Anthony O'Neal: Tired of Living Paycheck to Paycheck? Break the Money Habits Blocking Your Financial Freedom | Finance | E413

**Hala Taha** (0:00)
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**Anthony O'Neal** (1:53)
I remember walking back to my car and I got in the backseat of my car. Suicide came to thoughts. I felt like my life didn't matter, and I felt like just giving up on life.

**Hala Taha** (2:07)
Anthony O'Neal teaches that real wealth is not about looking successful. It's about building freedom. After becoming homeless and deeply in debt at 19, he rebuilt his life and became a number one national bestselling author, personal finance expert, and the host of The Table. Let's talk about how bad it was because you were $35,000 in debt.

**Anthony O'Neal** (2:27)
$35,000, when I should have been, if we're going to look at it from a practical perspective, I probably should have been in zero. There are some cities out there to where everybody got a Rolls Royce. Everyone's a millionaire. But the truth of the fact is 76 percent of them are faking. If you really look at the map, 71 percent of us are living paycheck to paycheck.

**Hala Taha** (2:45)
What are the three things people should do once they receive their paycheck?

**Anthony O'Neal** (2:50)
The very first thing that I tell everyone.

**Hala Taha** (2:52)
That reminds me of one of my favorite quotes from you. It's, the goal is not to be rich. The goal is to be free.

**Anthony O'Neal** (2:56)
Freedom is everything that I'm aiming for. Throughout the entire month of July, my company is off and I pay all of my staff and my team members a full month. Hey, go take it off. Why? Because.

**Hala Taha** (3:09)
Anthony, welcome to Young and Profiting podcast.

**Anthony O'Neal** (3:11)
Man, Hala, I've been excited about this one.

**Hala Taha** (3:14)
Oh, thank you so much.

**Anthony O'Neal** (3:16)
I flew in just to sit down with you.

**Hala Taha** (3:18)
I'm so honored. I feel like our listeners are going to learn so much from you. I hope so. I do want to start from your origin story because it was so powerful. You've got this awesome rags to riches story. Oh, man. I found out that you were homeless at age 19

**Anthony O'Neal** (3:32)
Yeah.

**Hala Taha** (3:33)
One of the most pivotal moments for you was when a little girl saw you and asked her dad, hey daddy, can we give him some money? He said, no.

**Anthony O'Neal** (3:43)
Yeah.

**Hala Taha** (3:44)
What feelings did that bring up at the time? What kind of shame were you going throughout the time?

**Anthony O'Neal** (3:52)
A lot, if I'm being honest and transparent.
Just a little backstory, right around that time, there were some tough issues happening within that particular city of Oceanside, California. We had just built the very first school that was named after the first African-American to really do big things, from my knowledge of it, Martha King Jr. And so I felt like I was being judged, one, possibly for skin color, or two, for that. But I also remember being the kid in the back seat asking my parents the same question when I was young. And I was like, man, I'm not a bad guy. I'm not going to do drugs. I literally wanted to go to Carl's Jr. and get me a burger and some fries. And when I heard the fathers say, we don't give them money because they'll do bad things with it, I remember walking back to my car and I got in the back seat of my car and suicide came to thoughts. I'm a Christian man. And I was like, man, God can't be real.