Tony Elion Jr - Sailor to Student: How I Made a Quarter of a Million Dollars in the Stock Market, and You Can Too.

When I was younger I tried to do everything by myself. I failed over and over again. I found that success happens when you surround yourself with good people that see your vision. Anything I do...from plays to music to books to school is all done with the help of a team of people. I would like to give a huge thank you to my team of phenomenal friends and supporters. I have to thank my photographer Derrick Wilson at Frameful Photography. Thanks to my graphic designer Kyrowolf at KyroInk. Big thanks to Victoria Houghton and Rayni Elion for proofreading and editing the book at the last minute. And thanks to Yanna Banks for her help with the website, the branding, the layouts and templates for all my social media, and the formatting of the book. The biggest of thanks to my guy Mike Seanman this book probably would have a different title without your phone call. Salute! Most of the time I'm simply the face of an idea...but the tribe is behind me doing the real work. Find your tribe and make your vision come to fruition. But remember there is a difference between a tribe and people just hanging on. In the tribe, each person brings value to the table. Too many people surround themselves with others that bring drama and chaos. Strong vibes, strong tribe. I could not have finished this book without you all and so many others.

Now, before we even get into the thick of it, I need to explain a few things. First, for those of you who know me, you know that I have earned several degrees, gone to law school, traveled the world, sat on a board of directors, and spoken with global dignitaries. I have no problem with articulating complex thoughts using grammatically correct language. I wanted to preface with that because, as you read this book, it may seem as though I have never seen the inside of a classroom. If youre looking for a structured analysis of personal finance and a rigid, uptight breakdown of the complexities of investments, this aint it. Second, despite the name of this book, Im broke as hell, so dont ask me for NO money. Im a college studentIm hungryand I aint got no job. Dont ask where the money went. Its just goneIm just brokeand I aint got no money to loan. (You have to put that disclaimer out there in the beginning cause people will be in your inbox and on your phone all day and night trying to borrow money lol.) Now that weve got all that out of the way, lets talk about this book for a second. I wrote this book for a couple of reasons:

1)I wanted to talk about how my personal experience and my journey with money came to be. I also wanted to show how a regular guy with no experience in the stock market, no formal training in personal finance, and nobody to guide him, grew his money to over $250,000 in 13 months.

2)I wanted to write a book that the average person can understand. Since this book is for regular people, Im going to talk as if we are sitting in my living room and not in a classroom.

3)I often wonder where I would be, if someone had pulled me aside 20 years ago, when I was just starting out, and taught me about the importance of investing. With that in mind, I wanted to write a book, so I could give my opinion on strategies and ways to make money, passing on the information that I wish someone had passed along to me.

I tried to make this book as short and concise as possiblenot because Im lazy or so I could just throw a book out there, but because most people arent interested in reading a finance book. Since I fully understand that, I tried to pack as much information into as short of a read as possible. I know my people and my target audience; theyre trying to get the information as quick as they can, so they can go out and get this money. However, please know that this book is not all-inclusive, and it is not the end-all-be-all for personal finance. Youre going to have to do some work and more reading, in addition to reading this book. This is just an appetizer to introduce you to a subject that may not be familiar to you.

For most of us, the topics of personal finance and money are scary. We may not want to admit it, but talking about money is uncomfortable. There are financial terms we dont understand, charts and graphs we cant read, and lack of experience with or exposure to how to deal with money in general. Have you ever turned on CNBC and just watched for five minutes? Its like they are speaking a foreign language. Understandably, it can be frustrating having no idea what people are talking about, especially concerning a topic as important as personal finance. But how do you go about gaining the knowledge to put yourself on equal footing with the talking heads on CNBC or Bloomberg?

I want to change that perception and show that personal finance is not as complicated as you may think. The goal of this book is to show you that money management is not that daunting of a task, and anybody can grow their finances. Additionally, talking about money and finance can be difficult, since most of us dont have enough money or are barely getting by from week to week. Nobody wants to talk about money they dont haveespecially when you look at social media, and everybody looks like theyre living their best life. But the conversation needs to be had, and people have to do some soul searching as to why they are in the financial situations they are in. People need to ask why they have worked at a job for years, yet they dont have anything to show for it. The money talk needs to happen, and we will start the conversation with this book. Hopefully, this book will be an easy, basic introduction into personal finance.

As adults, we want to look like we have it all together, like we have life all figured out. However, when there are things that we dont understand, we usually just avoid those topics. We avoid things that make us vulnerable, uncomfortable, or insecure. But its ok to feel insecure about personal finance, because many of us were never taught in school or at home about personal finance. Most of us didnt have parents who sat us down and showed us the family budget. We usually found out about the family budget by asking for things. The conversation would go like this:

Momma can I get a Happy Meal?

You got Happy Meal money?

No.

Alright then, sit back.

You found out that Happy Meals apparently werent in the budget, and life went on. Life experiences became your teacher. Since we didnt learn personal finance in school and didnt learn it at home, we just went into the real world and figured things out little by little. For most of us, the story went something like this: Somebody put a credit card application in your hand one day. Someone told you to open up a bank account. Somewhere along the line, you got a job and had to determine what gets paid and what has to wait until the next pay period. We figured it out as we lived. And while thats enough for most of us to survive, its not enough for us to thrive. We learned the very basics of money skills, and we were never taught anything beyond survival skills. Sosince we only know the basics, what are we going to teach our children? Exactly...the basics.

***DISCLAIMER*** Now lets be crystal clear: I am no financial expert, no money guru, and I have absolutely no licensing in finance. I am just a regular guy who learned a couple of things by reading, asking questions, and trial and error, who decided to use this book to share what Ive learned. This book is nothing more than my personal story, coupled with straightforward explanations about money. Everything in this book is only my opinion and nothing more. Invest at your own risk. You aint got to listen to nothing I say in this book. Additionally, before making any new investments, you should talk to a licensed professional.