Anthony ONeal Can Help You Get Out of Debt

By Jamie Friedlander | October 21, 2020 | 0

When Anthony ONeal was 19 years old, he got kicked out of college for participating in a fraternity hazing event. He had racked up $35,000 in debt—a combination of credit card bills, furniture bills and student loans. He was homeless and sleeping in his old, run-down car. He showered at the YMCA.

ONeal’s dad eventually agreed to let him move back in with him, under the condition that he’d get his life—and finances—in order. He handed him an old-school Dave Ramsey budget form to get started.

Now 36, ONeal is not only thriving financially, but he is a personal finance expert, a national best-selling author and speaker with Ramsey Solutions who regularly joins Dave Ramsey’s nationally recognized personal finance show. He’s debt-free and recently purchased his first home in Columbia, Tennessee—a 2,500-square-foot custom build. He just bought his dream car and recently sent his parents on vacation abroad for the first time in their lives. He’s written three books about student loan debt, although he’s planning to expand to other finance topics beginning with his fourth. He hosts a popular YouTube show, and has a robust social media presence, with more than 250,000 followers.

ONeal’s homeless, debt-stricken days might be long behind him, but that doesn’t mean he’s forgotten about them. Now his life purpose is helping other young people—primarily millennials and minorities—get out of the same trap he found himself in over a decade ago.

“I’m trying to teach this generation that just because you have a budget, just because you have a plan and goals for your life and just because you live below your means doesn’t mean you’re broke and doesn’t mean you’re less of a person,” he says. “It just means you really value your future.”

The best advice ever: The greatest piece of wisdom Anthony ONeal ever received? That the caliber of his future will be determined by the choices he makes now.

One day, ONeal walked into a hotel room, and an elderly woman was cleaning his room. She was moving so slowly she could barely walk.

“I said, ‘Don’t worry about cleaning up my room, I’m a young man and I just need some lotion because it’s 40 degrees here and I’m Black and ashy,’ ” ONeal says, laughing. She gave him the lotion, and as she was walking to the door, she turned around and looked at him.

“Son, use your youthfulness wisely,” she said. “I’m still here cleaning up your room at 85 years old because when I was your age, I didn’t make the right decisions.”

“[This advice] is simple and people hear it all the time, but it really resonated with me,” ONeal says. “Every decision I make is impacting my future self.”

A Serendipitous Journey

ONeal’s “aha” moment didn’t happen when he was homeless, $35,000 in debt and living in his car, but rather once he moved in with his dad in Oceanside, California, a suburb of San Diego.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kU8LwGt_cpc&feature=emb_logo

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