# Money Expert Explains: Should You Pay Off Debt or Invest Early Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-table-with-anthony-oneal-1365709/money-expert-explains-should-you-pay-off-debt-or-invest-early Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-table-with-anthony-oneal-1365709/money-expert-explains-should-you-pay-off-debt-or-invest-early.md Podcast: [The Table with Anthony ONeal](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-table-with-anthony-oneal-1365709) Published: 2026-03-31T12:13:33+00:00 Episode link: http://www.anthonyoneal.com/ Audio file: https://pdst.fm/e/pscrb.fm/rss/p/mgln.ai/e/137/audio3.redcircle.com/episodes/105e7b47-162f-48da-8887-7786509ec7d1/stream.mp3 Processing state: processed JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-table-with-anthony-oneal-1365709/episodes/money-expert-explains-should-you-pay-off-debt-or-invest-early Duration seconds: 3067 ## Resource Should You Pay Off Debt or Invest? The Answer Nobody's Giving You Every financial expert online is telling you to either pay off debt first OR start investing now. They'll both show you the math. They'll both sound convincing. But here's what none of them are telling you β€” the question itself is wrong. If you keep asking the wrong question, you're going to keep getting the wrong answers. And for millions of people, that's why they've been stuck in the same cycle for the last 10 years. In this episode, I'm giving you the answer nobody in this space has the guts to say. This isn't theory. I was the guy living paycheck to paycheck. I was the guy broke, living in the back of my car. And when I finally started getting my money right, I asked the exact same question you're asking right now. Today I'm breaking it all down using my 5-Phase Escape Plan β€” a proven framework that takes you from living paycheck to paycheck all the way to generational wealth. The answer to "debt or invest" gets answered differently depending on which phase you're in, and I'm walking you through it step by step. RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS VIDEO: πŸ“² In the Black App (Escape Plan): https://www.anthonyoneal.com/app πŸ’° High-Yield Savings Accounts: https://www.anthonyoneal.com/savings 🏦 SoFi Invest: https://www.anthonyoneal.com/invest πŸ₯‡ Gold / Diversify Your Portfolio: https://www.anthonyoneal.com/gold ABOUT ANTHONY ONEAL: Anthony O'Neal is a nationally bestselling author, speaker, and host of The Table with Anthony O'Neal. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Finance & Banking and is a professor of Consumer Economics at Virginia Union University. Since 2014, he's helped millions of people get out of debt, build wealth, and break generational poverty. His mission is to help you maximize your income, elim… ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-table-with-anthony-oneal-1365709/episodes/money-expert-explains-should-you-pay-off-debt-or-invest-early/transcription-requests` β€” Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-table-with-anthony-oneal-1365709/money-expert-explains-should-you-pay-off-debt-or-invest-early.md` β€” Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.