardship because we also know that the tax laws are not written for the average person. It's written for, you know, the person who are making the entrepreneur, the small business owner. So it's like now that's also a level of good stewardship. Yes. Do you have a tax strategist who can sit down with you and help you come.

up with a game plan on how to pay the IRS less legally, ethically, morally, and for me spiritually to where I'm not doing anything wrong. I'm doing it all for those correctly to where my tax bill may go from 48% down to maybe maybe 32, 28%, but legally, ethically, morally, and spiritually. And so I love that because now when I have my tax strategy meetings, are you hiring anybody? Are you buying any real estate? Are you buying any new equipment? How much do you project to make this year?

They asked me so many different questions. And then we sit down and say, okay, this is the strategy on how to move forward for the rest of 2026. That's good stewardship. Because if I can keep some of that money from the IRS and maybe donate that to other single mothers, we're starting a brand new school in Ghana out and Akra Ghana. So we was able to save some of that money and use that money to go towards school. I've been to Accra. Oh, you have? I built a school in Ghana as well.

Yeah, yeah. It's cool there. It's cool. It's a different world, man. It is. It is. I mean, I stood out for sure. In great, great place.

Yeah, I loved it. Good energy there. Yeah. And so phase three we're talking about in the book, you talked about building a savings cushion of at least three to six months of take home pay, which is something you've already mentioned before. Yep. And a lot of people think that that is impossible on the amount of income that they currently

make. I'm like, how am I going to get three to six months? But what is the mindset shift that someone has to take or make before that? that can follow or the habit they have to change before that can follow. No, it's not difficult at all. When people tell me it's difficult to set aside three to six months of your income, let me see your lifestyle. How much car do you have?

Yeah. You don't need two cars. Right. Get rid of one on that. And you don't need a bike for a year. You don't need the $50,000 car that you purchase. Right, no. Get a used car.

When I moved to L.A., I had, I kid you not, man. And I was a millionaire when I moved to L.A. When I moved to L.A., I bought a $5,000 used car. Facts. And I wrote it for five years. Wow. I did not need, I didn't have radio. Now, this was probably too extreme.

I didn't have radio. I didn't have Bluetooth. Too extreme. Yeah. But I was comfortable. It got me from A to B. Yeah. It was reliable.

It just didn't need to, it wasn't new. And it was okay. And I was fine with it. It was a 19, it was 1997 Cadillac El Dorado Barrette's two door. Two door. And it was cool, man. I was like, all right, this is nice. Like, it felt like grandpa car, you know, the bucket seats.

And I was like, all right, cool. No radio. No, the ECD stopped working after six months. So I'm like windows down. Yes. You know, I'm rolling windows down, all these things. But the engine worked. It worked.

It got me around. And I didn't need to be in something so nice or brand new for those first five years. I was more, I cared more about investing my money, saving my money, reinvesting in my business to help my money work for me. Yes. And so now I have a new car and it's fine. but it was more for a tax write-off. It was like, okay, what can I do to buy a car

to benefit my business? It's a tax write-off. But five years, I didn't need anything fancy. And I paid it off right away, five grand, and I wrote it for five years, $1,000 a year. Yeah. Except for gas. But how much money did you save?

That's the question you ever asked. How much money did I save? Oh, yeah, I don't know. If I would have bought a new car for 50 to $100,000, I saved a lot of money. And the insurance was cheaper and all these different things. So save a lot of money. I believe that the greatest enemy to our financial success is our excuses. That if we keep saying, I can't, I can't, I can't.

What you're saying you can't to, you're doing it somewhere else that is not valuable. And so I'm in the same way as you, man. My friends, they used to crack jokes on me because, you know, they'll come over to my house. Man, this is not a house that a yo should be living in. I'm like, well, what's the house I should be living in? Like I literally just moved into probably the house, quote unquote, they say I should have been living in just. a few weeks ago. But the average house,

I was living in a normal family home. And I'm like, man, I have goals. I have dreams. I don't want to be 50 years old and I still have to be on YouTube teaching. I don't want to do that.

I want to be in a position to where my money is creating more time for me to do the things that I love to do with the people I love to do. So when I do get married, when I do set it down and have kids, my money is paying over bills,

not my time. And so if I don't come up with the right system in place and live way below my means. Yes. Right. And I think this is where a lot of people get confused. People think they'll stop living paycheck to paycheck to make more money. You will stop living paycheck to paycheck and make more money when you have margin. Yes.

Margin is your number one wealth building tool. Margin is your number one tool of getting out of paycheck to paycheck. If your income is up here, your expenses need to be down here. in between. That's your margin. And that's what you play with to pay off your consumer debt. That's what you play with to invest more, to put money into real estate, to invest into your kid's future, to buy businesses, to buy stocks, whatever you want to do. But if you have no margin, you'll never get out of the trap. Yeah. My friend, I hope you're enjoying this episode. And the School of Greatness drops new conversations every Monday, Wednesday,

and Friday around money, mindset, healing, manifestation, and relationships. And if you're not yet following the show, then you're missing all of them. Please tap the follow button right now, and you'll get notified the moment every new episode drops because the next one might be exactly what you need. Now, let's get back to the conversation. When I was my first, when I was living in Columbus, Ohio, and I had my first apartment when I was on my sister's couch for a year and a half, living rent-free. Then I paid $2.50 a month for a room in my brother's house.

Wow. For about six to seven months. And then I finally moved out. And I think it was paying, I can't remember it was 400 or $4.95, but it was in the 400 range for an apartment. And after the business that I had a business partner at that time, we did over a million dollars in sales, maybe a year and a half after this, right? Okay. And I was still living in this apartment. It was under $500 a month.

At that time, I had no car. So I was walking around everywhere. Okay. I had no TV. and I was just focused. And I was just stacking and saving and investing the money. And this is what you talk about in phase four is an investing with confidence. So your money starts working harder than you do.

And a lot of people feel like investing is for people that are rich or that are wealthy or that they are at a different level of financial success. And people who already have it figured out, are they no money better than me? What does someone who is just getting started actually need to know to invest? to invest without feeling fear. Man, the very first thing is that you can invest with $5 and to a fractional share. Do not focus on the amount, focus on starting the habit.

Let's go. That's it. Consistency, man. The system, the habit. The system and the habit. That's what told everybody, oh, I don't have a whole lot of money to invest.

That's not the problem. The problem is you haven't even created the habit. You haven't even just started. Just put $5. into a brokerage account. And then when you paid again, put $5 into a brokerage account. And I promise you, by this time next year, you will be putting more than $5. Oh, yeah.

He'd be like, oh, that makes me money. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, yeah. And so that's what I told everyone. It's like, man, investing is not for the rich. The investing is for people who have access. And for me, man, I think there's, in my book, I talk about, man, you got to invest anywhere between 15 to 25% of your income every single life.

The first 10% is if you are in a Christian faith community, I think that is the best investment we can ever make. 10% into the local church. A lot of people say, well, why don't I want to give to the church? So the passing can go buy a car, so the passing can go buy a house and da-da-da. I don't care about none of that. I believe that my word of God says, hey, give, right?

I'm just going to give. Now, if I know for a fact that it's going to the wrong place and I'm leaving the church, yeah, go somewhere else. Go somewhere else. But until then, I'm going to do. That's my very first investment because now what I'm saying, God, is I trust you more than I trust myself. Then after that I'm putting 15% into an investment portfolio that me and a financial advisor or me or in 2026, an app or AI has come up with where that's 401Ks, mutual funds, index funds, ETFs, broker accounts, whatever you want to do, 529s. Boom. I'm investing into that.

And let's say you don't have 25%. Okay, cool. I need you to start whatever you do have. Not wherever. With whatever you do have, $5, $10, bifractional shares, get into the habit. And automate it. Make it come out of your account every month. Yes.

And what I'm telling people right now, we're living in this AI boom and tech bone. If you need to be looking into companies in ETFs and index funds that have a lot of AI and tech companies inside of it. Because what I'm seeing right now, these companies, I know we all went out to, let's say, for an example, NVIDIA, but what companies are helping NVIDIA make their chips? Start looking at the companies everyone's not talking about because those are the companies that are secretly just blowing up behind closed doors, right? And so that's what I'm telling people. Just buy a $5 fraction share of that company that creates the power plant for the chip. or invest $5 into this ETF that creates memory for AI. You can even do a fund of AI stocks.

You don't have to think about individual ones as well. For sure. Yeah. And so, I mean, I think that's the main thing, too. And then also within that, I'm very big, Lewis on. We got to start investing into our children's future. Have to. Whether he's just doing 1% of the income, 5% of the income a month,

we got to start investing into our children's future so we can change the future and to change the future generations. Well, Phase 5 is something you talk about playing the long game, which is paying off your home, updating your estate plan, and creating generational wealth and hopefully supporting your children, leaving your children with something as well.

And I'm of the mind of like, you know, now that I have kids, I don't know if I want to give them everything because then are they going to be resourceful? Are they going to be creative and imaginative? And, you know, are they going to develop their own talents to be able to steward things in life? Okay. But it's figuring out, you know, what will I give them? I don't know, you know, so we'll see.

I'm still kind of figuring this out. Well, whatever you don't give them, give it to me. And I'm going to give them something for sure. But I don't know if it's like, yeah. And it's also like, and I think in this process, what I'm learning as I'm developing with my wife, our trust and our estate plan currently because we just got married a year a little over a year ago yeah so we have been building this together and educating myself and i think that phase five is really like educating yourself on these things as well yeah and i'm asking these questions with my you know my tax

attorneys with my financial team and things like that um and asking them like what do other wealthy families do that you've seen that have done well by investing in their kids or where you've seen hasn't really done well after one generation, two generations. So it's thinking long term and kind of creating caveats. You know, if they're like getting into drugs and going to jail, maybe you don't get access to certain things. Yeah, yeah. You get a certain amount to like support you on a, you know, a down payment for a home, but you're not getting the whole pot, you know, it's like, and it's creating these different layers of kind of passing down to your children. So I'm still learning about all this right now. No, and I think I think all of

are still learning one of the things that I talk about in the book that I've learned from five of the wealthiest families that are in my life one of them is a billionaire the other ones are worth at least a half a half a billion dollars or more all five of them do one thing that is that is totally in common every christmas after christmas they all leave all of them leave I think two of them go up to Denver, Colorado. And they have a family board meeting. And when I was talking to each one of them, I was like, mate, why is it so important? And to come back with you, my children will not get everything because, prayerfully, I leave before my wife leaves.

So my wife would get the bulk of everything and then my children will get the rest. But then within my estate, with my wife, whenever we get married, wife will be first, children will be next. My church would get a bulk as well of the money. And then my business will get a bulk of the money because I still want my business to still operate and move forward and bless people. And so one of the things that I've learned within this meeting is they're very strategic on making sure that their family is up to date on everything that's happening in the family. So they don't just go up there and just talk about what's in the, what's in the trust. Yeah, yeah.

There's so much money we have. Yeah. They don't do that. I was shocked. Every family member has to sign an NDA. And they go up there and they talk about, hey, we're struggling in our marriage. And this is what we're struggling in. And now all the family is helping them get through that family struggle.

If they have kids, the kids are talking about, they're asking questions. So the family comes together and they talk about the family business because the last name is what's carrying everybody. And so they're like, hey, we want to make sure that when we leave and they get our businesses, they get, you know, these millions and millions of dollars that we're going to be passing down to them that not only do we know that we talk to them about finances, but we talk to them about their spiritual walk. We talk to them about their family, husband and wife issues. We've asked any health questions. So they asked, hey, how was your checkup this year? How are you doing from a medical perspective? Well, I just found out I had colon cancer.

Okay, so what are we doing about that as a family? Well, if something was it happened to me, this is what we're going to do. We're going to have this date. So everyone in the family is fully abrasive everything that's going on, even down to the 10-year-old. The 10-year-old knows what's going on with the family. And I asked them, I said, well, 10-year-old don't know nothing. But that's a problem. They need to be learning.

I feel like as the youngest of four, no one ever told me anything. Exactly. You know, it was like maybe, maybe they did, but that was my interpretation. But I'll hear stuff over the last 10 years. And I'd be like, that really happened at this time? Like, no one ever told me this. They always kept me like secret because I was too young. Yeah, yeah.

And maybe you don't tell people ever all the like, oh, you know, this happened with your dad or your mom or whatever. But you got to inform people, hey, we're going through something as a family. Have to. You know, maybe don't give the exact details. Not to. And it will help the child, though, too. Yeah. Because if my family would have told me they were struggling, if my parents would have told me, hey, we're struggling right now.

I would not have been as disappointed back then because they made me feel like we weren't struggling. They just didn't want me to do this and go do that and go do this. But if my family would have been honest to say, hey, you know, I just want to be honest with you, man. I mean, being an adult, which you will be one day, you're going to live and have to pay bills. and you're going to live and have to do this. And son right now, me and your dad, me and your mom, we just can't do it. And 78% of the people in America do not have a trust and or will. The number one way to pay for your funerals right now is not through an insurance policy.

It's through GoFundMe. And it bothers me because when we really look at the people who are raising GoFundMe accounts, I guarantee you, not all, but a lot of them we can find some type of name brand item. A lot of them we could find something that they should not have purchased. So we choose feeling good over protecting the ones who we love. We choose making sure that we look good and we smell good and we have the right hair, the right haircut, the right car, and make sure our pull-up game is good rather than having a hard conversation and getting an insurance policy and getting a trust and getting a will, getting your health policy put together,

getting your power of attorney put together. Man, I'm 42, and I woke up at 3 o'clock in the morning when I was like 36. And I had this strong conviction that you're teaching all this stuff, but you're not practicing what you're preaching. I said, what, what, huh? I'm debt-free. I'm good.

So no, no, no. If you died today, your family will argue over what Anthony wanted with this stuff. They wouldn't know what you want to do with the business, with your homes, with your portfolio. So you're going to come home. You're going to be in heaven. You're going to be looking down and your family is going to be arguing because you are selfish. And I try not to get emotional because it really hit me.

I think a lot of people are just selfish and we don't care because when we're going, that's their problem. But one of the greatest ways we can say we love our families is by why we're living, planning for our down. Yeah. And when we're gone, making it more comfortable for them than more stressful for them. The only thing I want my family to cry over is just me being gone. Yeah. Not, I get this and you get that and you didn't show up, whatever it is. Yeah. Yeah. That's the only thing. And man, that was probably the hardest thing. One of the hardest things I've ever done in my life. Because here's why. And this is something we got to get out of. And it just bothers me. When I told my family, I was, was doing my will and my trust.

You know, the very first question they asked me, what's wrong? Are you sick? So we automatically attach to negative to the right thing to do. I think that's normal for a lot of people, though. They think that way because they're not thinking about, you know, phase five. They're not thinking about, they're thinking of survival mode. They're thinking paycheck to paycheck still.

And they're not thinking creating financial freedom and peace for themselves and a sense of clarity for others now and later. Yes. And it's, I bought, I bought life insurance for myself in my 20s. Yes, sir. Because one, I wanted to lock in a rate that was guaranteed for life. Yeah. And two, I was thinking about my future wife and my future kids.

Yes, sir. And I didn't know when I was getting married. You know, I got 15, 18 years after I got my first insurance policy. Wow. I got married and had. have kids. Wow. But when I bought the life insurance, I was like, this is not for me. Yes. I'm spending money every month and every year. Yeah. Not for my benefit. Facts. For a future person that I don't know. Facts. And future kids that are not existing. Facts.

For them to benefit. And I've been doing that for over a decade and a half, almost two decades. I've been, maybe it was almost two decades. I've been paying a payment monthly. Yes. For people that I didn't know. Lewis, I say the same thing, man. I have a 529 account right now. 529 account for the people who don't know is a college savings account. For kids that are not born.

That are not born. Right? And maybe I have. Maybe I have not, you know, but I haven't even met their mother yet. But for me, it was if I want to change the narrative, I went to school. I graduated with student loan debt. I my parents couldn't give me a check.

If I want to change the narrative in the O'Neill family, it starts with me. Let's go. And it doesn't start with me when I have kids. It starts with me today with the current mindset. So I sat down. What's the strategy? And then when I talked to my financial advisor, she was like, well, hey, here's a strategy. If you want to start planning for your kids, you can open up a 529 and state of Maryland.

You can ride off up to, I think it's what, $1,500 or $2,000. Before they're born? Before they're born. Shut out. I didn't know that. But the 529 is. going to my trust. So that way, if something happened to me now, the money goes to my trust. Right. Right. Yeah. But because now it's like, do I want to pay the IRS that money or do I want to

pay my future kids that money? Exactly. And then now, just think about it, man. Just think about it. When they turn 18 and they go to school, I get to look at my kids in the face and say, you know what? Here's a check for $150,000, $200,000 that I only put maybe $20,000. $25,000 into it, I was thinking about you. Wow. Before I even met your mama. Yes. Before you was even in your mother's womb.

Wow. Now what happens, Lewis? My kids are going to be like, what? Dad, how do I do that now at 18, at 20? So now we've changed the whole dynamic in the O'Neill family to where we went to having to take out student loans and thinking after the fact to where now the generation behind me is. down thinking way ahead of the fact. So now they can tear their kids the same thing. Yo, I started thinking about you at 18 years old.

Now you got a half a million dollars for college because I thought about you 15 years before I even had you. And so I think when we can start changing that narrative, which I love what you said by getting that. I wish somebody at 22 would have told me to get an insurance policy. My own parents didn't even tell me getting an insurance policy on me. But watch this. They had insurance policy on me, though.

Yeah. That was like, well, we got to get one on this boy. you don't know. But no one sat down with me and gave me the proven path on how to win with money. Yeah. On any income. Yeah. And I think, man, you can get an insurance policy on any income. Yep. At any season of your life, you just got to know how to do it. Exactly. What does financial freedom actually feel like? Not the number, but the feeling of financial freedom. Man, it's joyful.

Man, it is, it brings tears to my eyes. Financial freedom feels like you can say yes when you want to say yes and say no when you want to say no. Financial freedom makes me smile real hard knowing that when I find my wife I can give her the ring of her dreams. and a wedding within my budget of her dreams and not be stressed about it. Freedom feels good when you walk to your mailbox and any envelope that's in there, you know, it's not a bill collector.

Freedom makes you sleep better at night. But also, man, freedom puts you in position to take advantage of opportunities that if you didn't have freedom you could not take advantage of and for me freedom is the goal being rich is not the goal

being wealthy is not the goal being free is the goal and everyone says Anthony one of my friends said man Anthony you can make double amount of income I say yeah but I won't have freedom because if I chase more money, that requires more of my time. And if I give more of my time,

that that means I don't have freedom to do the things that I want to do. Like, I'm an HBCU professor right now. I'm not making any money doing that. But I have the freedom to drive up to Richmond, Virginia, once a week, every single Wednesday, to talk to 18-year-olds and 19-year-olds about what we talked about today. I'm using my freedom. to be a blessing to this younger generation.

So when they graduate college, they have the basic information of what they need to do with their jobs and with the income from their jobs. That makes me feel so good. I enjoy teaching at an HBCU more than I actually enjoy teaching on YouTube because I had the freedom to do it.

And it's my choice. And I'm not going there to get a check. I don't have to go there to pay bills. When I walk in there, man, and see those kids' eyes light up, when I talk about, hey, man, this is what compound interest is. You'll be surprised, Lewis, of how many young people do not even know what compound interest is. They have this mindset that nothing is free in this world and nothing is. But you're trying to tell me, Anthony, if I put $5 in this count, they're going to give me $0.25. May not be $0.25. You can get something. But the longer I keep it in there,

You mean the more money I will make. And when I show them, hey, eventually, if you keep it over there for a long period of time, you'll see that the majority of your income in your account wasn't even your money. Crazy, right? They're like, what? That's what freedom brings me. Like that I get so excited knowing that in the beginning of the semester, because my class is called Consumer Economics, that is not a sexy subject.

But by the end of the semester, man, my students are like, Professor Neu is my favorite class. Like you, you, you, like, my students to this day, when they graduate, they still email me. They still ask me questions about this. And that's what freedom puts you in position to do. And I want people to think about this, what could freedom put you in a position to do for your own family, for your own community, for your own kids, for your own spouse, for yourself? Yeah. Like freedom, and I'll say, I'll be quiet. You know, I'm a preacher, man.

So you got, you got somebody to shut up. Last time I was on your show, I weighed 196 pounds. I think it was right about a year after I left your show. I woke up in the middle of the night, went to the ER, thought I was having a stroke. Wow. Really? I didn't know that. To only find out I had gas.

Oh, my gosh. So I paid $5,000. Wow. To find out that I had gas. Wow. And my doctor, she said, hey, Anthony, you need to change your health routine. And I had freedom to where I was able to hire certain things and certain help.

And changing today I weigh right at about 160 pounds. And I haven't had any heartburns. My blood levels are so, so much better. Still got some work to do. That's what freedom is to me. Wow. That's cool. Well, speaking of things that a lot of people struggle feeling free around, which is when they get married, merging their money and their assets.

Some people get a lot of stress around that or they feel like it's hard because they've built their own assets, their own financial life, and now they're merging it with a spouse. Yeah. I think on the previous episode, we were talking about this at the end that we would talk about this. And I know you're not married yet. Yeah. But what is the value when two people get married of merging their money, their assets into one unit rather than staying separate? What have you seen or heard from wealthy people that works? And what have you seen that has been destructive from those who have maybe been married and gotten divorced because of money constraints or the sense of money constraints?

or the sense of money constraints, what have you noticed or observed? Yeah, man, I think it's very important to combine. You can't be married and have two separate visions for your money. It needs to be one combined vision, one combined strategy, and we both are working that strategy to get to that vision, right? And so I do believe that you should have one main family account that all income, and assets are coming into. Then from there, you have an account that pays all of your bills.

And from there, you'll have a savings account. But I do believe that Anthony and my wife should have our own spending account, that we don't have to be accountable to each other about what we're spending in that. I look forward to getting married and having a husband and wife conversation every single month. I'm going to be smart with it. I'm going to make sure I buy her a nice little dress every single month. And we're going to go to her favorite restaurant or one of her favorite restaurants every single

month and we're going to have a conversation. Hey, what worked this month? What didn't work this month? What do we need to be prepared for next month? I know we want to go on vacation in July. I know, I know we want to do Christmas and I know birthday and anniversaries and stuff is coming up. But hey, you know, maybe you want to do something with your girls or maybe there's something you want to do with the kids. What do we need to prepare for next month? How do we work the vision? Because here's the truth, man. Take away people like yourself and I who have done financially well within our business. Let's talk about the average everyday person. The average everyday person cannot afford to he pay this bill.

She pays that bill and they keep their money separate. No. The quickest way to get out of living paycheck to paycheck and the quickest way to building wealth is to bring your income together, live off of one of your salary. And invest the rest. And invest the rest. But if you're living off of yours and you're living off of yours, you can't do that together. So if you're, if you are a, the average middle class individual, hey, man, no, come together and then come up with a strategy.

Hey, I know we make a combined household income of 88,000, but we're going to live off of my 50,000. So whatever apartment or whatever house we can get with this 50,000, that's what we're going to do. Bay, with your income, man, we're going to tithe for sure, but man, we're going to invest heavily and we're going to even use some of your income for vacation for the family. But for the bulk of your income, man, we cannot be 80, 90 years old still working because we didn't invest wisely. So we're going to start investing your income into a mutual fund, into index funds, sit down with a financial advisor and invest your income, not just invested for our retirement, but invested for our kids too. But if you have two separate visions, you'll never get to an end goal quickly. And for me, even at this stage of my life, when I do get married, yeah, we're going to have some. some documentation documenting like, hey, this is going to work.

But just in case it doesn't, what I came in with and what you came in with, we can go out that way. But when we end this thing, no, it's all one pot. Let's get to the end goal. Let's put our kids in position to win. How do we bless our church even better? How do we build a dynasty and a legacy together? And I get excited about getting married and not doing this on my own. I don't want to keep all my money and all my success of myself. Because the truth of the fact, as a Christian man,

God gave me everything not to be good for the world, but to be a husband and to be a father to mine and a priest at home. I can't do that if I'm coming here saying, oh, all this is mine. No, baby, I did all this for you. I did all this for us. Now, we're going to hold each other accountable. Make sure you're good with your money. You know, but I mean, no, let's do this thing together.

and we're going to meet every month about the funds. That's good. That's good. What are the biggest money lies that people have been taught that are quietly keeping them broke? Oh, man, your credit score is the number one thing that you need. That's bogus. That's bogus. I don't even know what my credit score is. Lewis, it bothers me.

Oh, man, you know, cash ain't king. Credit is king. No, it's not. I think that credit and cash are equally important. Because here's the truth. I live that world. Anyone who knows me, you know. If you don't know, God bless you.

My name is Anthony O'Neill. But I lived that world, man. And I didn't have an active score. And my car insurance for my three cars was right around $1,300 a month. Three cars? Dang, man. You can only drive one. Facts.

I got rid of one. I'm down to two now. I got my dream card and my daily car. Okay. And so. I thought you made you had three cars like back in the day or something. I did. I had two much cars.

I'm human, right? That was different. If you got the funds, it's different. Definitely got the funds. But even still, though, with the funds, I was like, like you said, I don't get a drive. Exactly. So that means one of them is going to be sitting all week. That's a waste of money.

So I went down to two. And even with those two, I went down to 1130 a month. Well, I did my own thing. I said, you know, let me go car shopping. When car shopping, my first quote came back at 510. mom I was like wait what's the difference so I called my rep at that at a particular company I was with she said oh your credit score when you first signed up with us you had a non credit score because you had no open trade lines now did you have a house and you know actually just real estate on my credit report now she was like your score is in a high sevens and even a low eight so now you qualify for a cheaper rate well I said Okay, so there is a science to this credit game. Okay.

So because I had a decent score, I saved $600, $700 a month. It's pretty good. Right. But how many people do we know have an $800 credit score but don't have $800 in their savings account? So I believe that one of the biggest lies that we tell people is that, man, do not worry about cash. Just make sure that you have a real good credit score. And that lie is such false because, okay, I say that's true. If I had this 800 credit score and I go borrow $25,000, but I don't have the money to pay it back, now I'm screwed.

Yeah. I'm screwed. So I think that's one of the biggest lies. I do believe that it is important. But, man, I'm like you, Lewis. I just know my score is good because I don't borrow any money like that. So it's like for me, it's like all my cars, pay for them cash. anything, I'm paying for it cash,

except for real estate. I want to get to the point to where I could pay cash for real estate, but I am kind of like, you know, why? Keep that cash. Right, like, uh. Keep that cash. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, I'm like, uh, uh, uh, like I may, my primary house,

I may pay it off just so I, the family is good, right? Because I am in the, the content creation space and with AI, We don't know what's going to happen next five to 10 years. So I would love to make sure that the mortgage is paid up. But even still, I'm like, I'm going to still be making money. Yeah. So I don't know really what's to rush, right? Exactly.

So, yeah. What's the difference between looking wealthy and actually being wealthy? You know, that depends on where you are. See, that question kind of gets me a little bit. You know, you have the book, The Millionaire Next Door, talking about, you know, he was a millionaire. And he lived in a very modest house and drove like a Ford truck. Right. But let's look at the kind of vacations he was going on. But he was flying first class with his family. He was probably spending 30, 40,000 dollars.

I have a friend who's in the NFL right now. I won't say his name. Drives a Yukon. Drives a Yukon. But every year he'll spend $100,000 on a family vacation because he believes in experiences. So I really can't say what is the difference between someone looking wealthy and being wealthy because what I may say, oh, he's trying to flunt. Here's my philosophy. If you are living below your means and you decide to spend your cash that kind of way, I don't care.

People will look at me. I have an expensive card. Cool, great. But I didn't have an expensive house. It did feel weird, pulling up to my average house with that expensive card, but I paid for cash. I'm consumer debt-free.

I live way below my means, right? But it's like, if I work hard, If I pay off all my consumer debt, if I got a fully funded investment portfolio, fully funding emergency fund, however I decide to spend my money, it should be okay. Yeah. Like I would never spend $100,000 on the vacation, but I will spend $100,000 on the car. Yeah. So there's nothing wrong with that. Yeah.

What would you say then are normal money habits that are destroying people's finances? Yeah, man. We got to get off of money habits. It's got to get off DoorDash, Uber Eave. That's a habit that's just destroying us right now. They say on average people are spending anywhere between $4,2006,000 a year. So how much are they spending the year? $4,2006,000 a year.

Unlike. On just DoorDash. Really? So you're going to order McDonald's that typically would cost you about six, six to ten bucks if you go pick it up. You're spending $21 for a double cheeseburger value mill because you're, because you know, DoorDash up the meals. Then the tips.

Then the convenience fee. Wow. Right. And then if you're going during busy hours, that convenience fees even higher, right? So that that is one habit that we got to stop. We have to stop doing. Here's another habit that we got to stop doing. People don't talk about this.

Stop paying premiums, high-end health insurance premiums. Get off of PPO, get into the high-deductible ones, and get a high-deductible account that's attached to an HSA health savings account. If you're below 40 and you're healthy and you're just going in once and twice a year to get your average yearly exams and maybe an urgent care here and there, man, go get you a high deductible plan that keeps your high deductible cost at $3,000 to $5,000 before any expenses. Put that money inside of a savings account. Most jobs will give you a HSA account and match either the first $500 to $1,000. Put that money inside that account. Now when you go to go to the hospital,

when you go to Walgreens, CVS, Walmart, Target, anywhere, now you can see how you can pay tax-free dollars for that talent knowledge you were needing so now we're getting we have to get we have to get smart but because the world has taught us if i go to the hospital i only want to pay twenty five dollars out of pocket but how often are you going to the hospital right so i think that's another habit that we got to get out of is saying because that's comfortable no man sit down with yourself ask yourself um can i afford that like can i afford to go down to a hide at the bill plane. Stop living paycheck to paycheck, the proven path to break free from debt, build real wealth,

and live free on any income. Make sure you guys get a copy, get a few copies for some friends that might be struggling financially if you're looking to really stabilize your finances, create that vision for yourself, that money vision, eliminate the debt, start investing and saving and start feeling the freedom that you want to feel. I'm excited about this book for you, man. So I want everyone to get this book and make sure to support our guy, Anthony O'Neill. Is there any final money lesson that you've learned in the last couple of years that you feel like would be helpful for anyone listening or watching right now?

And I put so many inside of the book. But I think one of the lessons that I've learned when it comes to money is money is a game. and you're either the player or the piece. And I think that the majority of people are the piece. And they are being picked up and played around with it. They're being played. And I think for me, when I really learned that, that I had to transition myself from the player to,

not the player, from the piece to the player, man, I learned it. Like there are so many ways you can build credit without borrowing any money. but we're just not taught that. And we talk about that inside the book. There's so many different ways you can invest without making $60,000 a year. We talk about that inside the book. Money is a game.

More so of a game, money is just a strategy. And there's a strategy for everybody on any income level. The strategy change as your income changes. You go from 50,000, you're on this strategy. You're at 70,000. You're on this. strategy. You're on 100,000 on this strategy to watch this from 100,000 to about a half a million. You're in that same strategy. Right. And so that's one of the biggest thing that I really learned.

And I just, I spent time. I had this book done before my last book. But I want to make sure that this book literally were, there's no fluffing there. It's not a lot of stories. It's here's the strategy for the place and the season of where you're in. And if you follow that strategy, you'll be consumer debt free within 12 to 18 months. And within the next three years, your whole financial situation will be changed around. Anthony O'Neill.com, Anthony O'Neill on YouTube, Instagram, everyone on social media. Again, make sure you guys get the book, Stop Living, Paycheck to Paycheck. A couple final questions for you. Yeah. I've asked you this question before, a few different times.

It's called The Three Truths. I'm going to ask you in a different way. Okay. If you could only leave behind the world with three money truths, three. three lessons that you know to be true about money that you would leave behind, but we didn't have access to any other money content that you had ever. What would those three money truths be for you? Number one, give back 10% as far as going to be generous and activate the spiritual ram for you. Number two, make sure that you budget and write down every single dollar, spend

every single dollar on paper first. And then number three, invest. Position your money to make more money over a period of time because your money will work harder than you will invest these 15% to 20%. That's it. Final question. Anthony, what's your definition of greatness? You know, it's changed, man.

I think my definition of greatness is what have you accomplished? that no one else can see, that only you and God can see. And that means only me and God can say that I'm great. Wow. Lewis can't, the world can't, only me and God can say, I'm great.

And that's my definition of greatness is, what have you done behind closed doors that contributes to who you exude outside for everyone? That's my definition. My man. Appreciate you, sir.

My friend, I hope you're enjoying this episode right now because we are on a mission to impact 100 million lives every single week. And every follow here on this podcast helps us reach more people. Make sure to hit the follow at the top of this show's page right now. It's a single biggest thing that you can do to support the show and the impact of us reaching you every single time we have new episodes. I appreciate you. And I can't wait to see you in the next episode. I hope you enjoyed today's episode and it inspired you on your journey towards greatness. Make sure to check out the show notes in the description for a full rundown of today's episode

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