If You Only Watch One Money Video, Make It This

Anthony O'Neal 0:00 Winning with money is not just about making money. People, I think, know the basics of, I need to pay my bills. Okay, I should save a little bit. 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.

Lewis Howes 0:17 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'Neal.

Anthony O'Neal 0:28 48% of individuals who make over $250,000 live on paycheck to paycheck.

Lewis Howes 0:32 Come on. Really?

Anthony O'Neal 0:34 The most common thing between everyone, someone making $60,000 a year up to a million dollars, it's just the, the amount of extra debt they brought into their life.

Lewis Howes 0:43 When you have seen yourself stretch and give more to your church or charities, do you find that more money comes to you?

Anthony O'Neal 0:51 You know what, Lewis, I've never said this on a, on a, on a show before, but you're my brother. I've been on here so many times, um [drumbeat]

Lewis Howes 1:00 So why do you think so many people are actually living paycheck to paycheck in America right now?

Anthony O'Neal 1:06 You know what, [sighs] Lewis, it's, it's good, good question to start off, man. Again, thanks for having me back on the show. Uh, but, uh, a lot of people will say because people are living paycheck to paycheck because they don't know any better, and I actually say that's not the case. I say a lot of people are living 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 and then I give this guy a million dollars, what's the difference between you two? It's simply the strategy that you put into place with that million dollars.

Lewis Howes 1:45 Mm-hmm.

Anthony O'Neal 1:45 So people are getting a paycheck. People, I think, know the basics of, okay, I need to pay my bills. Okay, I should save a little bit. But as- 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-

Lewis Howes 2:02 Mm-hmm

Anthony O'Neal 2:02 ... that's basic and simple for them to understand.

Lewis Howes 2:05 And this is something you talk about in your book.

Anthony O'Neal 2:06 Yeah.

Lewis Howes 2:07 You have this kind of five-step strategy-

Anthony O'Neal 2:10 Yes, sir

Lewis Howes 2:10 ... to getting out-

Anthony O'Neal 2:11 Yeah

Lewis Howes 2:11 ... of living paycheck to paycheck.

Anthony O'Neal 2:13 Yeah.

Lewis Howes 2:13 And there's a new study that found that 39% of American workers say just living paycheck to paycheck would actually be an improvement-

Anthony O'Neal 2:21 Mm-hmm

Lewis Howes 2:21 ... to where they are right now in their life. If they were actually living to paycheck to paycheck-

Anthony O'Neal 2:26 Mm-hmm

Lewis Howes 2:26 ... it would be an amazing thing for them.

Anthony O'Neal 2:28 Yes.

Lewis Howes 2:28 Most people are not even doing that-

Anthony O'Neal 2:30 Yeah

Lewis Howes 2:30 ... 'cause they're in so much debt, and they're trying to borrow to constantly get out of debt, and they're, and they're just trapped, and they feel stuck.

Anthony O'Neal 2:37 Yes.

Lewis Howes 2:38 So you have this five phases to getting, uh, you know, getting out of this paycheck to paycheck

Lewis Howes 2:43 lifestyle.

Anthony O'Neal 2:43 Mm-hmm.

Lewis Howes 2:44 And, and phase one of the plan you teach is about stabilizing your finances first and casting a clear vision-

Anthony O'Neal 2:50 Mm-hmm

Lewis Howes 2:50 ... a clear money vision of where you are going. But for a lot of people, this feels overwhelming.

Anthony O'Neal 2:55 Yeah.

Lewis Howes 2:56 Like stabilizing feels overwhelming 'cause 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.

Anthony O'Neal 3:06 Mm-hmm.

Lewis Howes 3:07 So how does someone start stabilizing their finances and cast a clear money vision for their life?

Anthony O'Neal 3:14 Lewis, le- let's go back to the word stabilizing because I think a lot of people, when they hear that word, they get a little, uh, frustrated, um, a little overwhelmed, which is so confusing to me a little bit because, uh, stabilizing can save your life. Uh, one of my good friends came home, um, uh, one day, and she's a ER doctor. And Lewis, she said something to me and to the whole room that just, it just woke me up. She said, "Man, every time someone comes into the ER doctor, they wanna go from whatever their issue is to fixed within a matter of an hour."

Lewis Howes 3:45 Yeah, to perfect health.

Anthony O'Neal 3:46 Perfect health.

Lewis Howes 3:47 Yeah.

Anthony O'Neal 3:47 Right? So she was like, "No, no, no. If you're coming in here..." Let's say for an example, she had a, unfortunately, this particular person had a, uh, gunshot wound. She said, "They wanted me to heal them within a hour. No, my first priority is to get you stable, to get your heart beating at a stable rate on its 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 gonna be done within a hour." So the reason why I wrote-

Lewis Howes 4:15 Mm-hmm

Anthony O'Neal 4:16 ... phase one is to stabilize your financing and clear a vision is we need to get your finances at a point to where they're at 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 talk 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. $1,000 in today's day and time is not gonna keep you stable, right? It, it, it won't even get you four brand-new tires on a 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 of two sides of our brain, our fast brain or our slow brain, right? And so if you only have $1,000 but you have a $5,000 issue, you're gonna operate off of your fast brain. When you operate off of your fast side of your brain, you're gonna make the wrong decisions.

Lewis Howes 5:08 Mm-hmm.

Anthony O'Neal 5:09 So if you have at least 30 days in your account and life happens, you're gonna operate off of the slow side of your brain and say, "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.

Lewis Howes 5:32 Mm-hmm.

Anthony O'Neal 5:32 And I believe that that's where I want you to go is be stable. And then for me to get out of phase one, it's like you said in the very beginning, is, is, is have a clear vision.

Lewis Howes 5:41 What would you say is the difference between someone who has a clear money vision-

Anthony O'Neal 5:45 Yeah

Lewis Howes 5:45 ... and someone who doesn't have a clear money vision?

Anthony O'Neal 5:47 Oh, it's clear. If I walk up to you and say, "Hey, where are you going within the next year with your finances? What are you doing this year?" Okay, we're at what? We're in this, this month of 2026. Um, if you can't tell me what you're gonna do for the rest of this year, you don't have a clear money vision.

Lewis Howes 5:59 What does their life typically look like compared to someone who is clear?

Anthony O'Neal 6:03 There's no stability. Uh, there's no consistency. Uh, 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 with my finances. I, I wanna purchase a home. When I purchase a home, I wanna remodel the home. If, if anything that comes into that does not align with that, it just doesn't flow into my budget.

Lewis Howes 6:24 Mm-hmm.

Anthony O'Neal 6:25 Even in this new season of me right now with ur- 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.

Lewis Howes 6:46 Yes.

Anthony O'Neal 6:47 And I think that's very, very, very important. The reason why a lot of people are still living paycheck to paycheck is because we haven't set the time to sit down and say, "You know what? I'm gonna pay off my consumer debt this, this month. I'm gonna 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.

Lewis Howes 7:06 Thank you.

Anthony O'Neal 7:07 [laughs] And I wanna have a 529 set up for both of my kids.

Lewis Howes 7:10 Mm-hmm.

Anthony O'Neal 7:12 That's a vision.

Lewis Howes 7:13 Mm-hmm.

Anthony O'Neal 7:14 Here's what I believe. We have a lot of people who are dreaming, but they don't, they don't have vision. And the vi- the difference between a vision and a dream is, is it written down and is action behind it?

Lewis Howes 7:26 Mm-hmm.

Anthony O'Neal 7:27 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. "Man, one day I'ma have this, and one day I'ma 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.

Lewis Howes 7:43 Yeah, and you have the systems in place-

Anthony O'Neal 7:45 Yes

Lewis Howes 7:45 ... where you automate things.

Anthony O'Neal 7:46 Yes, sir.

Lewis Howes 7:47 When it's automated, it's, it's automatic-

Anthony O'Neal 7:49 Yes, sir

Lewis Howes 7:49 ... and it's more automatically going to happen-

Anthony O'Neal 7:52 Come on now

Lewis Howes 7:52 ... 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.

Anthony O'Neal 8:00 Yeah.

Lewis Howes 8:01 And years pass, and your goals just are accomplished because of the systems. But you gotta get the information

Lewis Howes 8:07 first.

Anthony O'Neal 8:07 [laughs]

Lewis Howes 8:08 So phase two-

Anthony O'Neal 8:08 Yeah

Lewis Howes 8:09 ... is actually eliminating all consumer debt.

Anthony O'Neal 8:11 Yes.

Lewis Howes 8:11 And again, 39% of American workers today-

Anthony O'Neal 8:14 Yeah

Lewis Howes 8:14 ... say that just living paycheck to paycheck would actually be an improvement in their life right now.

Anthony O'Neal 8:21 Oh.

Lewis Howes 8:21 And a lot of it is 'cause people are in a lot of consumer debt.

Anthony O'Neal 8:26 Yes.

Lewis Howes 8:26 And this whole, I guess, buy now, pay later for, like, every-

Anthony O'Neal 8:30 Mm-hmm

Lewis Howes 8:30 ... groceries, for, like, everything.

Anthony O'Neal 8:32 Yeah.

Lewis Howes 8:33 I get it if you're in a bind-

Anthony O'Neal 8:35 Yeah

Lewis Howes 8:35 ... and you have to do that in an emergency-

Anthony O'Neal 8:36 Yeah

Lewis Howes 8:36 ... if you're not stable.

Anthony O'Neal 8:38 Yeah, yeah.

Lewis Howes 8:38 But that shouldn't be a regular monthly, yearly thing. That should be a once in a blu- l- once a year maybe at the beginning of your or- your season of earning money.

Anthony O'Neal 8:50 Facts.

Lewis Howes 8:51 Not, "Oh, I'm five years into my career and I've blown all my money-

Anthony O'Neal 8:54 Yeah

Lewis Howes 8:54 ... and now I gotta use this buy now, pay later method." Like, for me, that doesn't make sense.

Anthony O'Neal 8:59 No. Let's go deeper, Lewis. 48% of individuals who make over $250,000 are living paycheck to paycheck.

Lewis Howes 9:05 Come on. Come on. No way. Really?

Anthony O'Neal 9:09 Yeah.

Lewis Howes 9:10 Wow.

Anthony O'Neal 9:10 I think it was, uh, and don't quote me on this one, it's not in the book, but I was just reading a study just the other day. Uh, nearly 30% of millionaires are living paycheck to paycheck.

Lewis Howes 9:21 That's crazy to me.

Anthony O'Neal 9:23 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 $60,000 a year up to a million dollars, it's just the, the amount of extra debt they brought into their life. Now, listen, I, I, I believe that 95% of the people in America today cannot handle consumer debt. Let's, let's be real.

Lewis Howes 9:48 What does that mean, they can't handle it?

Anthony O'Neal 9:50 I think that there's 5% of people who can take debt, leverage that debt to build wealth.

Lewis Howes 9:55 Yeah, to buy assets.

Anthony O'Neal 9:56 To buy assets.

Lewis Howes 9:57 Yeah, yeah.

Anthony O'Neal 9:57 Right? Um, Anthony O'Neal, I do well financially. I still don't borrow consumer debt. I, I, I won't borrow money. I, I won't do things. Um, I do have an American Express now-

Lewis Howes 10:09 Yeah

Anthony O'Neal 10:09 ... that I pay off every single Monday.

Lewis Howes 10:10 Yep.

Anthony O'Neal 10:11 Uh, 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.

Lewis Howes 10:23 Mm-hmm.

Anthony O'Neal 10:23 And so what we're seeing here is that people, we are borrowing money. There's two types of people in, in this year, a- and, and I have to be honest. There are certain people who, unfortunately, last year we had over 300,000 people lose their jobs.

Lewis Howes 10:35 Wow.

Anthony O'Neal 10:35 So I do believe those, there are certain people out there who are borrowing money because they need it 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.

Lewis Howes 10:48 Why do you think so many people overspend and overconsume when they don't have the money?

Anthony O'Neal 10:53 I, I just think because it's like, man, we, w- we are impatient people. A- and I'ma put it on myself. When I was that guy here in LA, [laughs] 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, of the trunk with 1,000-watt amp. I didn't need that, Lewis.

Lewis Howes 11:16 No.

Anthony O'Neal 11:17 I, I... But-

Lewis Howes 11:18 Sounded cool, though.

Anthony O'Neal 11:18 Yeah, exactly.

Lewis Howes 11:19 It sounded cool.

Anthony O'Neal 11:20 It sounded cool. Everyone was doing it.

Lewis Howes 11:22 Yeah.

Anthony O'Neal 11:23 I remember, uh... Man, I went viral. It was a few years ago. I was living in Nashville. And, uh, man, I, I, I had the money, right? I went up there and bought me a $3,000 Gucci backpack during COVID. And I, I, and I got the backpack, came home. I was like, "Why did you buy this backpack? You ain't going nowhere." [laughs]

Lewis Howes 11:42 [laughs]

Anthony O'Neal 11:43 Like, you, you're not-

Lewis Howes 11:44 Hang it up in your home? Yeah, yeah.

Anthony O'Neal 11:45 Right. It's like you're not, you, 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.

Lewis Howes 11:52 Oh.

Anthony O'Neal 11:52 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 it cash, I just won't buy it. And i- if it's over $500, I think about it for 48 hours.

Lewis Howes 12:07 Mm.

Anthony O'Neal 12:08 Period. And at the end of the 48 hours, if I have not committed to I'm gonna 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, uh, and tell me to be quiet. Man, this is your show. I, I just love to talk. But did you know that 58% of vacations are purchased on the quality of the Instagram pictures-

Lewis Howes 12:33 Wow

Anthony O'Neal 12:33 ... that people can post online? So they will swipe their credit card to go to a destination that they really don't wanna go to. They just wanna go there because it looks good on the 'Gram.

Lewis Howes 12:44 To, to get the photo.

Anthony O'Neal 12:45 Just to get the photo.

Lewis Howes 12:46 Yeah.

Anthony O'Neal 12:46 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.

Lewis Howes 12:56 Mm-hmm.

Anthony O'Neal 12:56 And so for me, man, I, I, 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 their families get the leftovers-

Lewis Howes 13:22 Hmm

Anthony O'Neal 13:22 ... 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 gotta get sick and tired of where you currently are.

Lewis Howes 13:36 Yes.

Anthony O'Neal 13:36 Because that is frustrating to get up every single day to go pay back someone else. And let's just be honest, if you're really... I don't wanna name the banks on your, on your show, but there are several banks that are named after families. So you're, 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-

Lewis Howes 13:59 Hmm

Anthony O'Neal 13:59 ... I need some new school shoes. Mom, Dad, I wanna 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.

Lewis Howes 14:08 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 wanna feel like I fit in, or belong, or I look good," or s- you know. Why overspend when we don't have the money psychologically?

Anthony O'Neal 14:24 Man, I was talking to a guy and I asked him that same question, and, uh, he's a little bit older than me. And he grew up more so specifically in, in African American space. He grew up right around when, when slavery w- 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." He was like, "Back then I couldn't do certain things. Now I wanna go buy a suit. I wanna 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-

Lewis Howes 14:57 Hmm

Anthony O'Neal 14:58 ... have you earned it?"

Lewis Howes 14:59 What's the price you have to pay?

Anthony O'Neal 15:00 Exactly. You know? So you're not, you're not leaving your kids any i- i- any income. Y- you're not leaving your kids any, any wealth. Uh, there's a, a study, and I, I forgot the numbers, but it, it, it says this particular number leaves their children's bills and benefits. And the benefits as far as in, um, insurance benefits are only enough to take care of partial of the bills, so not all of it.

Lewis Howes 15:25 Mm-hmm.

Anthony O'Neal 15:27 But will leave b- will leave behind a Mercedes-Benz, a Chanel purse, a Louis Vuitton purse, a Gucci backpack, some shoes, but none of that is transferable. None of that is gonna really help set the next generation up to win. 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, um, another credit card, you need to be consumer debt-free for at least 24 months. Build the habit of using your, your cash, build the discipline-

Lewis Howes 16:04 Mm-hmm

Anthony O'Neal 16:04 ... so that when you get back into it, yes, if you have a Amex card, okay, now you're paying it off every month. You're not paying any interest. [laughs] It's your money, and now you're getting the rewards or the points and stuff like that, which is absolutely amazing. But I still would not go for points-

Lewis Howes 16:20 Hmm

Anthony O'Neal 16:20 ... just so I can have a credit card, just so I could buy things that I can't afford to buy.

Lewis Howes 16:24 You're pretty deep in the, the spiritual faith world as well.

Anthony O'Neal 16:28 Yes, sir.

Lewis Howes 16:29 From your experience in the communities that you're in-

Anthony O'Neal 16:32 Yeah

Lewis Howes 16:32 ... do people who have a faith-based practice, are they more prone to getting out of consumer debt earlier-

Anthony O'Neal 16:42 Mm. Mm

Lewis Howes 16:42 ... and investing in their future by s-

Anthony O'Neal 16:44 Mm

Lewis Howes 16:44 ... by saving and spending less?

Anthony O'Neal 16:47 Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Lewis Howes 16:47 Or do you also see people in faith and spiritual communities getting in extreme consumer debt, living paycheck to paycheck as well-

Anthony O'Neal 16:55 Yeah

Lewis Howes 16:55 ... whether they're financially less off or financially more off?

Anthony O'Neal 16:59 You know, man, I think in the faith world they're still human beings.

Lewis Howes 17:03 Mm-hmm.

Anthony O'Neal 17:03 So with me being a, a, a strong Christian, um, I can say this respectfully, n- no, they're not trying to get out of consumer debt quicker.

Lewis Howes 17:10 Really?

Anthony O'Neal 17:10 They're still human beings.

Lewis Howes 17:11 Yeah, yeah.

Anthony O'Neal 17:11 I mean, not they, we are still human beings. [laughs]

Lewis Howes 17:14 [laughs] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Anthony O'Neal 17:14 Right? So we still have our personal desires. What I do see, uh, more prevalent within the Christian world is we are strong in the faith in giving.

Lewis Howes 17:23 Hmm.

Anthony O'Neal 17:24 And so we-

Lewis Howes 17:25 Tithing and giving and-

Anthony O'Neal 17:25 Yes, 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. Uh, but then too, also, I can say this as well, I do feel as if sometimes within the 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, o- our light money.

Lewis Howes 17:52 Hmm.

Anthony O'Neal 17:52 I, I totally disagree with that. No, give your tithe and offerings, but go pay your light bill. Right? G- give your tithe and offerings, but go pay your rent, go pay your mortgage. Uh, but do not-

Lewis Howes 18:02 Don't do it at the expense of putting yourself more into the hole.

Anthony O'Neal 18:05 Right. And there are certain, um, organizations and, and, and leaders within, um, all organizations of the spiritual realm that will say, "Hey, trust God. Give him 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 sure that my home is good."

Lewis Howes 18:30 Yeah, put your mask on first.

Anthony O'Neal 18:31 Got to.

Lewis Howes 18:31 Your oxygen mask.

Anthony O'Neal 18:32 Got to. Got to.

Lewis Howes 18:33 Don't starve of oxygen-

Anthony O'Neal 18:35 No

Lewis Howes 18:35 ... you know, and then say, "Someone help me."

Anthony O'Neal 18:37 Facts.

Lewis Howes 18:37 You know what I mean?

Anthony O'Neal 18:38 Yeah, yeah.

Lewis Howes 18:38 You gotta take care of yourself.

Anthony O'Neal 18:39 Yeah, yeah, no, I'm, I'm taking care of myself, I'm taking care of home, but I'm also gonna take care of my church, man.

Lewis Howes 18:42 Yeah.

Anthony O'Neal 18:42 You know, and I, 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 in 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 mo- That's in one of my phases. I teach the whole invest. Um, but I really do believe the number one investment you can make is in tithe and offerings.

Lewis Howes 19:08 Really?

Anthony O'Neal 19:08 For sure.

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Anthony O'Neal 20:22 Mm-hmm

Lewis Howes 20:22 ... to your church or charities or causes you believe in, do you find that more money comes to you?

Anthony O'Neal 20:30 You know what, Lewis, I've never said this on a, on a, on a show before, but you my brother and I've been on here so many times. Um, I had to be very unique with how I, uh, maneuvered the first three years of starting my business. I had to be very unique. Hopefully I can say, hopefully I'm saying that correctly. Hopefully you're picking up what I'm saying.

Lewis Howes 20:47 Sure.

Anthony O'Neal 20:48 And I told God, I said, "God, I'm still gonna give you my tithe and beyond." I gave him 12%, spiritually speaking. You're supposed to give him 10%, per the Bible, but I gave him 12%. I said, "Because, because, God, I need you to figure out a way [laughs] to get me through these next three years."

Lewis Howes 21:04 Wow.

Anthony O'Neal 21:06 And Lewis, I, I gave 12% tithe in offerings. I was even, within my organization, every, every time someone gave us money on our YouTube channel, like as a, um, a Super Chat-

Lewis Howes 21:18 Donation, yeah, yeah

Anthony O'Neal 21:18 ... or something like that, we gave all that money to single mothers. So Anthony O'Neal, 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.

Lewis Howes 21:29 Wow.

Anthony O'Neal 21:29 Second year, we gave away a little over a quarter million. Lewis, I've never gone down a year.

Lewis Howes 21:34 Wow.

Anthony O'Neal 21:35 I've always gone up, and I do believe that is because God knows that, hey, in this area of life, I can trust you.

Lewis Howes 21:41 Mm.

Anthony O'Neal 21:42 You're gonna be a good steward of your finances.

Lewis Howes 21:45 Yes.

Anthony O'Neal 21:45 And it's not even just spiritually. It's like, man, I give to, uh, my, my fraternity. Um, I give to other nonprofits. Um, I've given to other churches.

Lewis Howes 21:55 Mm.

Anthony O'Neal 21:55 I've given to people just because I just felt need. Like I had a, um, a friend went through something with his particular family, gave that particular friend $10,000.

Lewis Howes 22:05 Yeah.

Anthony O'Neal 22:05 Said, "Here you go." "Well, now what's this for?" "No, no, no, I just wanna be a blessing." Because I firmly do believe that while God asks for 10% back, the other 90% of the money He's allowing me to keep is still not mine. He just calls me to steward it well.

Lewis Howes 22:18 Mm-hmm.

Anthony O'Neal 22:19 So if I wanna make $20 million a year, I need to show God that, yo, if you give me 20 million, I'm not gonna be selfish.

Lewis Howes 22:27 Mm.

Anthony O'Neal 22:27 I'm gonna be a blessing to others. I'm gonna be a blessing to my church and to my community. If, if Lewis is doing something that's a great cause, man, I'm gonna sow into Lewis' great cause that's impacting the world, because I wanna make sure that I'm not a selfish guy with my money-

Lewis Howes 22:41 Mm-hmm

Anthony O'Neal 22:41 ... and that God can trust me with more.

Lewis Howes 22:42 Why do you think God allows bad people to have a lot of money, some bad people?

Anthony O'Neal 22:48 I mean, I, I believe that God gives us a choice. You know, He, He gives us free will. Um, I do believe that just because God allows you to have, um, a lot of money doesn't mean internally you are prosperous.

Lewis Howes 23:01 Yeah, you're not rich.

Anthony O'Neal 23:02 You're not rich.

Lewis Howes 23:03 Yeah.

Anthony O'Neal 23:03 Right? And so I would rather have $5 million and be rich internally than have $20 million and be miserable and just literally going through you know what internally, right?

Lewis Howes 23:14 Mm-hmm.

Anthony O'Neal 23:15 And so I, I used to always ask myself that, "Well, God, well why does, uh, he out there doing A, B, C, D, E, F, G, and he making way more money than me?" He said, "Yeah, but you're sleeping w- at peace."

Lewis Howes 23:25 Mm-hmm.

Anthony O'Neal 23:25 You know, you're, you, you, you, you can walk down the street and not have to have 10 people watching your back.

Lewis Howes 23:31 Right. [laughs]

Anthony O'Neal 23:31 You know? [laughs] He was like, "Just because you see someone living well within, quote-unquote, your version of well and my permissive will-

Lewis Howes 23:41 Mm

Anthony O'Neal 23:41 ... Anthony, you're living perfect within my perfect will for your life."

Lewis Howes 23:44 Mm.

Anthony O'Neal 23:44 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.

Lewis Howes 23:52 Yes.

Anthony O'Neal 23:53 And I, and, and I have to be okay with that. And trust me, I, I'm human. I wake up every single day. I get on Instagram every single day like, "God, I could do, I could do that much better."

Lewis Howes 24:03 [laughs]

Anthony O'Neal 24:04 Right? And then God convicts me. It was like, it's not about better.

Lewis Howes 24:07 Mm-hmm.

Anthony O'Neal 24:08 It's not about more. It's about who are you called to, who are you helping.

Lewis Howes 24:12 Mm-hmm.

Anthony O'Neal 24:13 Focus on that.

Lewis Howes 24:14 Yeah.

Anthony O'Neal 24:14 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.

Lewis Howes 24:25 Mm-hmm.

Anthony O'Neal 24:26 I bought my estate home. I got real estate. I have an amazing portfolio. I'm driving my dream car. I'm on the Lewis Howes 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 for my birthday this year, man, I'm, I'm, I'm going to Greece-

Lewis Howes 24:43 Mm

Anthony O'Neal 24:43 ... on a private yacht. So it's like, yeah, I'm not, I may not make as much money as them, but I'm living the life that

Anthony O'Neal 24:52 I want. Man, my dad told me this y- years ago, Lewis, and I try not to get emotional when I say it because as I'm getting older, I'm, I've noticed that, man, things in my life change.

Lewis Howes 25:02 Mm-hmm.

Anthony O'Neal 25:02 And now I get even more what my dad said. We were playing golf on a Tuesday afternoon at 1:00 in the afternoon. My dad's in his 60s and he, he stops. I just, we just hit off the tee box and in the middle- Of us going to our balls, he stops. I was like, "Daddy, you all right?" And he says, "Son, I'm wealthy." I looked at my dad. I said, "Dad, I know how much money you make, man. You, you, you ain't wealthy."

Lewis Howes 25:29 [laughs]

Anthony O'Neal 25:30 You know, you, you, you got a good retirement check from the Army. Thank you for your service. But that's the thing in my head, I said, "Why you say that, Pops?" He was like, "It's 1:00 in the afternoon."

Lewis Howes 25:39 Mm-hmm.

Anthony O'Neal 25:39 "I'm playing golf with my son and I don't have to go to work-"

Lewis Howes 25:45 Mm.

Anthony O'Neal 25:45 "... tomorrow."

Lewis Howes 25:47 Wow.

Anthony O'Neal 25:48 "I don't have to clock in and I don't have to be worried about how I'm gonna pay my bills. Like, I could do what I wanna do when I wanna 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."

Lewis Howes 26:03 Yeah, yeah.

Anthony O'Neal 26:03 Like, it just felt good.

Lewis Howes 26:05 Yeah, yeah.

Anthony O'Neal 26:05 And, and I was like, "Huh." He said, "So yeah, I may not have as much money as you, but I'm wealthy."

Lewis Howes 26:12 Wow.

Anthony O'Neal 26:13 And that stood out to me that wealth is not just about money, but it's also about freedom.

Lewis Howes 26:18 Mm-hmm.

Anthony O'Neal 26:19 And I think a lot of people get it confused-

Lewis Howes 26:21 Yeah

Anthony O'Neal 26:21 ... that you need to make a million dollars to have freedom. No, no, no, no, no. You can have freedom off of $50,000.

Lewis Howes 26:28 Mm-hmm.

Anthony O'Neal 26:28 You just gotta know the right strategy and the right system to put into place. And from 50,000 to 60,000 to whatever that is, you can have freedom, and that's, that's where I'm at is I have freedom.

Lewis Howes 26:40 Yeah. There's actually a lot of wealthy people who aren't free.

Anthony O'Neal 26:43 Facts.

Lewis Howes 26:43 They have all the money in the world, but they are struggling. Now, there are also wealthy people who are free.

Anthony O'Neal 26:49 Yes, sir. Yes, sir.

Lewis Howes 26:50 You know what I mean? That can-

Anthony O'Neal 26:51 Yes, sir.

Lewis Howes 26:51 That can...

Anthony O'Neal 26:52 [laughs]

Lewis Howes 26:52 They do what they wanna do.

Anthony O'Neal 26:53 Right.

Lewis Howes 26:53 They say what they wanna say.

Anthony O'Neal 26:54 Yeah, yeah.

Lewis Howes 26:54 They're around the people they wanna do. So I'm not saying having money makes you trapped.

Anthony O'Neal 26:58 Facts.

Lewis Howes 26:58 But there are a lot of people that are, have a lot of money and ha- they have a lot more stress or responsibilities that they don't know how to navigate emotionally or mentally.

Anthony O'Neal 27:08 Mm-hmm.

Lewis Howes 27:09 And therefore, it just causes more problems for them.

Anthony O'Neal 27:11 Yes.

Lewis Howes 27:12 I'm not saying everyone-

Anthony O'Neal 27:13 Yeah

Lewis Howes 27:13 ... but I'm saying there are people, and if you don't understand how to navigate money-

Anthony O'Neal 27:20 Mm-hmm

Lewis Howes 27:21 ... and how much expense things cost having money.

Anthony O'Neal 27:25 Yes, sir.

Lewis Howes 27:25 Like, when you have money, things cost more.

Anthony O'Neal 27:27 Yes, sir.

Lewis Howes 27:28 Even if you don't buy a lot more stuff, there's just fees and expenses and taxes and, you know, [laughs] you know, you put your hand on your head because you know the pain of paying taxes-

Anthony O'Neal 27:38 Oh

Lewis Howes 27:38 ... on the mon- the hard-earned money you make and just seeing multiple six figures-

Anthony O'Neal 27:43 Oh

Lewis Howes 27:43 ... seven figures gone.

Anthony O'Neal 27:44 Gone.

Lewis Howes 27:45 And you're like, "I just spent six months of my life-"

Anthony O'Neal 27:48 [laughs]

Lewis Howes 27:48 "... to give this much money-"

Anthony O'Neal 27:50 Oh

Lewis Howes 27:50 "... to the government or to the state or to whoever."

Anthony O'Neal 27:53 Yes.

Lewis Howes 27:53 And you have to navigate that in your mind.

Anthony O'Neal 27:56 You have to.

Lewis Howes 27:57 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's going to.

Anthony O'Neal 28:06 That's it.

Lewis Howes 28:06 And if they're putting, if they're stewarding it, there's 100% chance that they're not stewarding it 100% well.

Anthony O'Neal 28:12 Facts.

Lewis Howes 28:12 And so you have to live with that.

Anthony O'Neal 28:14 Yep.

Lewis Howes 28:15 Or 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.

Anthony O'Neal 28:22 Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Lewis Howes 28:23 When I started making more money-

Anthony O'Neal 28:24 Yeah, yeah

Lewis Howes 28:24 ... and I was like, "Man, half of my year is-"

Anthony O'Neal 28:26 Yes

Lewis Howes 28:26 ... just goes towards paying the government.

Anthony O'Neal 28:28 Yes.

Lewis Howes 28:29 And then paying for this fee and then paying for this tax, and then just housing the money somewhere costs money. You're just like, "What?"

Anthony O'Neal 28:35 Yes.

Lewis Howes 28:36 Where's all my money going?

Anthony O'Neal 28:37 Does it cost everything.

Lewis Howes 28:38 Everything, man. It's like, where'd all the money go?

Anthony O'Neal 28:40 Right, right. No, man.

Lewis Howes 28:41 And so it, it's learning how to navigate the levels of money that come to you. A- and it, listen, it's hard when, when I was broke on my sister's couch-

Anthony O'Neal 28:50 Yeah

Lewis Howes 28:50 ... that was hard.

Anthony O'Neal 28:51 Yeah, yeah.

Lewis Howes 28:51 It was hard having no money-

Anthony O'Neal 28:53 Yeah

Lewis Howes 28:53 ... and not being able to mentally, emotionally, spiritually pay for things and navigating that.

Anthony O'Neal 28:57 That's it.

Lewis Howes 28:58 It was hard paying my first rent.

Anthony O'Neal 29:00 Yeah.

Lewis Howes 29:00 $400 a month.

Anthony O'Neal 29:01 Ooh.

Lewis Howes 29:02 I was like, "Where am I gonna get the money to pay for this rent month after month?" That was hard.

Anthony O'Neal 29:05 Yeah.

Lewis Howes 29:06 There's different levels.

Anthony O'Neal 29:07 Yes, sir.

Lewis Howes 29:07 Right? And learning how to navigate it. That's why I wanted to talk about what does it

Lewis Howes 29:12 mean to be a good steward of money.

Anthony O'Neal 29:14 Mm-hmm.

Lewis Howes 29:14 And how do we know we've graduated spiritually, emotionally, psychologically with the amount of money we have that we're ready for next levels of wealth?

Anthony O'Neal 29:22 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 know 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 strengths when it comes to money, and I know my, my weaknesses when it comes to money. But I'll also, Lewis, can tell you the last time I spent $1.50 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-

Lewis Howes 30:08 Yeah

Anthony O'Neal 30:08 ... dollar the way that I do, but it's like for me, I can tell you if I spent 55 cents because that's just how the, how I am, 'cause I'm very anal about getting to my goal and, 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 just 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?

Lewis Howes 30:36 Mm-hmm.

Anthony O'Neal 30:37 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, I just make money." Every person, a- and when I say this, every net worth millionaire, when I say net worth, I'm talking about someone who may make $80,000 a year, but they have a portfolio of a million dollars, they follow some strategy to get there.

Lewis Howes 30:58 Yeah.

Anthony O'Neal 30:58 Whether that's the 401 [k] 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 fear, feel, feel like, "Hey, you know what? This is too much for me to manage." So for example, when it comes to me, um, man, I, I, I still... You've graduated. I, I haven't graduated yet. I still get upset [laughs] when I have to-

Lewis Howes 31:28 Oh, wow. [laughs]

Anthony O'Neal 31:29 Yeah.

Lewis Howes 31:29 I get upset for a couple days, but then I'm like, "Okay."

Anthony O'Neal 31:33 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Lewis Howes 31:33 It's not a d- but it used to be months.

Anthony O'Neal 31:35 Months.

Lewis Howes 31:35 I'd hold onto, like, "I can't believe I just... All the money I had saved in my bank, gone."

Anthony O'Neal 31:40 Gone.

Lewis Howes 31:41 Down to zero.

Anthony O'Neal 31:41 Yeah.

Lewis Howes 31:41 It's like, how is that even possible?

Anthony O'Neal 31:43 But you know what I did, you know what I started doing a few, uh, about five years ago, it was, um, I hired a CPA firm that in the first three months of the year, they go through a tax strategy.

Lewis Howes 31:53 Mm-hmm.

Anthony O'Neal 31:54 So now I'm only upset like you for a week.

Lewis Howes 31:56 [laughs] Yeah.

Anthony O'Neal 31:56 Because I know what's coming.

Lewis Howes 31:58 Yeah, yeah. Of course.

Anthony O'Neal 31:58 Right? And, 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.

Lewis Howes 32:12 Yes.

Anthony O'Neal 32:12 Do you have a tax strategist who can sit down with you and help you come up with a game plan-

Lewis Howes 32:18 Yep

Anthony O'Neal 32:19 ... 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?" Or w- they ask me so many different questions, and then we sit down and say, "Okay, this is the strategy-

Lewis Howes 32:52 Mm-hmm

Anthony O'Neal 32:52 ... 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-

Lewis Howes 33:02 Yeah, yeah

Anthony O'Neal 33:02 ... brand new, um, school in Ghana a- in, uh, in, in Accra, Ghana.

Lewis Howes 33:07 Uh-huh.

Anthony O'Neal 33:07 So we was able to save some of that money-

Lewis Howes 33:08 That's cool

Anthony O'Neal 33:09 ... and use that money to go towards school.

Lewis Howes 33:11 Yeah, yeah. I've been to Accra.

Anthony O'Neal 33:12 Oh, you have?

Lewis Howes 33:12 I built a school in Ghana as well. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Anthony O'Neal 33:14 Oh.

Lewis Howes 33:14 It's cool there. It's cool.

Anthony O'Neal 33:15 No.

Lewis Howes 33:15 It's a different world, man.

Anthony O'Neal 33:16 It is. It is.

Lewis Howes 33:17 I mean, I-

Anthony O'Neal 33:17 I love it

Lewis Howes 33:18 ... I stood out, for sure. [laughs]

Anthony O'Neal 33:20 [laughs]

Lewis Howes 33:20 A great, great place.

Anthony O'Neal 33:22 Yes, it is.

Lewis Howes 33:22 I loved it. Good energy there.

Anthony O'Neal 33:24 Yeah.

Lewis Howes 33:24 And so phase three we're talking about i- in the book, you talk about building a savings cushion of at least three to six months-

Anthony O'Neal 33:31 Yes

Lewis Howes 33:31 ... of take-home pay, which is something you've already mentioned before.

Anthony O'Neal 33:33 Yep, yep.

Lewis Howes 33:34 And a lot of people think that that is impossible on-

Anthony O'Neal 33:37 No

Lewis Howes 33:37 ... the amount of income that they currently make and like, "How am I gonna get three to six months?" But what is the mindset shift that someone has to take or make before that can, that can follow, or the habit they have to change before that can follow?

Anthony O'Neal 33:50 No, I... 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?

Lewis Howes 33:58 Yeah. You don't need two cars.

Anthony O'Neal 34:00 Right.

Lewis Howes 34:00 [laughs] Get rid of one of them.

Anthony O'Neal 34:01 And you don't need to-

Lewis Howes 34:02 Ride a bike for a year.

Anthony O'Neal 34:03 You don't need the $50,000 car that you purchased.

Lewis Howes 34:05 Right.

Anthony O'Neal 34:05 No.

Lewis Howes 34:05 Get a used car.

Anthony O'Neal 34:06 Get a used car.

Lewis Howes 34:07 When I moved to LA, I had, I kid you not, man, and I was a millionaire when I moved to LA.

Anthony O'Neal 34:12 Mm.

Lewis Howes 34:12 When I moved to LA, I bought a $5,000 used car.

Anthony O'Neal 34:14 Facts.

Lewis Howes 34:15 And I rode it for five years.

Anthony O'Neal 34:17 Wow.

Lewis Howes 34:18 I did not need... I, I didn't have radio. Now, this is probably too extreme. I didn't have radio.

Anthony O'Neal 34:22 [laughs]

Lewis Howes 34:22 I didn't have Bluetooth.

Anthony O'Neal 34:23 Too extreme.

Lewis Howes 34:24 Yeah.

Anthony O'Neal 34:24 Bluetooth.

Lewis Howes 34:24 But I was comfortable in it.

Anthony O'Neal 34:26 Yeah, yeah.

Lewis Howes 34:26 It, it got me from A to B.

Anthony O'Neal 34:27 Yeah, yeah.

Lewis Howes 34:28 It was reliable. It just didn't need to... It wasn't new.

Anthony O'Neal 34:31 No.

Lewis Howes 34:31 And it was okay, and I was fine with it. It was a 19, it was a 1997 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz two-door.

Anthony O'Neal 34:37 Two-door.

Lewis Howes 34:38 And it was cool, man. I was like, "All right, this is nice." Like-

Anthony O'Neal 34:40 Yeah

Lewis Howes 34:40 ... it felt like grandpa car, you know? The, the bucket seats, and I was like, "All right, cool." No radio, no, no... The AC, CD stopped working after six months, so I'm like windows down.

Anthony O'Neal 34:50 Yes.

Lewis Howes 34:51 You know, I'm rolling windows down, all these things, but the engine worked.

Anthony O'Neal 34:54 It worked.

Lewis Howes 34:54 It got me around, and I didn't need to be in something so nice or brand new for those-

Anthony O'Neal 35:01 Right

Lewis Howes 35:01 ... first five years. I was more, uh, I, I more, I cared more about investing my money, saving my money-

Anthony O'Neal 35:08 Yes

Lewis Howes 35:08 ... reinvesting in my business to help my money work for me.

Anthony O'Neal 35:11 Yes.

Lewis Howes 35:12 And so now I have a new car, and it's fine, but it's, it was more for a tax write-off.

Anthony O'Neal 35:16 Yes.

Lewis Howes 35:16 It was like, "Okay, what can I do to buy a car to benefit my business-

Anthony O'Neal 35:20 Yes

Lewis Howes 35:20 ... as a tax write-off?" But five years, I didn't need anything fancy.

Anthony O'Neal 35:24 No.

Lewis Howes 35:24 And I paid it off right away.

Anthony O'Neal 35:26 Yeah.

Lewis Howes 35:26 Five grand, and I rode it for five years. Thousand bucks a year.

Anthony O'Neal 35:30 Yeah.

Lewis Howes 35:30 Except for gas, but-

Anthony O'Neal 35:31 But how much money did you save yourself? That's the question I ask.

Lewis Howes 35:34 How much money did I save?

Anthony O'Neal 35:35 Yeah.

Lewis Howes 35:35 Oh, yeah. I don't know. If I would've bought a new car for 50 to 100 grand, I saved a lot of money, and the insurance was cheaper and all these different things. So-

Anthony O'Neal 35:43 That's what I'm saying

Lewis Howes 35:43 ... saved a lot of money.

Anthony O'Neal 35:44 I, I believe that the greatest enemy to our financial success is our excuses.

Lewis Howes 35:49 Mm-hmm.

Anthony O'Neal 35:50 That if we keep saying, "I can't, I can't, I can't," what you're saying you can't to, you're, you're doing it somewhere else-

Lewis Howes 35:57 Right

Anthony O'Neal 35:57 ... that is not valuable.

Lewis Howes 35:58 Mm-hmm.

Anthony O'Neal 35:59 And so I, I'm the same way as you, man. My friends, they used to crack jokes on me 'cause, you know, they'll come over to my house, like, "Man, this is not a house that AO should be living in." I'm like, "Well, what's a house I should be living in?" Like, I literally just moved into probably the house, quote-unquote, they say I should've been living in just a few weeks ago. But the average house I w- I was living in a v- a normal family home, and I'm like, "Man, I have goals. I have dreams. Um, I don't wanna be 50 years old and I still have to be on YouTube teaching. I don't wanna do that. I wanna 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."

Lewis Howes 36:37 Mm-hmm.

Anthony O'Neal 36:38 So when I do get married, when I do settle down and have kids, my money is paying all of our bills, not my time. And so if I don't come up with the right system in place and live way below my means-

Lewis Howes 36:50 Yes

Anthony O'Neal 36:52 ... right? And I think this is where a lot of people com- get confused. People think they'll stop living paycheck to paycheck to make more money. Mm-mm. You will stop living paycheck to paycheck and make more money when you have margin.

Lewis Howes 37:04 Yes.

Anthony O'Neal 37:05 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.

Lewis Howes 37:18 Mm-hmm.

Anthony O'Neal 37:18 That's what you play with to invest more, to put money into real estate, to invest into your kids' future, to buy businesses, to buy stocks, whatever you wanna do. But if you have no margin, you'll never get out of the trap.

Lewis Howes 37:29 Yeah. When I was, my first, when I was living in Columbus, Ohio and I had my first apartment.

Anthony O'Neal 37:36 Okay.

Lewis Howes 37:36 When I, I was on my sister's couch for a year and a half living rent-free.

Anthony O'Neal 37:39 Okay.

Lewis Howes 37:39 Then I paid 250 a month for a room in my brother's house-

Anthony O'Neal 37:42 Wow

Lewis Howes 37:43 ... for about six to seven months. And then I finally moved out, and I, and I think I was paying, I can't remember if it was 400 or 495, but it was in the 400 range, for an apartment. And after the business that I had, a, a business partner at that time, we did over a million dollars in sales maybe a year and a half after this, right?

Anthony O'Neal 38:03 Okay.

Lewis Howes 38:03 And I was still living in this apartment. It was under $500 a month. At that time I had no car-

Anthony O'Neal 38:10 Okay

Lewis Howes 38:10 ... so I was walking around everywhere.

Anthony O'Neal 38:12 Okay.

Lewis Howes 38:12 I had no TV, and I was just focused, and I was just stacking and saving and investing the money.

Anthony O'Neal 38:19 Yeah.

Lewis Howes 38:19 And this is what you talk about in phase four is in investing with confidence so your money starts working harder than you do.

Anthony O'Neal 38:26 Yeah.

Lewis Howes 38:27 And a lot of people feel like investing is for people that are rich or that are wealthy or that-

Anthony O'Neal 38:32 Wow

Lewis Howes 38:32 ... they are, you know, at a different level of financial success a- and people who already have it figured out. Or they know money better than me.

Anthony O'Neal 38:38 Right.

Lewis Howes 38:39 What does someone who is just getting started actually need to know to invest without feeling fear?

Anthony O'Neal 38:46 Man, the very first thing is that you can invest with $5 into a fractional share. Do not focus on the amount. Focus on starting the habit.

Lewis Howes 38:56 Let's go.

Anthony O'Neal 38:57 That's it.

Lewis Howes 38:58 Consistency, man. The system, the habit.

Anthony O'Neal 39:00 The system and the habit. That's what I 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.

Lewis Howes 39:08 Mm-hmm.

Anthony O'Neal 39:09 You, you, you, you haven't even just started. Just put $5 into a brokerage account, and then when you get paid again, put $5 into a brokerage account.

Lewis Howes 39:18 Mm-hmm.

Anthony O'Neal 39:19 And I promise you by this time next year you will be putting more than $5 in.

Lewis Howes 39:22 Oh, yeah. You'll be like, "Oh, that make me money."

Anthony O'Neal 39:24 [laughs] You know what I'm saying?

Lewis Howes 39:26 Yeah, yeah.

Anthony O'Neal 39:26 And so that's what I tell everyone is like, man, investing is not for the rich. The investing is for people who have access.

Lewis Howes 39:32 Mm-hmm.

Anthony O'Neal 39:33 And for me, man, I think there's, there's, I... In my book I talk about, man, you gotta invest anywhere between 15 to 25% of your income every single month. The first 10% is if you are a, 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 would I wanna give to the church so the pastor can go buy a car, so the pastor 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 gon- I'm just gonna give. Now, if I know for a fact that it's going to the wrong place, then I'm leaving the church.

Lewis Howes 40:11 Yeah. Go somewhere else.

Anthony O'Neal 40:12 Go somewhere else. But until then I'm gonna 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 i- in, in 2026, an app or AI [laughs] has, uh, come up with, whether that's 401Ks, mutual funds, index funds, ETFs, brokerage accounts, whatever you wanna do, 529s. Boom, I'm investing into that. And let's say, let's say you don't have 25%. Okay, cool. I need you to start whatever you do have. Not whatever, w- with whatever you do have, $5, $10. Buy fractional shares.

Lewis Howes 40:51 Yeah.

Anthony O'Neal 40:51 Get into the habit.

Lewis Howes 40:52 And automate it.

Anthony O'Neal 40:52 And automate it.

Lewis Howes 40:53 Make it come out of your account every month.

Anthony O'Neal 40:55 Yes. And what I'm telling people right now, uh, we're living in this AI boom and tech boom. You need to be looking into companies and 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 after, 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 f- $5 fractional share of that company that creates the power plant for the chip, or invest $5 into this ETF that creates, um, uh, memory for AI, because we need memory.

Lewis Howes 41:41 Or you can even, you can even do an ind- uh, a fund of AI-

Anthony O'Neal 41:44 Yes

Lewis Howes 41:44 ... stocks. You don't have to think about individual ones as well.

Anthony O'Neal 41:46 For sure.

Lewis Howes 41:47 Yeah, yeah.

Anthony O'Neal 41:47 Yeah. And so I mean, I, and I think that's the main thing, too. And then also within that I'm very big, um, Lewis, on we gotta start investing into our children's future.

Lewis Howes 41:58 Mm.

Anthony O'Neal 41:58 Have to. Whether you're just doing 1% of your income, 5% of your income a month, we gotta start investing into our children's future so we can change, um, the future and to change the future generations.

Lewis Howes 42:12 Yeah.

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Lewis Howes 44:41 Well, phase five is something you talk about playing the long game, which is paying off your home, updating your estate plan-

Anthony O'Neal 44:47 Yeah

Lewis Howes 44:47 ... and creating generational wealth.

Anthony O'Neal 44:49 Yeah

Lewis Howes 44:49 And hopefully paying, you know, supporting your children, leaving your children with something as well.

Anthony O'Neal 44:54 Yeah.

Lewis Howes 44:54 And I'm of the mind of like, I, you know, now that I have kids, I don't know if I wanna give them everything, because then are they gonna be resourceful? Are, are they gonna be creative and imaginative and, you know, are they gonna develop their own talents to be able to steward things in life?

Anthony O'Neal 45:09 Okay.

Lewis Howes 45:09 But it's figuring out, you know, what will I give them? I don't know, you know. So we'll see. I'm, I'm still kinda figuring this out.

Anthony O'Neal 45:16 Well, whatever you don't give them, give it to me and I, I'll use it [laughs]

Lewis Howes 45:19 Yeah. [laughs] I'm gonna give you something for sure.

Anthony O'Neal 45:21 Hey.

Lewis Howes 45:21 But I don't know if it's like-

Anthony O'Neal 45:22 Yeah, yeah.

Lewis Howes 45:22 A- and it's also like ... And I think in this process, what I'm learning as I'm developing with my wife are our trust and our estate plan currently-

Anthony O'Neal 45:32 For sure

Lewis Howes 45:32 ... 'cause we just got married a year, a little over a year ago.

Anthony O'Neal 45:34 Yeah.

Lewis Howes 45:35 So we have been-

Anthony O'Neal 45:36 Combining

Lewis Howes 45:36 ... building this together-

Anthony O'Neal 45:37 Mm-hmm

Lewis Howes 45:37 ... and educating myself. And I think of phase five as really, like, educating yourself on these things as well.

Anthony O'Neal 45:43 Yeah.

Lewis Howes 45:44 And I'm asking these questions with my, you know, my tax attorneys-

Anthony O'Neal 45:48 Yeah

Lewis Howes 45:48 ... 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-

Anthony O'Neal 45:57 Mm-hmm

Lewis Howes 45:58 ... 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 f- 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.

Anthony O'Neal 46:14 Yeah, yeah.

Lewis Howes 46:14 Or you get a certain amount to, like, support you on a, you know, a down payment for a home-

Anthony O'Neal 46:18 For sure

Lewis Howes 46:18 ... but you're not getting the whole pot, you know?

Anthony O'Neal 46:20 That's right.

Lewis Howes 46:20 It's like, and it's creating these different layers-

Anthony O'Neal 46:24 Yeah

Lewis Howes 46:24 ... of, of kind of passing down to your children. So I'm still learning about all this right now.

Anthony O'Neal 46:28 No, I, and I think, I think all of us are still learning. One of the things that I talk about in the book that I've learned from, uh, five of the wealthiest families that are in my life, um, one of them is a billionaire, the other ones are worth at least a half m- uh, half a billion dollars or more. All five of them do one thing that is, that is totally in common. Um, 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.

Lewis Howes 47:00 Ugh.

Anthony O'Neal 47:03 And when I was talking to each one of them, I was like, "Man, why is this so important?" And to come back with you, my children will not get everything because preferably I leave before my, my wife leaves. So my wife would get the bulk of everything, and then my children will get the rest. But then in, within my estate, uh, with my wife when, whenever we get married, um, wife will be first, uh, children will be next. My church will get a bulk as well-

Lewis Howes 47:31 Mm-hmm

Anthony O'Neal 47:32 ... um, 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 f- what's in the, uh-

Lewis Howes 47:54 The trust or the fund

Anthony O'Neal 47:55 ... the trust.

Lewis Howes 47:56 Yeah, yeah.

Anthony O'Neal 47:56 No. They-

Lewis Howes 47:56 Here's how much money we have. Yeah

Anthony O'Neal 47:58 They don't do that. I was shocked. Every family member has to sign a 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.

Lewis Howes 48:14 Wow.

Anthony O'Neal 48:15 The, the, the ... If they have kids, um, 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 wanna make sure that when we leave, and they get our businesses, they get, you know, these millions and millions of dollars that we're gonna be passing down to them, that not only do we know that we talked to them about finances, but we talked to them about their spiritual walk. We talked to them about their family, husband and wife issues. We've, we've asked any health questions." So they ask, "Hey, how was your checkup this year? H- 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 to happen to me, this is what we're gonna do. We're gonna have this date." So everyone in the family is fully abreast of everything that's going on.

Lewis Howes 49:05 Wow

Anthony O'Neal 49:05 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, a 10-year-old don't know nothing." But that's a problem.

Lewis Howes 49:15 They need to be learning. I felt like as the youngest of four, no one ever told me anything.

Anthony O'Neal 49:20 Exactly.

Lewis Howes 49:20 You know? It's like maybe, maybe they did, but that was my interpretation.

Anthony O'Neal 49:24 [laughs]

Lewis Howes 49:24 You know? But I would, I, I would, 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.

Anthony O'Neal 49:31 Yeah.

Lewis Howes 49:31 They always kept me, like, secret-

Anthony O'Neal 49:32 Yeah

Lewis Howes 49:32 ... 'cause I was too young.

Anthony O'Neal 49:33 Yeah, yeah.

Lewis Howes 49:34 And maybe you don't tell people every, all the, like, "Oh, you know, this happened with your dad or your mom," or whatever. But you gotta inform people, "Hey, we're going through something as a family."

Anthony O'Neal 49:43 Have to.

Lewis Howes 49:43 You know, maybe don't give the exact details.

Anthony O'Neal 49:45 Have to. Um, and it will help the child though, too.

Lewis Howes 49:48 Yeah.

Anthony O'Neal 49:49 Because if my family woulda told me they, they were struggling, if my parents woulda told me, "Hey, we're struggling right now."

Lewis Howes 49:56 Mm-hmm.

Anthony O'Neal 49:57 I would not have been as disappointed back then because they made me feel like we weren't struggling.

Lewis Howes 50:03 Mm.

Anthony O'Neal 50:03 They just didn't want me to do this and go do that and go do this.

Lewis Howes 50:06 Yeah, yeah. No.

Anthony O'Neal 50:06 But if my family woulda been honest and say, "Hey, you know, I just wanna be honest with you, man. I mean, being an adult, which you will be one day, you're gonna live, um, and have to pay bills. And you're gonna live and have to do this. And, Son, right now me and your dad, me and your mom, we just can't do it." Um, and 70% of the people in America do not

Anthony O'Neal 50:24 have a trust and/or will. The number one way to pay for funerals right now is not through an insurance policy. It's through GoFundMe.

Lewis Howes 50:33 All right.

Anthony O'Neal 50:34 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, a lot of them we can find some type of name brand item. A lot of them we can 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, um, um, um, um, policy put together. Get- getting your power of attorney put together. Man, I'm 42 and, and I, I woke up at 3:00 in the morning when I was, like, 36.

Lewis Howes 51:27 Wow.

Anthony O'Neal 51:28 And I had this strong conviction that you, you're teaching all this stuff but you're not practicing what you're preaching.

Lewis Howes 51:32 Mm.

Anthony O'Neal 51:33 I said, "What are you... What? What? Huh? I'm debt-free. I'm good. Da, da..." Said, "No, no, no. If you died today, your family will argue over what Anthony wanted with his stuff."

Lewis Howes 51:42 Hmm.

Anthony O'Neal 51:43 They wouldn't know what you wanna do with the business, with your homes, with your portfolio. So you're gonna come home, you're gonna be in heaven, you're gonna be looking down, and your family's gonna be arguing because you were selfish. And I, and I try not to get emotional because it, it really hit me. I think a lot of people are just selfish and we don't care because when we're gone that's their problem.

Lewis Howes 52:07 Mm-hmm.

Anthony O'Neal 52:07 But one of the greatest ways we can say we love our families-

Lewis Howes 52:11 Mm

Anthony O'Neal 52:12 ... is by while we're living, planning for our death.

Lewis Howes 52:15 Yeah. And when we're gone, making it more comfortable for them than more stressful for them.

Anthony O'Neal 52:21 The only thing I want my family to cry over is just me being gone.

Lewis Howes 52:26 Yeah.

Anthony O'Neal 52:27 Not-

Lewis Howes 52:28 I get this and you get that, and huh, you didn't show up. Whatever it is, yeah.

Anthony O'Neal 52:31 Yeah, that's the only thing.

Lewis Howes 52:33 Yeah.

Anthony O'Neal 52:33 And man, that was probably the hardest thing-

Lewis Howes 52:36 Hmm

Anthony O'Neal 52:36 ... one of the hardest things I've ever done in my life.

Lewis Howes 52:39 Wow.

Anthony O'Neal 52:39 Because here's why. And this, this is something we gotta get out of and it just bothers me. When I told my family I was doing my will and my trust, you know what the very first question they asked me?

Lewis Howes 52:48 Are you sick?

Anthony O'Neal 52:48 "What's wrong?" [laughs]

Lewis Howes 52:49 Yeah, yeah, yeah. [laughs] Are you sick?

Anthony O'Neal 52:51 So we automatically attach the negative to the right thing to do.

Lewis Howes 52:56 I think that's normal for a lot of people, though.

Anthony O'Neal 52:58 Yeah.

Lewis Howes 52:58 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 check, 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.

Anthony O'Neal 53:18 Yes.

Lewis Howes 53:19 And it's... I st- I bought, I bought life insurance for myself in my 20s-

Anthony O'Neal 53:23 Yes, sir

Lewis Howes 53:23 ... because, one, I wanted to lock in a, a, a rate that was guaranteed for life.

Anthony O'Neal 53:28 Yep.

Lewis Howes 53:28 Um, and two, I was thinking about my future wife and my future kids.

Anthony O'Neal 53:32 Yes, sir.

Lewis Howes 53:33 And I didn't know when I was gonna get married. You know, I got 15, 18 years after I got my first insurance policy-

Anthony O'Neal 53:40 Wow

Lewis Howes 53:40 ... I got married and have kids.

Anthony O'Neal 53:42 Wow.

Lewis Howes 53:43 But when I bought the life insurance, I was like, "This is not for me."

Anthony O'Neal 53:49 Yes.

Lewis Howes 53:50 I'm spending money every month and every year-

Anthony O'Neal 53:52 Yeah

Lewis Howes 53:52 ... not for my benefit-

Anthony O'Neal 53:53 Facts

Lewis Howes 53:54 ... for a future person that I don't know.

Anthony O'Neal 53:57 Facts.

Lewis Howes 53:57 And future kids that are not existing-

Anthony O'Neal 53:59 Facts

Lewis Howes 54:00 ... 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, a payment monthly-

Anthony O'Neal 54:11 Yes

Lewis Howes 54:11 ... for people that I didn't know.

Anthony O'Neal 54:13 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.

Lewis Howes 54:21 Yeah. For kids that are not born.

Anthony O'Neal 54:23 For kids that are not born.

Lewis Howes 54:24 It's crazy. [laughs]

Anthony O'Neal 54:26 Right? And, and, and, and maybe, maybe I have, maybe I have not, you know? But I haven't even met their mother yet.

Lewis Howes 54:33 Uh-huh.

Anthony O'Neal 54:34 But for me it was if I wanna change the narrative, I went to school. I graduated with student loan debt.

Lewis Howes 54:40 Wow.

Anthony O'Neal 54:41 I, my parents couldn't give me a check. If I wanna change the narrative in the O'Neal family, it starts with me.

Lewis Howes 54:47 Let's go.

Anthony O'Neal 54:48 And it doesn't start with me when I have kids. It starts with me today-

Lewis Howes 54:52 Yes

Anthony O'Neal 54:52 ... with the current mindset. So I sat down. I, "What's the strategy?" And then when I talked to my financial advisor, she was like, "Well, hey, here's the strategy. If you wanna start planning for your kids, you can open up a 529. In the state of Maryland, you can write off up to, I think it's, what, $1,500 or $2,000."

Lewis Howes 55:06 Before they're born?

Anthony O'Neal 55:07 Before they're born.

Lewis Howes 55:08 Shut up. I didn't know that.

Anthony O'Neal 55:09 But the 529 is going to my trust, so that way if something happened to me now, the money goes to my trust.

Lewis Howes 55:14 Right, right, right, right.

Anthony O'Neal 55:15 Right?

Lewis Howes 55:15 Yeah.

Anthony O'Neal 55:16 But bec- now-

Lewis Howes 55:17 That's cool

Anthony O'Neal 55:17 ... it's like, do I wanna pay the IRS that money or do I wanna pay my future kids that money?

Lewis Howes 55:22 Yeah, exactly.

Anthony O'Neal 55:22 And then now just think about it, man. Just think about it.

Lewis Howes 55:25 [laughs]

Anthony O'Neal 55:27 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, $200,000 that I only put maybe 20, $25,000 into it." I was thinking about you-

Lewis Howes 55:47 Wow

Anthony O'Neal 55:47 ... before I even met your mama.

Lewis Howes 55:49 Yes.

Anthony O'Neal 55:49 Before you was even in your mother's womb.

Lewis Howes 55:52 Wow.

Anthony O'Neal 55:53 Now, what happens, Lewis, my kids are gonna be like, "What? Dad, how do I do that now?"

Lewis Howes 55:59 Mm-hmm.

Anthony O'Neal 56:00 At 18, at 20. So now we've changed the whole dynamic in the O'Neal 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 now thinking way ahead of the fact.

Lewis Howes 56:15 Mm.

Anthony O'Neal 56:15 So now they can tell 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."

Lewis Howes 56:25 Yeah.

Anthony O'Neal 56:26 And so I think when we can start changing that narrative, which I love what you said about getting a... I wish somebody at 22 would've told me to get an insurance policy. My own parents didn't even tell me to get an insurance policy on me.

Lewis Howes 56:36 Yeah.

Anthony O'Neal 56:36 But watch this, they had an insurance policy on me, though.

Lewis Howes 56:39 Yeah.

Anthony O'Neal 56:39 [laughs]

Lewis Howes 56:40 Yeah.

Anthony O'Neal 56:41 They was like, "Well, we gotta get one on this boy. We- we don't know." [laughs]

Lewis Howes 56:43 [laughs]

Anthony O'Neal 56:44 But no one sat down with me and gave me the proven path on how to win with money-

Lewis Howes 56:52 Yeah

Anthony O'Neal 56:52 ... on any income.

Lewis Howes 56:53 Yeah.

Anthony O'Neal 56:54 And I think, man, you can get an insurance policy on any income-

Lewis Howes 57:00 Mm-hmm, yep

Anthony O'Neal 57:00 ... at any season of your life. You just gotta know how to do it.

Lewis Howes 57:03 Exactly. What does financial freedom

Lewis Howes 57:07 actually feel like?

Anthony O'Neal 57:08 Mm-hmm.

Lewis Howes 57:08 Not the number, but the feeling of financial freedom.

Anthony O'Neal 57:12 Man, it's, it's joyful. [laughs] Man, it is, um, 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. Uh, financial freedom makes me smile real hard knowing that when I find my wife, I can give her the ring of her dreams and, and a wedding within my budget of her dreams and not be stressed about it.

Lewis Howes 57:49 Mm-hmm.

Anthony O'Neal 57:50 Freedom feels good when you walk to your mailbox and any envelope that's in there, you know it, it's not a bill collector. Freedom makes you sleep better at night. But also, man, freedom puts you in a position to take advantage of opportunities that if you didn't have freedom you could not take advantage of.

Lewis Howes 58:19 Mm-hmm.

Anthony O'Neal 58:21 And, uh, for me, freedom is the goal. Being rich is not the goal. Being wealthy is not the goal. Being free is the goal.

Lewis Howes 58:33 Mm-hmm.

Anthony O'Neal 58:34 And everyone says, "Anthony..." One of my friends said, "Man, Anthony, you can make double the amount of income." I said, "Yeah, but I won't have freedom." Because if I chase more money, that requires more of my time.

Lewis Howes 58:46 Yeah.

Anthony O'Neal 58:47 And if I give more of my time, then it means I don't have freedom to do the things that I wanna 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's, that makes me feel so good. I, I enjoy teaching at a HBCU more than I actually enjoy teaching on YouTube-

Lewis Howes 59:34 Mm-hmm

Anthony O'Neal 59:34 ... because I have the freedom to do it.

Lewis Howes 59:36 Mm.

Anthony O'Neal 59:37 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. I- when I walk in there, man, and see those kids' eyes light up when I talk about, "Hey, man, this is, 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, 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 account, they're gonna give me 25 cents? May not be 25 cents. You're gonna get something. But the longer I keep it in there, you mean the more money I will make? And when I show them that, 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.

Lewis Howes 1:00:20 It's crazy, right?

Anthony O'Neal 1:00:21 They're like, "What?" That's, that's what freedom brings me. Like, that, I get so excited knowing that in the beginning of the semester, 'cause my class is called consumer economics, that is not a sexy subject. [laughs] But by the end of the semester, man, my students are like, "Professor O'Neal, yours is my favorite class." Like, 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.

Lewis Howes 1:00:53 Mm.

Anthony O'Neal 1:00:53 And I want people to think about this. What could freedom put you in a position to do for your own family?

Lewis Howes 1:00:58 Mm-hmm.

Anthony O'Neal 1:00:59 For your own community? For your own kids? For your own s- uh, spouse? For yourself?

Lewis Howes 1:01:04 Yeah.

Anthony O'Neal 1:01:05 Like, freedom, and I'll say this. I, I'll be quiet. You know I'm a preacher, man, so you got, you got tell me to shut up. Last time I was on your show, I weighed 196 pounds. Um, I think it was right about a year after I left your show, I woke up in the, uh, middle of the night, went to the ER, thought I was having a stroke.

Lewis Howes 1:01:25 Wow. Really? I didn't know that.

Anthony O'Neal 1:01:28 To only find out I had gas.

Lewis Howes 1:01:29 [laughs] Oh my gosh.

Anthony O'Neal 1:01:31 So I paid $5,000-

Lewis Howes 1:01:33 Wow

Anthony O'Neal 1:01:33 ... [laughs] to find out that, uh, I had gas.

Lewis Howes 1:01:37 Wow.

Anthony O'Neal 1:01:39 And my doctor, she said, "Hey, Anthony, you need to change your, your, your health routine." And I had freedom to where I was able to hire certain things-

Lewis Howes 1:01:54 Mm-hmm

Anthony O'Neal 1:01:55 ... and certain help and changing. Today I weigh right about 160 pounds.

Lewis Howes 1:01:59 Wow.

Anthony O'Neal 1:02:00 And I haven't had any heartburn. My blood levels are so, so much better. Still got, still got some work to do. That's what freedom is to me.

Lewis Howes 1:02:10 Wow, that's cool.

Lewis Howes 1:02:12 Well, speaking of things that a lot of people struggle feeling free around, which is when they get married-

Anthony O'Neal 1:02:19 Mm

Lewis Howes 1:02:19 ... merging their money and their assets. Some people-

Anthony O'Neal 1:02:22 Why?

Lewis Howes 1:02:23 Some people get a lot of stress around that, or they feel like it's hard-

Anthony O'Neal 1:02:27 I know

Lewis Howes 1:02:27 ... because they've built their own assets, their own financial life, and now they're merging it with a spouse.

Anthony O'Neal 1:02:33 Yeah.

Lewis Howes 1:02:34 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.

Anthony O'Neal 1:02:39 Yeah.

Lewis Howes 1:02:40 But what is the, what is the value when two people get married-

Anthony O'Neal 1:02:46 Mm-hmm

Lewis Howes 1:02:46 ... of merging their money, their assets into one unit-

Anthony O'Neal 1:02:50 Mm

Lewis Howes 1:02:50 ... rather than staying separate?

Anthony O'Neal 1:02:52 Mm-hmm.

Lewis Howes 1:02:53 What have you seen or heard from wealthy people that works?

Anthony O'Neal 1:02:57 Yeah.

Lewis Howes 1:02:58 And what have you seen that has been destructive from those who have maybe been married and gotten divorced because of money, uh, constraints or the, the, the sense of money constraints? What have you noticed or, or observed?

Anthony O'Neal 1:03:12 Yeah, man, I think it- it's very important to combine. You can't be married, um, 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 y'all have a savings account. But I do believe that Anthony and my wife should have our own spending account.

Lewis Howes 1:03:47 Mm-hmm.

Anthony O'Neal 1:03:48 That we don't have to be accountable to each other about what we're spending in that. Uh, I, uh, look forward to getting married and having a, a husband and wife conversation every single month. I'ma be smart with it. I'ma make sure I buy her a nice little dress every single month, and we're gonna go to her favorite restaurant or one of her favorite restaurants-

Lewis Howes 1:04:06 [laughs]

Anthony O'Neal 1:04:06 ... every single month, and we're gonna 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 wanna go on vacation in July. I know, I know we wanna do Christmas, and I know birthday and anniversaries and stuff is coming up. But hey, you know, maybe you wanna do something with your girls, or maybe there's something you wanna 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, who have done financially well within our businesses. 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, get out of living paycheck to paycheck, and the quickest way to building wealth is to bring y'all income together, live off of one of y'all salary-

Lewis Howes 1:04:58 And invest the rest

Anthony O'Neal 1:04:59 ... and then invest the rest. But if you're living off of yours and you're living off of yours, you can't do that together.

Lewis Howes 1:05:05 No.

Anthony O'Neal 1:05:05 So if you're, if you are a, the, 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 gonna live off of my 50,000. So whatever apartment or whatever house we can get with this 50,000, that's what we gonna do. Bae, with your income, man, we're gonna tithe for sure, but man, we gonna invest heavily, and we're gonna even use some of your income for vacation for the family. But for the bulk of your income, man, I, we cannot be 80, 90 years old, still working because we didn't invest wisely. So we're gonna start investing your income into a mutual fund, into index funds. Sit down with a financial advisor and invest your income. Not just invest it for our retirement, but invest it for our kids, too."

Lewis Howes 1:05:52 Yes.

Anthony O'Neal 1:05:53 But if you have two separate visions, you'll never get to a end goal quickly.

Lewis Howes 1:05:58 Mm-hmm.

Anthony O'Neal 1:05:58 And for me, even at this stage of my life, when I do get married, yeah, we're gonna have some documentation documenting like, "Hey, this is gonna work. But just in case it doesn't, what I came in with and what you came in with, we can, we can go out that way."

Lewis Howes 1:06:14 Yeah.

Anthony O'Neal 1:06:14 But when we in this thing, no, it's, it's all one pot.

Lewis Howes 1:06:18 Yeah.

Anthony O'Neal 1:06:18 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? Man, I, I get excited about getting married and not doing this on my own. I don't wanna keep all my money and all my success to 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, and to be a father to my-

Lewis Howes 1:06:43 Mm

Anthony O'Neal 1:06:43 ... and a priest at home.

Lewis Howes 1:06:44 Mm.

Anthony O'Neal 1:06:45 I can't do that if I'm coming here saying, "Oh, all this is mine."

Lewis Howes 1:06:48 Yeah.

Anthony O'Neal 1:06:48 No, baby, I did all this for you.

Lewis Howes 1:06:50 Yeah.

Anthony O'Neal 1:06:50 I did all this for us. Now we gonna be hold- we gonna hold each other accountable, make sure you good with your money. [laughs]

Lewis Howes 1:06:57 [laughs] Exactly.

Anthony O'Neal 1:06:59 You know? But I mean, no-

Lewis Howes 1:07:00 Mm-hmm

Anthony O'Neal 1:07:00 ... let's, let's do this thing together-

Lewis Howes 1:07:02 Yeah

Anthony O'Neal 1:07:02 ... and we gonna meet every month about the funds.

Lewis Howes 1:07:04 That's good. That's good.

Lewis Howes 1:07:05 What are the biggest money lies that people have been taught that are quietly keeping them broke?

Anthony O'Neal 1:07:10 Oh, man, your credit score is the number one thing that you need. That's bogus.

Lewis Howes 1:07:14 Yeah.

Anthony O'Neal 1:07:14 That's bogus.

Lewis Howes 1:07:15 I don't even know what my credit score is.

Anthony O'Neal 1:07:17 Yeah. Uh, Lewis, it bothers me. Oh, man, you know, um, cash ain't king. Credit is king. No, it's not. I think that credit and cash are equally important.

Lewis Howes 1:07:27 Mm-hmm.

Anthony O'Neal 1:07:28 Because, and here's the truth. I lived that world. Anyone who knows me, you know. If you don't know, God bless you, my name is Anthony O'Neal. [laughs] But I lived that world, man, and I didn't have a active score.

Lewis Howes 1:07:39 Mm-hmm.

Anthony O'Neal 1:07:40 And my car insurance for my three cars was right around $1,300 a month.

Lewis Howes 1:07:45 [whistles] Three cars?

Anthony O'Neal 1:07:47 Three cars.

Lewis Howes 1:07:47 Dang, man.

Anthony O'Neal 1:07:48 1,300 a month.

Lewis Howes 1:07:49 You can only drive one.

Anthony O'Neal 1:07:50 ... facts

Lewis Howes 1:07:50 At the time

Anthony O'Neal 1:07:51 I got rid of one

Lewis Howes 1:07:52 [laughs]

Anthony O'Neal 1:07:52 I'm down to two now. I got my dream car and my daily car

Lewis Howes 1:07:55 Okay

Anthony O'Neal 1:07:55 Um, and so-

Lewis Howes 1:07:56 I thought you maybe had three cars, like, back in the day or something

Anthony O'Neal 1:07:59 I did

Lewis Howes 1:08:00 Wow

Anthony O'Neal 1:08:00 I had too much cars

Lewis Howes 1:08:01 Wow

Anthony O'Neal 1:08:01 See, I'm human, right?

Lewis Howes 1:08:02 That was different. If you got the f- the funds, it's different

Anthony O'Neal 1:08:04 Definitely got the funds

Lewis Howes 1:08:05 You know? But-

Anthony O'Neal 1:08:05 But even still though, with the funds, I was like, like you said-

Lewis Howes 1:08:08 Yeah, exactly

Anthony O'Neal 1:08:08 ... I only can drive one

Lewis Howes 1:08:09 Exactly

Anthony O'Neal 1:08:10 So that means one of them gonna be sitting all week

Lewis Howes 1:08:12 Exactly

Anthony O'Neal 1:08:12 That's a waste of money. So I, I went down to two. And, um, and even with those two, I went down to 1130 a month. Well-

Lewis Howes 1:08:22 What'd you do?

Anthony O'Neal 1:08:23 I did m- I did my own thing. I said, "You know, let me go car shopping." Went car shopping, my first quote came back at 510.

Lewis Howes 1:08:31 Whoa

Anthony O'Neal 1:08:31 I was like, "Wait, what's the difference?" So I called my rep at the, at that particular company I was with. He said, "Oh, your credit score. When you first signed up with us, you had a non-credit score 'cause you had no open trade lines. Now that you have a house and, you know, um," actually just real estate on my credit report now, she was like, "Your score is in the high sevens and even the low eights, so now you qualify for a cheaper rate."

Lewis Howes 1:08:58 Whoa.

Anthony O'Neal 1:08:58 I said, "Okay, so there is a science to this credit game."

Lewis Howes 1:09:03 Mm-hmm.

Anthony O'Neal 1:09:04 Okay. So because I had a decent score, I saved $600, $700 a month.

Lewis Howes 1:09:11 Mm.

Anthony O'Neal 1:09:12 Cool, right?

Lewis Howes 1:09:12 That's pretty good

Anthony O'Neal 1:09:13 Right. But how many people do we know have a 800 credit score but don't have $800 in their, in their savings account?

Lewis Howes 1:09:18 Mm.

Anthony O'Neal 1:09:19 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, let's say that's true. If I have 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.

Lewis Howes 1:09:40 Yeah.

Anthony O'Neal 1:09:42 I'm screwed. So I think that's one of the biggest lies. I do believe that it is important, but man, I, I'm like you, Lewis. I just know my score is good because I don't-

Lewis Howes 1:09:52 Yeah

Anthony O'Neal 1:09:52 ... borrow any money like that

Lewis Howes 1:09:53 Yeah, exactly.

Anthony O'Neal 1:09:54 So it's like, for me, it's, it's like all my cars, paid for in cash.

Lewis Howes 1:09:57 Mm-hmm

Anthony O'Neal 1:09:57 Um, um, anything, I, I'm paying for it cash-

Lewis Howes 1:10:01 Yeah

Anthony O'Neal 1:10:01 ... um, except for real estate.

Lewis Howes 1:10:03 Yeah.

Anthony O'Neal 1:10:03 I wanna get to the point to where I could pay cash for real estate, but I am kinda like, "Eh," you know?

Lewis Howes 1:10:08 You don't need it. Yeah, yeah

Anthony O'Neal 1:10:09 Why?

Lewis Howes 1:10:09 Why? [laughs]

Anthony O'Neal 1:10:10 [laughs]

Lewis Howes 1:10:11 Just keep that cash.

Anthony O'Neal 1:10:11 Right, like, eh.

Lewis Howes 1:10:12 Keep that cash.

Anthony O'Neal 1:10:13 Yeah, yeah. You know, I'm like, eh, eh, eh. I, like, I may, my primary house, I may pay it off just so I, the family is good, right?

Lewis Howes 1:10:23 Mm.

Anthony O'Neal 1:10:23 Because I am in the, the content creation space, and with AI, we don't know what's gonna happen the next five to 10 years. So I would love to make sure that the mortgage is paid off. But even still, I'm like, "I'm gonna still be making money."

Lewis Howes 1:10:33 Yeah.

Anthony O'Neal 1:10:34 So I don't know really what's the rush, right?

Lewis Howes 1:10:36 Exactly.

Anthony O'Neal 1:10:36 So yeah.

Lewis Howes 1:10:37 What's the difference between looking wealthy and actually being wealthy?

Anthony O'Neal 1:10:43 You know, that depends on where you are. See, they, that question kinda 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, um, uh, truck, right? But let's look at the kind of vacations he was going on. Uh, he was flying first class with his family. He, he was probably spending 30, $40,000. I have a friend who's in the NFL right now, I won't say his name, um, drives a, a Yukon. Drives a Yukon, but every year, he'll spend $100,000-

Lewis Howes 1:11:15 On a trip

Anthony O'Neal 1:11:15 ... on a family vacation

Lewis Howes 1:11:16 Yeah, yeah

Anthony O'Neal 1:11:17 Because he believes in experiences. So I, 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 flaunt, I, 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 car. Cool, great, but I didn't have an expensive house. It did feel weird pulling up to my average

Anthony O'Neal 1:11:45 house with that expensive car-

Lewis Howes 1:11:46 Mm-hmm

Anthony O'Neal 1:11:47 ... but I paid for it cash. I, I, I'm consumer debt-free. I live way below my means, [laughs] right? But it's like, if I work hard, if I pay off all my consumer debt, if I got a fully funded i- uh, investment, like, portfolio, a fully funded emergency fund, however I decide to spend my money, it should be okay.

Lewis Howes 1:12:07 Yeah

Anthony O'Neal 1:12:08 Like, I would never spend $100,000 on a vacation, but I will spend $100,000 on a car.

Lewis Howes 1:12:13 Yeah

Anthony O'Neal 1:12:14 So there's nothing wrong with that.

Lewis Howes 1:12:14 Yeah. What would you say, then, are normal money habits that are destroying people's finances?

Anthony O'Neal 1:12:21 Yeah, man, we gotta get off of, uh, money habits. Gotta get off DoorDash, Uber Eats. That's a habit that's just destroying us right now 'cause they, they say, on average, people are spending anywhere between 4,200 to $6,000 a year.

Lewis Howes 1:12:33 So how much do they spend a year?

Anthony O'Neal 1:12:34 4,200 to $6,000 a year

Lewis Howes 1:12:37 On, on, like, uh-

Anthony O'Neal 1:12:38 On just DoorDash

Lewis Howes 1:12:39 Really?

Anthony O'Neal 1:12:39 So you're gonna order McDonald's, that typically would cost you about six, six to 10 bucks if you go pick it up. You're spending $21 for a double cheeseburger Value Meal-

Lewis Howes 1:12:47 Wow

Anthony O'Neal 1:12:48 ... because you're, because, you know, DoorDash up the bills

Lewis Howes 1:12:51 Oh, yeah. Then the tips

Anthony O'Neal 1:12:51 Then the tips. Then the convenience fee.

Lewis Howes 1:12:53 Wow.

Anthony O'Neal 1:12:54 Right? And then if you're going during busy hours, that convenience fee is even higher, right? Uh, so that, that is one habit that we gotta stop. We have to stop doing. Here's another habit that we gotta stop doing. People don't talk about this. Stop paying premiums, um, um, high-end, um, health insurance premiums. Get off of PPO, get into the high-deductible ones, and get a high-deductible account that's attached to a HSA, Health Savings Account. If you're below 40 and you're healthy and you're just going in once or twice a year to get your, your average yearly exams and maybe a urgent care here and there, man, go get you a high-deductible plan that h- keeps your high-deductible costs 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 Tylenol that you w- you're needing. So now we're, 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 wanna pay $25 out of pocket, but how often are you going to the hospital, right? So I think that's another habit that we gotta get out of-

Lewis Howes 1:14:12 Mm

Anthony O'Neal 1:14:12 ... is saying, 'cause that's comfortable. No, man. L- sit down with yourself, ask yourself, um, "Can I afford that?" Like, "Can I afford to go down to a higher deductible plan?"

Lewis Howes 1:14:23 Stop Living Paycheck to Paycheck: The Proven Path to Break Free from Debt, Build Real Wealth, and Live Free-

Anthony O'Neal 1:14:29 Yes, sir

Lewis Howes 1:14:30 ... 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 l- to really stabilize your finances, create that vision for yourself, that money vision, eliminate the debt, start investing and saving, and start, uh, feeling the freedom that you wanna feel.

Anthony O'Neal 1:14:47 Yeah.

Lewis Howes 1:14:47 I'm excited about y- uh, this book for you, man. So I want everyone to get this book and make sure to support our guy, Anthony O'Neal. Uh, is there any final money lesson that you've learned in the last couple years that you feel like would be helpful for anyone listening or watching right now?

Anthony O'Neal 1:15:06 Man, I put so many inside of, uh, the book, but I think one of the lessons that I've learned when it comes to money is, uh, money is a game and you're either the player or the piece.

Lewis Howes 1:15:23 Mm-hmm.

Anthony O'Neal 1:15:25 And I think that a, the majority of people are the piece and they are being picked up and, and played around with.

Lewis Howes 1:15:31 They're being played.

Anthony O'Neal 1:15:31 Mm-hmm. And I think for me, when I really learned that, that I had to transition myself from the player to, not a 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, we're just not taught that.

Lewis Howes 1:15:49 Mm.

Anthony O'Neal 1:15:49 And we talk about that inside the book. There's so many different ways you can invest without making 60, $70,000 a year. We talk about that inside the book. There's, there... 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, you're on this strategy. Then watch this, from 100,000 to about a half a million, you're on that same strategy, right? And so, um, 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.

Lewis Howes 1:16:32 Mm.

Anthony O'Neal 1:16:33 But I wanted to make sure that this book literally will pr- There's no fluff in 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."

Lewis Howes 1:16:47 Mm.

Anthony O'Neal 1:16:47 "And within the next three years, your whole financial situation will be changed around."

Lewis Howes 1:16:51 Mm. AnthonyONEal.com. Anthony O'Neal on YouTube, Instagram, everywhere on social media. Again, make sure you guys get the book, Stop Living Paycheck to Paycheck. Um, couple final questions

Lewis Howes 1:17:04 for you.

Anthony O'Neal 1:17:04 Yeah.

Lewis Howes 1:17:05 I've asked you this question before a few different times. It's called the three truths.

Anthony O'Neal 1:17:09 Okay.

Lewis Howes 1:17:09 But I'm gonna ask you in a different way.

Anthony O'Neal 1:17:11 Okay.

Lewis Howes 1:17:11 If you could only leave behind the world with three money truths, three lessons that you know to be true about money-

Anthony O'Neal 1:17:20 Mm-hmm

Lewis Howes 1:17:20 ... that you would leave behind, but we didn't have access to any other money content that you had ever-

Anthony O'Neal 1:17:25 Mm-hmm

Lewis Howes 1:17:25 ... what would those three money truths be for you?

Anthony O'Neal 1:17:30 Number one, give, uh, give back 10% as far as and be generous, um, and activate the spiritual realm for you. Number two, um, make sure that you budget and write down every single dollar. Spend every single dollar on paper first. And then number three, um, invest. Position your money to make more money over a period of time 'cause your money will work harder than you will. Invest at least 15 to 20%.

Lewis Howes 1:18:02 Mm.

Anthony O'Neal 1:18:02 That's it.

Lewis Howes 1:18:04 Final question. Anthony, what's your definition of greatness?

Anthony O'Neal 1:18:08 Man, you know, it's changed, man.

Lewis Howes 1:18:10 [laughs]

Anthony O'Neal 1:18:11 I think my definition of greatness is what have you accomplished that no one else can see, that only you and God can see?

Lewis Howes 1:18:20 Mm.

Anthony O'Neal 1:18:22 And that means only me and God can say that I'm great.

Lewis Howes 1:18:26 Oh, wow.

Anthony O'Neal 1:18:27 Lewis can't, the world can't. Only me and God can say I'm great.

Lewis Howes 1:18:32 Mm.

Anthony O'Neal 1:18:32 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.

Lewis Howes 1:18:45 My man.

Anthony O'Neal 1:18:46 My man.

Lewis Howes 1:18:46 Appreciate it, brother.

Anthony O'Neal 1:18:47 Appreciate you, sir.

Lewis Howes 1:18:48 How do you actually grow that money? Because like we talked about, what wealthy people do is not work for money. They make their wealth by having their money make them money.

1:18:57 Mm.

1:18:58 So where do you invest? And you know, the first thing everyone talks about is the 401 [k] and I'm gonna talk about this now as one group called the hope and pray method