How To Prepare For College With Anthony ONeal
CHARLOTTE, NC — As financial concerns grow for Americans, Financial Expert and host of “The Table” on YouTube, Anthony ONeal shares advice on how students can prepare for college funding ahead of graduation.
Graduation is around the corner, which means so is college. What should someone do if they have no money saved for college?
Acknowledge emotions. The cost is overwhelming. If you’re a parent in this situation, you feel guilty for not being able to send your kid to their dream school.
Don’t let guilt drive decisions. The only dream school is the one your kid can graduate from debt-free.
If you’re a student, if your dream school causes you to go into debt, debt doesn’t open doors. It closes them.
STAT: 20 years after entering college, half of student borrowers still owe $20k each in outstanding student loan debt. (source)
There ARE other ways to pay for college. It may not be convenient in the short-term, but it literally pays off in the long-term.
Take student loans off the table, how are people supposed to afford college?
Find ways to save money.
Go to a college you can afford- it may not be your dream school. But staying in state can save you tens of thousands of dollars.
Find out if your state has free or reduced in-state programs.
Ignore the stigma of community college. The savings is worth it.
Find ways to make money.
You can work in school. And parents, don’t make the mistake of thinking this is all on you.
Studies show that students who work 10 to 19 hours a week hold higher GPAs than those who don’t.
Look, we know Gen Z loves social media and they’re out there building up their social followings. You can turn that into an income and build a personal brand for yourself. Securing brand deals, sponsorships, etc. Put that money toward a degree!
Remember, you can pay for college one semester at a time and keep applying for scholarships as you go!
What about people who already have student loan debt? How can they dig themselves out of that hole?
At a high level, I want you to work the debt snowball to get out of debt. List all of your debts, smallest to largest, regardless of interest rate.
Attack the smallest debt as much as possible, while making minimum payments on the rest.
Once you pay off the smallest one, roll that payment to the next debt. Repeat until you’re debt free.
If you want to dig a little deeper and get some practical steps for paying off debt, you can download my free e-book The Ultimate Guide to Debt Payoff. Just go to anthonyoneal.com/debt-payoff and you can grab it for free.
Learn more about Anthony here.
