*National bestselling author, YouTube sensation, speaker and financial expert Anthony O’Neal has dropped a new book called Debt-Free Degree that aims to help parents and students get through college without racking up thousands in debt.
Since 2003, O’Neal has helped hundreds of thousands of students make responsible decisions when it comes to their money and education. He’s the National Best-Selling Author of Graduate Survival Guide: 5 Mistakes You Can’t Afford to Make in College, and travels the country helping teens and young adults prepare for college and enter the workforce without carrying the weight of a lot of debt.
EUR/Electronic Urban Report caught up with O’Neal to dish about “Debt-Free Degree” and how parents can help their children achieve financial success. Get into our Q&A below.
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#DebtFreeDegree drops TODAY ???
Let’s go change the way our world thinks about paying for a degree.
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— ANTHONY ONEAL (@AnthonyONeal) October 7, 2019
Talk about why you were inspired to write Debt-Free Degree.
Anthony: It’s no secret that we have 1.6 trillion dollars in student loan debt. The average student will graduate with about $35,000 in student loan debt. But a fifth of those students will graduate with a mortgage but have no house. They’ll graduate with 10,000 + in student loans. I was one of those kids who didn’t have $35,000 in student loans, I had $10,000 and did not even complete my degree. By the time I paid off the 10,000, I ended up paying back $18,000. When I stepped back and realized why I made the decisions that I made, it was because nobody gave me financial education inside of high school, inside of middle school or even inside of college. So I said, I want to help young people, through their parents, that want to get an education. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how you can go to college and graduate 100% debt free.
Young people are not going after their dream careers, they’re not getting married. They’re going back home, their not helping the economy by starting a small business. The average person, 12 years after they graduate will have about 55% of their student loan debt still there. The average Black person will owe 113%. This has to change. I play my part by helping people avoid debt and go after their dream careers, start their dream businesses and build wealth.
Do you think high schools have a responsibility to better educate students about how to obtain a degree without going into massive debt?
Anthony: I do, but I think the main priority and the person responsible for that is the parents. I do believe that schools are failing in that area. When we look at education, high school is gearing them to be ready to be good contributors to society — to get a job. Colleges are preparing them for their career but what does job and career bring you? The end goal is money. So how do you prepare me to get money but you’re not preparing me on how to handle money, how to budget — What is a debit card? What is a credit card? What is a checking account, banking account, IRA, 401k? What is mortgage and what is the best kind of mortgage out there? They’re not teaching us the practical stuff in the education that we’re getting. I believe middle schools, high schools and colleges need to do a better job of providing some kind of financial literacy, which is why I’m working on that. Next January, I will be writing a new curriculum — one out of every three high schools in America already have our curriculum but I’m going to make it better and more relevant to help our young people make better decisions in high school and college.
Better financial decisions?
Anthony: Yes. What we do is talk to them about debt, credit cards, we talk to them about their credit scores, budgeting, investing, we even talk to them about entrepreneurship. Right now I’m teaching middle schoolers how to start a legit company that the government will honor– what is an S-corp, what is an LLC, how do you do your wages? Our curriculum is teaching them everything practical. It’s not required. There are currently about 11-12 states that require some form of financial literacy and those states have our curriculum and teaching it inside of schools, but we’re fighting for every state to make it a requirement to have some teaching around financial literacy.
You believe there are three main ways to pay cash for college: Saving money, Finding money (grants and scholarships) and Working for it.
Anthony: The key decision when it comes to going to school debt free is your college choice. Your dream school should be an affordable school and an affordable school is one you graduate from debt free. I recommend every young person look at 3-5 schools/ They need to be in-state because the average in-state school will cost you between $6,000-$11,000. And if that in-state school is close to your home, I want you to stay home because it’s going to save you on average $10,000 a year. I want you to eat at home because that’s going to save you another $5000-10,000 a year. So, let’s do the math… if we spend on average $10,000 a year, and we’re staying at home and eating at home and we’re on a strict budget, that’s only $833 dollars a month that we need to pay for school. But you have to do the research and see what’s available in state and see what’s available out-of-state. The key thing that I’m saying is… how do we find money and save money? We gotta do the research.
Many college students also accumulate a lot of credit card debt while trying to make the best of college life. Does your book address how best to avoid the credit card trap?
Anthony: One of the key things that I talk about in this book and in my previous book are the five mistakes you can’t afford to make. The very first one is student loans and the second one is credit card debt. I speak to that because within three months of me being in college and three months of me being outside high school, I put myself in $15,000 of credit card debt, and I did that because of the lack of knowledge. So I get it. If you build your credit score, you’ll be successful. But to me, a credit score means an “I Love Debt” score.” I want freedom. I want cash. If I can’t afford to pay with it cash then I can’t afford it. So one thing I’m teaching young people is to save, invest and spend cash. Do not fall for the credit card trap.
What are you hoping students and parents are left thinking after reading your book?
Anthony: When they finish this book, they will feel empowered that they can take control of their finances and that they can and will go to school debt free. This book is not just an encouragement book and a bunch of testimony. Nobody that reads this book will have to borrow a dime. If they follow what’s in the book, that I’ve laid out – I don’t care if you have a 2.0, a 1.5 or a 4.5 GPA, any and everyone can go to college debt free. It may look different for different people, but at the end of the day, 2+2 = 4. Where you start doesn’t matter, it’s about did you finish. I guarantee, following the process and principles in my book, you will finish and finish ahead of your peers completely debt-free.
What’s your definition of financial success?
Anthony: Financial success for me is just freedom. Financial freedom. I believe we’re all called to have joy to have freedom to have wealth. Debt is not financial success for me. I remember growing up and living in San Diego with two amazing parents and three siblings and I’m walking around high school and I have to put duct tape on the bottom of my shoes because my parents lived paycheck-to-paycheck, like 70% of American individuals. I remember eating French toast for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I remember eating spaghetti a whole week because we didn’t have funds. So financial success to me is, I have freedom. I have freedom to do what I want to do when I want to do it. I have freedom to give like no one else. I have freedom where I can be a blessing to a homeless person. I have freedom to take my wife and kids out of the country. Financial success to me is when I die, I’m not leaving my family, my kids with debt, but with inheritance, with wealth, with land, with businesses. That’s financial success for me.
What are some of the key tips you share with parents when speaking at events across the country about the best ways to save for college?
Anthony: That their child’s future will be determined by the choices you make today. And to make the choice that you want to guide them and help them avoid all of the mistakes you made and help them come up with a plan for their life. Don’t force your dreams onto you child. It is not your child’s responsibility to live out your dreams. You wanted to be a doctor. You wanted to go to Harvard. Don’t force that on to them. Ask them what they want to do and then you make the decision to help guide them and get them to where they want to go. It’s their life. The key thing that I’m seeing this generation is we’re allowing students to take a kids approach to an adult decision. We need to have more adults helping these young people make decisions that their 60, 70, 80-year-old selves will not regret. That’s the thing that I’m driving home.
Order your copy of “Debt Free Degree” here.
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