Next Generation Planner: November 2020
Tyrone Ross Jr.
CEO, Onramp Invest
Founder, 401
Director of Community, Altruist
www.linkedin.com/in/tyroneross/
Tyrone Ross Jr. didn’t know what the stock market was until he was in graduate school at Seton Hall University.
At that point, he hadn’t taken any business classes.
“I tried to avoid numbers by any means necessary,” Tyrone said with a laugh. But his passion for learning kicked in and he wanted to know more.
Having grown up in an unbanked home, seeing and living extreme poverty and later on in life “making all the financial mistakes possible,” Tyrone voraciously consumed the knowledge on not just stocks, but money and how to manage it. He quickly became an expert and immediately started giving back.
Giving Back
If you follow FinTwit, or any podcast in the financial planning space, you’ve seen or heard Tyrone’s positive messages about money and felt his passion for helping people—whether that be his clients, the next generation or the financial planning profession overall.
“There’s a passion that I have for giving back to my community. I’ve always wanted to help, but now I have the financial knowledge to help so many people avoid the same fate that I did in my family. That’s where this passion comes from now around financial literacy, financial education, homelessness, poverty, child hunger—it all comes from my experience.”
Molding the Next Generation
In addition to making financial literacy and health a reality for his clients, he’s launched initiatives to help children learn financial literacy.
“It’s a passion of mine to help literacy rates for Black boys in America.”
But also poor, rural children. So he’s developed the “Learn to Money” video series and curriculum to share financial literacy lessons for teachers to implement into their classrooms. These lessons are evergreen, free and live on social media.
“I want to make it enjoyable, make it fun, make it happy and informative.”
He’s also cooking up something with Jamie Hopkins, ESQ, CFP®, LLM, CLU®, ChFC®, RICP®.
“We’re going to do a financial literacy initiative to get books into the hands of inner city and poor rural children.”
Tyrone notes that, currently, only 21 states require financial education in schools. This is abysmal, considering we pick up our financial habits by the age of 7, he said.
“The truth is we failed as a country to educate our fellow citizens on the basics of financial education.”
So, he’s put that work on his plate until all 50 states mandate financial education in schools and at younger ages.
“If we are truly going to resolve the issue of financial education in America, we have to enrich the soil. We are planting really rich seeds in barren soil. We have to go as big as the problem with our solution and we haven’t done that; we’ve danced around it. We’ve addressed the symptoms but we haven’t addressed the problem.”
Mothers Are Always Right
When Tyrone was a teenager, he remembered watching the Atlanta summer Olympics.
“At that moment, I realized that I wanted to become an Olympian. That was my lifelong dream.”
When Tyrone was training to make the Olympic team, his mother would always tell him that he was more than “just a runner.” And at that time, it would upset him because he said it felt like she wasn’t supporting his dream.
“She would always remind me and say, ‘You’re playing small if you think this is all you are. You’re more than a runner; you have all these other talents and gifts that your father and I and more importantly, God, gave you.’”
After piecing back together his broken heart at not making the Olympic team, he started achieving beyond the running world. Just a few of those achievements include becoming a financial adviser, a motivational speaker, a financial literacy evangelist and a well-respected expert on cryptocurrency.
“All of this outward success now that people see, my mother eats it up. She’s like, ‘I told you this the whole time.’”
What He Loves Most about His Work
While it’s impactful for him to see people make that first million, it’s easily more impactful to help that single mother hit all her financial goals for the first time.
“What I love most is just seeing people go from struggling financially and [having] a lack of financial awareness and then seeing them to be able to free themselves, to make financial decisions for themselves and their family. I think that’s the best.”
On Having a Mindset of Gratitude
Tyrone says the reason he’s able to have the things he has in his life because of his gratitude mindset.
“The more you give, the more you get. It’s a very simple equation. I was taught and raised that you give when you don’t have, and you give more when you do have. And when you don’t have anything, you pray to God to give you something so that you can give.”
Something he’s always wanted to do if he were ever to have the means is just randomly help people—like paying for somebody’s groceries. And now that he’s able to do so, he has found that to be part of the equation.
And you’ll notice it in your interactions. He makes sure people know he appreciates them. He takes the time to write thank you notes. The effects of the gratitude mindset compound, he said.
The mindset comes from a number of sources.
“It’s my parents, for one, but also being faith driven. I know that God has given me an abundance of things, and even when I didn’t have, he took care of me.”
His Advice to Professionals Coming Up
Betting on yourself is Tyrone’s top tip for success.
“Always bet on yourself and never stop believing in yourself. Nobody is ever going to care about you more than you. No one is ever going to believe in your skills more than you, but always bet on yourself—in the darkest, scariest, most fearful moments, bet on yourself. You are worth it and you will start to discover so many riches in your life.”
Another tip: network incessantly.
“That is so important because if you want to start a business, you’ll have people able to help you fund your business. If you want to partner with somebody, or they may want to partner with you or you’re looking to have somebody help you connect with somebody else.”
And lastly, write thank you notes.
“Not emails, not text messages, but handwritten notes to let people know that you appreciate them and their time. Letting somebody know that you appreciate them and their time is the best way to build a network.”