Special Replay: The Annual Giving Show from 2022
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You're listening to a special rerun episode of our annual giving show. ♪

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Pods Moving and Storage Studios, it's the Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. We help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create actual amazing relationships.

The phone number here is 888-825-5225. But before you dial the number, you need to know that this show today is dedicated to generosity. So we're going to take calls from folks today that have a giving story, a generosity story. They were on the receiving end or the giving end of generosity because it is the season. Tis the season.

This is, well, Christmas reminds us how important generosity is, and it is live like no one else so that later you can live and give like no one else. Rachel Cruz, number one bestselling author, Ramsey Personality, and my daughter is my co-host today as we take your calls about giving. It's our annual generosity show, our annual giving show.

So we want to hear from you. If you've got a great giving story, you can jump in. The phone number, 888-825-5225. Merry Christmas to you. 888-825-5225. Kim is going to start off this hour in Canton, Ohio. Hi, Kim. Tell us your giving story. Merry Christmas. Okay.

Hello, Dave. Hello, Rachel. Thank you for having me on the show. This is my giving story. Back in February, my husband died of COVID, and I took a portion of the life insurance money and gave it towards my church's debt elimination on November 3rd.

On November 26th, my sons were there, and we all...

They saw me write the check, fill out the envelope. We laid hands and prayed over the check, and the boys put it in the offering. And my husband, he was an amazing giver. He gave to people all the time. He gave cars and trucks and vans and cash to families in need. He gave wood and fuel oil to older people that needed heat in the winter. He just gave everything.

It was his, it was who he was. And, um, it was such a blessing to be his wife. It's such a blessing to give it his honor and his legacy and our church. Um, they're down to $270,000 left on their mortgage. And 12 years ago it was a $14 million mortgage. So, wow. Wow. That's so powerful. Yeah.

I'm so sorry for your loss. Thank you. Thank you. That was the motivator, you know, for this. So I'm curious for you, when you received that life insurance, obviously his legacy was one of giving, right? The way you just described him is just beautiful. So what made you choose this specific way to give? Well, I felt that, you know,

Every year he gave to the legacy offering, and there's usually a project that the church is doing. And this was his life insurance money. I wanted to give a tithe of it to the legacy offering so that he would continue giving throughout all the years as a legacy. That's beautiful.

I was going, he wanted me to retire. He wrote these letters about me retiring and he had me call Dave. I actually wrote a letter because I didn't think I could get through the phone call, but Dave gave me a letter.

a coach, a financial coach. Her name is Lisa, Lisa Barber. And I worked with her for the last 10 months. And throughout that process, I came to, I didn't want to retire. I want to continue to fulfill God's will for my life, which I'm a teacher and I love teaching children how to read. I love being at the school. I feel like I'm here for such a time. So instead of taking, um,

of the life insurance and buying out so that I could retire early. Instead, I decided to continue working, continuing following God's will for my life and take God's will for his life and pay, you know, give it to the legacy of my husband for God's kingdom to grow. That's how I came

came about that whole process. Lisa helped me make these decisions, but I did make them myself, you know. Wow. Lisa's a precious lady. You got a hold of a good one there. So that's good stuff. God, I love her. Yes. Yes, I do love her. Thank you for giving me that. Yeah. What an eventful year you've had. Unbelievable highs, unbelievable lows. And it's very poignant, very beautiful. Great story. And how old are your sons?

I have a 26-year-old, a 24-year-old, and a 23-year-old. Okay. So these young men were able to sit there and see their mom write this check from their dad's life insurance into this, and they get to have that imprint on the rest of their life, that thumbprint on the rest of their life. That was very well played.

um thank god that i was able to do that for for all you know for all to see that yeah amen thank you for sharing miss kim god bless you honey and a merry christmas to you that's a great story a horrible start uh to the story in a beautiful end or a beautiful next step whatever you want to call it i don't know how to say how what you're saying that but uh uh without saying something dumb and awkward but yeah but uh uh

It's amazing that when people are in pain, um,

that generosity is something that automatically comes to mind. Yeah, that's what I was going to say, is that there's like a lot of these stories that we hear and that we'll probably hear today, right? That there's some level of people's stories that pain is always a part of it, right? That is a part of life. And I think that that scale is different for everyone depending on their specific story. But man, the depths of that pain in her case, I'm like, was the depths of her longing for

in that selflessness, right? And I think that that's a way to even combat and I'm sure helped with the grief. Like there's a level two of when you're giving and serving, you are putting your eyes elsewhere and there's just beauty in that, absolute beauty. Generosity is considerably underrated as a healing agent. It completely changes the chemistry of your body

It completely changes the set of your emotions. It completely changes your spiritual walk. It literally will change the way you walk when you become generous. And the more outrageously generous you become, the more free you are as a person. You find very few people who are depressed who are outrageously generous. Something to think about.

Because what happens is, I mean, chemicals are released in your body that you get a high from being generous. I mean, it's unbelievable. It is the most fun to have with money. There's so much to it. It's so much more than the math. So much more than the individual person that's helped on the other end of the check. There's so many layers to this subject matter.

This is the annual giving show on the Ramsey Show. And we want to hear from you. Rachel Cruz is with me. The phone number is 888-825-5225. Call us with your giving story or your receiving story. We're celebrating generosity. Merry Christmas.

Rachel Cruz, Ramsey personality, number one best-selling author. My daughter is my co-host today as we talk about giving today. This is our annual giving show. We're talking about generosity. If you have a story about generosity, giving or receiving, that is inspiring and will help everyone, all of us expand our lives.

Our vision for generosity, that's what this is for. The phone number is 888-825-5225. Wayne is in Lincoln, Nebraska. Hi, Wayne. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hey, thanks for having me. Sure. So after my first deployment, I came home in 2009 and was out running around eating all the food that I'd missed and stopped at a burger joint. There was a homeless man.

walking along the sidewalk. So I just offered to have lunch, offered for him to come have lunch with me. And we ended up talking for several hours, but he had gotten married in 1966. In 67, he was sent over to Vietnam where he was shot in the head and suffered some

severe brain damage. He was unable to take care of himself. And true to their vows, his wife took care of him until the day that she died. And so for three years, he was completely homeless, had no idea what to do. We had lunch and I ended up working with some of my unit leadership and some local veterans organizations. And this guy ended up getting a full VA disability and

now has a place to stay in a VA veteran's home in the Dallas area. Wow. Man, you took it up. You took it up and ran with it. Way to go, dude. It doesn't take a huge act of money to completely change somebody's life, and I think sometimes people get overwhelmed with that thought. Yeah, it often takes more time than it does money. In your case, that's for sure. Time and effort. Yeah.

And a lot of caring. Yeah. And that still is an act of generosity, maybe even in a greater way, because so many people don't have any time. They don't take any time. They don't have any margin in their lives to stop and concentrate on someone else for a few minutes. They're so busy doing themselves. What's his name, Wayne? Jared. Jared. Okay, so for you...

as you know, you you obviously have completely changed the course of his life, which is just absolutely incredible. And like you said, I love that it's more on that time and effort standpoint, not just money, right? You walked with him to be able to do that. So you changed his life. What ways has he impacted you on, you know, even a day to day basis? How how has your life been shifted because of him?

Prior to that event happening, I'd kind of grown up with this belief that homeless people were lazy and drug addicts, the stereotype that's not always true. And after this, I started slowing down and really thinking, well, everybody's got a story. Everybody's really got problems, and it's never what it looks like on the surface. That's for sure. That's for sure. Everybody's got a story. Wow. Powerful, dude.

Powerful. Well done, sir. Thank you for calling with your story. Merry Christmas to you, Wayne. Hey, everyone that is calling in with their giving story today, and the phone number here is 888-825-5225, will receive the Live and Give bundle, the Live and Give box. It has in it a one-year membership to Financial Peace University. It has in it a total money makeover book. It has in it a Baby Steps Millionaires book.

And that is on sale for $99, which is about 50, 60 bucks off of retail right now at RamseySolutions.com. But each of these callers will be getting that live and give box as they call in today. And of course, you know, if you've got somebody that's just getting started with this stuff, you hand them the total money makeover book. Maybe you're down the road a little ways and you're ready to start really doing your investing and you're going to read the

Baby Steps Millionaires book. Maybe you've got someone that needs to go through Financial Peace University, or maybe it's you. So there's three different things there that apply to different situations, different places people are in their money journey. And so the Live and Give box, be sure to check that out. And like I say, we're giving everybody that calls in today one. Mary is with us. Mary is in Atlanta, Georgia. Hi, Mary. Welcome to the Ramsey Show.

Hi, Dave. Hi, Rachel. Thank you all so much for having me on the show to share our story. We have a small gift, but one that I hope has been having a big positive impact on my niece and nephew. Love it. Tell us about it. So just a little bit of brief background. During COVID lockdown, my niece and nephew really started to struggle. They were both in middle school at the time. Their social life evaporated, their mental health plummeted, and they unfortunately started failing classes in virtual school. So unfortunately,

At the time, my husband and I had just had our first baby. I was actually laid off in 2020 at seven months pregnant. So we were living off of just his income and our budget was pretty tight. But we decided initially just to host each kid for a special weekend once a month to get them out of the house.

They came to do very fun, cheap things in our neighborhood and generally just love on them. My husband's sister actually joined us in this, and so it became this really fun family affair. Later, the three of us decided to offer a grade bounty. It was pretty generous, $20 for each A, $10 for each B. And I am unbelievably happy to say that my niece has made a healthy return on the time she's invested in studying for about two years now.

She just started high school this fall and earned a 4.0 her first semester. We're really, really proud of her. All right.

So this is especially important because her parents do not have any money to pay for her college, but the state of Georgia will cover all of her tuition through the Hope Scholarship if she has at least a 3.0 GPA at the end of high school. So we've talked to her about student loans and how she could avoid them, and she is really eager to keep those out of her life. So we're very much encouraging her to do that.

My nephew's also gotten himself a part-time job and his grades started to improve too. So I did want to just say thank you to y'all for the teaching and encouragement that you offer around financial generosity because I struggle with the scarcity mindset sometimes. So it's hard to do for me on occasion, but I really like the idea of living with an open hand and just practicing generosity like a muscle until you're good

Good at it. Amen. Well done. Good job, Mary. That's fun. Hey, be sure to walk those kids. The Borrowed Future documentary is free to watch on YouTube now.

I know. We usually watch a movie when they come over for weekends, and I keep telling my husband, let's watch Bar of the Future. There's fun stuff on Disney+. That'll seal in the no debt to college idea. If you watch that, you see how horrible the whole student loan system is. Yeah, that'll seal that in for sure. Hey, let me ask you something. You said scarcity mindset, and you're practicing a new muscle. What does it do to the scarcity mindset that

My theory is that it moves you from scarcity towards abundance the more you're generous.

Or maybe it's the other way around. Maybe after you move more towards abundance, you're willing to be more generous. I don't know which is the cause, which is the effect, which is the chicken and the egg. What do you think, Mary? I really think it's about perspective because I'm sitting in my little house in Atlanta that my husband and I own thinking, oh, we don't have enough to give away. But there are so many people with less than that who really don't have enough that they could be generous. And so it's more about...

recognizing what's fear and what's fact, and then deciding like that you want to share what you have with people that you really love or just people in your community. And I mean, once we started doing it, it really has gotten so much easier and so much more joyful to do. I'm not going to lie. Like the first few times we did this, we started like giving money away. I was like, oh God, how are we going to make the grocery budget this month? But really it's been absolutely fine. You hadn't missed a meal.

No. Well, Mary, what I love about your story is I'm like, you were so, you took the needs very specifically of what they needed in the time, right? So like during the lockdown, it's like they just needed to get out of the house and that's what you provided. And then as they were starting to not do great in school, then you're like, okay, well, let's plug in here. So it's like, whether it's the time, the money, all of it, but

But being so intentional, Mary, which you really are in their lives to see what do they need and what can you do to maybe help fill that gap. And so that's I think that's amazing. So really, really well done. Yeah, extremely well done, Mary. Merry Christmas to you. Excellent, excellent job. It is, you know, that kind of intentionality comes from real love and that's tied into real generosity. This is the Ramsey Shack.

Merry Christmas, America. Rachel Cruz, Ramsey personality, number one bestselling author. My daughter is my co-host today. This is our annual giving show where we celebrate generosity, where you have been able to do something for someone or for something, and you want to celebrate that generosity. Or maybe you're celebrating someone did something for you. It's okay. Either way, we all love these stories. Generous people make us smile. Generous people make our eyes leak. We love generous people, and all of us do.

All humans do. I mean, you've got to be a real weirdo to hate somebody that's generous. So that's what we're celebrating this hour and this day on our annual giving show. The phone number here is 888-825-5225. And part of this giving show tradition is we always bring in some of our 1,100 members of Ramsey Solutions, our team members. And Jess is on the stage. Jessica is with us.

and uh got a great giving story hey jess how are you doing good how are y'all doing great great merry christmas merry christmas well tell everybody about your story it's fabulous yes so you talk about people giving to you and you being able to give to other people this story is a little bit of both so about four and a half uh actually five and a half years now years ago now we actually met the sweetest most adorable little baby girl and she was a family member to some of uh

our church church members there and she couldn't be with her family. And so she needed a home. She needed a parents. And, um, I'm not a super cautious person, but my husband is ultra cautious and normally has to think through things, especially something very serious. Um,

It's usually weeks, sometimes months to make a decision. Yeah, parenting is like serious. Parenting is pretty serious. That's way up there on the serious scale, yeah. Yes. So, but we just kind of made eye contact at church as the request was being given to find a home for this little girl and she's just adorable. And so we kind of made eye contact and didn't even have to talk about it. We came together after that and said, are you in? Yep, I'm in. Are you in? My husband said, yeah, I'm in.

And so we, at that point- That's a long conversation. Very, you know, 30 seconds long, maybe, tops. And so after that, we decided to get custody of our Gabby girl.

And it was about a four and a half year long process to actually solidify the adoption. And so a long process. I learned a lot of things about the legal system, some things I didn't really care to know about. But I feel like I'm kind of a lawyer at this point after all of that. Yeah, I know. And so. The legal system is enough to, well, we'll just move on. Yeah. Yeah.

And so, but one of the interesting things through that is when we met Gabby, we actually were still in debt and we were working our way out of that. And one of the opportunities with that was not only getting out of debt, but finances was one of my biggest concerns going through this adoption. I was thinking,

we gotta get out of debt so that we can adopt this child. Well, finances was the least of my concerns. God provided, people were generous to us. We had the funds to pay for it. The emotional side was the hard part. And one of the stories with that was we were actually, we didn't have, we had custody of Gabby, but we hadn't adopted her yet. At her one-year birthday party at our house, we had actually had all of our friends, all of our family at our house just hanging out. And we had some medical debt that was standing out there.

from my husband had had a medical emergency. And so we're working through that. We were gonna get that paid off, but we had been served. We had been served at collections. And so we hear this knock on the door during this birthday party and all our friends and family are there. And I'm thinking, oh, is somebody late? You know, are they arriving late?

So they knock on the door and then my husband gets to the door and he says, "There's a police officer out here." And I was like, "Why in the world would there be a police officer?" And he was trying to be kind to us, but I was like, "What in the world's going on?" And he said, "You've been served. Your dad's going to collections." And my pride just dropped. I was like, "What in the world? We're fine. We're okay." But that's the moment where I was like, "I've got to get out of debt and I've got to give this child a home."

And so we were able to do both. And not only were we able to be generous to her, she's been so generous to us. Oh, she's generous to everybody. She's amazing. She's an amazing kid. Yeah, she's a great kid. So very cool. So she's been with you how long now?

She just turned six this past weekend and she's been with us since she was almost a year old. Yeah. All right. Yeah. Long time. That year. Oh, yes. Okay. So there's been a lot of, you know, a lot of people that listen have adopted foster. They're kind of in that, in that space as well with that parental role. So,

So talk to the parents out there that maybe have adopted or are fostering, and you guys have walked through this over years. So what encouragement do you have for those parents? Because I know that there's really hard days through it all, like you were talking about, even just the emotional side. But man, how that giving and consistency and opening your home and your heart, I'm like, oh, just that encouragement to parents that may feel discouraged. Yeah.

this holiday season. - Yes, absolutely, yes. Hold your kids close. That quality time, it can still be yours even if you don't have the title. We were parents before we even had the title. If we left it up to the government, we may never be parents. So that's one of the things that we're like, you know what, we're gonna be parents to this child. And I would encourage all the potential parents out there, love those kids, hug those kids, give those kids everything that you can. 'Cause they don't know they're gonna be grateful for whatever you can give them and they're gonna give back to you tenfold.

Jess, you've been with us how long? Almost 10 years. I thought so. And tell everybody what you do. I'm a Senior Customer Success Agent on Ramsey Trusted. All right. There it is. Senior customer. Yes.

That's how that works. Hey, I'd claim that too. Absolutely. Absolutely. You do a great job, and we're honored to have you as part of this family and honored to honor Miss Gabby and your whole family. Kat, are you bringing her over for the camera? Good. Good. Yeah, absolutely. She'll love this. Yeah, she's coming up. Here we go. There's Miss Gabby. All right. That way everybody can meet her on YouTube. Very cool. Good stuff. Hey, Jessica, thank you very much. Very well done. Proud of you.

Thank you. Merry Christmas, Miss Gabby. All right. Very good stuff. Oh, the adoption and the foster system is a... There's such a need, but it's never an easy process. It's always difficult. Yeah. I mean, that's...

Even when scripture talks about widows and orphans, and you're just like, oh, as a mom with three little ones, anytime there's stories like that, just talk through, or we have families that we know that foster, and you just hear... I mean, there's a level, like the ultimate selflessness. I mean, you are giving...

your life away for a child that didn't choose that story. You know, you can make me cry. I don't know. So I think it's just, it's just beautiful. So I just commend her and her husband so much because it's, it's hard being a parent's hard, let alone, you know, having that other dynamic in there, but then the redemption and the beauty of, you know, these kids and just even with Gabby, I'm like, you know, how her story is completely different because someone chose Gabby.

to do something in a really radical way. Yeah, very cool. Neat people, neat people. That's what this is about. Open phones, if you want to talk giving, this is your day. It is our annual giving show. The phone number here is 888-825-5225. Rachel, you and I first wrote about this a long, long time ago in your first number one bestseller, Smart Money, Smart Kids, and you've talked about it even more since.

since then, the idea that contentment, generosity, and gratitude are all intertwined, and they're all choices, and they all end up affecting your wealth building. They all end up affecting your money. Yeah. I mean, I think it's...

People sometimes are like, it makes no sense when you guys encourage us to be giving even while we're getting out of debt or while we're saving up for the emergency fund. As we're going through our process to get a solid financial foundation under us, you're wanting us to let money not go towards the debt and get it paid off faster, but to actually give. We'll hear those conversations sometimes or those questions with people. The answer always is yes, because not only what it changes in you, but creating that habit of,

of generosity and the change of your heart of what ends up happening. And suddenly, you know, when you're generous, gratitude flows through. When you're generous, you realize, gosh, all the stuff I thought I needed, I lost.

I really don't. I don't need to be fulfilled by that. You know, there's a joy out of living with that open hand that really does bring a level of contentment that I think in turn allows you to get out of debt even faster and save even more. That's the weirdest thing. And it's a beautiful formula that I kind of feel like we've cracked in a great way. So it's wonderful. The triad of generosity, contentment, and happiness.

Generosity, contentment, and gratitude. The triad. Yeah, and all of these are things you can just choose to practice. And they build on each other, and they take you where you want to go with this money stuff. This is the annual giving hour, or giving show, here on The Ramsey Show.

Thank you for joining us, America. Open phones at 888-825-5225. This is your last day to enter the Ramsey Christmas Cash Giveaway. The giveaway ends tonight at 1159 p.m. Central Time. So if you haven't yet, go to RamseySolutions.com slash giveaway. Enter for your chance to win the $5,000 grand prize. Of course, no purchase necessary.

And of course, you have to be 18 or older to win. That's RamseySolutions.com slash giveaway. Don't forget that our $10 sale is still going on and you can get our number one bestselling books like all of Rachel's number one bestselling books. There's three of them and a couple of mine, the Total Money Makeover, number one, $10. Baby Steps Millionaires, my latest number one, $10. And speaking of Total Money Makeover, when you get the book, we often tell people to flip through and read the stories first because

because that's where the hope is. It's in the stories of people who got free from debt, changed their family tree because they finally dealt with the person in the mirror. These stories are powerful. This stuff works. Be weird. Head on over to RamseySolutions.com and check the $10 sale out.

This is our annual giving show, and we're talking to you about your giving story or your receiving story that is inspiring. Open phones here at 888-825-5225. Leslie is in Fort Worth, Texas. Hi, Leslie. Merry Christmas. Hey, Dave. Merry Christmas, and thank you so much for letting me talk to you today about my story. Well, tell us. We'd love to hear it. About seven years ago, my son Jackson

Jackson was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma. He was eight years old at the time, and we were very blessed. He went through treatment pretty quickly and was pronounced good to go after about nine months. Well, at the end of his journey through that,

The hospital referred us to an organization called A Wish With Wings. And they're a wish-granting organization here in Texas. And any kid who goes through a situation like Jackson, where they face a life-threatening condition, can be granted a wish. And they...

they granted his wish and he got to meet Dude Perfect and we got to go to Disney, but that wasn't the most important part. Like you are, Dave, they are dealers in hope and they gave our family hope. They were just such

a sweet organization full of loving people. And when you've got a kid with cancer, even family members and friends don't always know how to help you and how to be there for you. And this organization of people did, and we fell in love with them. So about a year after Jackson finished chemotherapy,

He wanted to do something special, so Jackson and I did a 200-mile hike and raised $25,000 from family and friends who pledged to Wish With Wings for him doing this hike. How old was he then? He was nine years old. Oh, my gosh. You did a 200-mile hike one year after chemo with a nine-year-old? And he did it in 14 days.

This kid's a stud. He is a tough, tough little man. Well, now he's a tough bigger man, but still. Nothing to stop this guy. Wow. Yeah, yeah. But still, our family wanted to do more because we just love these people, and we started volunteering. And when they had events, we would go volunteer for those events.

I launched a business not long after that, and the business has started doing well. So in the last few years, our family has been able to donate $65,000 to Wish With Wings, and that's enough to grant eight wishes. And then my wonderful children have gotten their friends involved.

Every time my kid has a birthday party, he's collecting gifts for other kids who are sick, who have cancer. Every time their school has some kind of fundraising opportunity, they plug this organization because they care about them. So you talk a lot, Dave, about changing your family tree. And to me, this changed our family tree because someone gave us hope and taught us that our number one goal should be helping other people have

have hope. So we are just totally sold out on helping this organization that is for kids with cancer. Yeah. What's the name of it one more time? A Wish With Wings. A Wish With Wings. Very cool. Yeah, this whole situation was a force multiplier. One plus one doesn't equal two in this deal. One plus one ended up equaling 100.

Well, and you can take a bad situation and you can let it gnaw at you or pretend it didn't happen, or you can decide you're going to make it into something better. And while I'll never be grateful that my kid went through cancer, I am so grateful that now we understand what it's like to be the people who

are the recipient of bad situations that are not their doing. And it's taught everyone in our family, including both our kids, compassion and love. And we really, now in our family budget, we put giving as a top line item. There are so many things we just don't need.

and we thought we did, we would much rather give back. I know that sounds so cheesy and over the top, but it's true because when we see these other families, they don't have it easy like we did. Well, yeah, and when you face something, Leslie, like that, when your child is sick and you're

And I'm sure the fear of what, the ultimate fear of what if we lose him? I mean, I'm sure you go through all those emotions I can't even imagine. And I think too, it's that perspective that when you realize, wow, he came out of this and like it's,

life is so short and all the stuff that we think is going to make us happy in this life that we go out and try to purchase and experience all this stuff that we're just like, go, go, go, go, go in the consumeristic aspect of our world that we think is going to give us joy. You in turn are like, you realize, oh my gosh, no, it truly is this giving back out of this pain and this story that you guys went through. But

But it's this perspective that you have that you're like, okay, it's, you know, we could go buy a bunch of stuff with this money or we can give it. And in your life, like you are, you are putting true value on where value should be. So Leslie, that's absolutely incredible. Well done, Leslie. Merry Christmas to you. What a great giving story. What a great giving story. Yeah. So it turns out pushing by now, by now, by now filling your cart.

is probably not what life's about yeah who knew sorry amazon but there we go it's a giving show today here on the ramsey show rachel cruz is my co-host you hang with us we'll be here

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the pods moving in storage studios. It's the Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. We help people build wealth, do work that they love,

and create actual amazing relationships. Thank you for joining us, America. Rachel Cruz, Ramsey personality, number one best-selling author three times over, and my daughter is my co-host today as we take your calls. Today we're talking about giving. This is our annual giving show. If you have a great giving story, some outrageous generosity that you received or that you caused to happen, meaning you gave, hey, we want to hear inspiring stories.

giving and generosity stories. The phone number is 888-825-5225. Merry Christmas, America. Tis the season for generosity. This is the place where we celebrate that. We teach you to live like no one else so later you can live and give like no one else. Generous people make us smile. Generous people make our eyes leak. And that's what this show is all about.

Open phones at 888-825-5225. Starting off this hour with a giving story, Ben in Birmingham. Merry Christmas, Ben. Merry Christmas. Thank you for having me on the show. Absolutely. So tell us your giving story.

So this is actually kind of a receiving story that my siblings got. So my parents and our family have been missionaries for the past 20 years. My parents moved overseas in early 2000. But prior to that, my dad, while he was in seminary, was working at FedEx, and they met some friends who basically became really close family friends as my dad was working.

He kind of made his way up in the ranks at this job where he was working. And when they decided to go overseas, this family friend basically said that because, you know, my dad was willing to give up his career and kind of go overseas to serve, that they were going to basically purchase cars for all of their children whenever they came back for college. So...

Um, there's five of us, five children. Wow. So whenever we ended up all coming back, um, he essentially bought a 15 to $20,000 car for each of us. Uh, he paid for the insurance for the first year for that car. He paid for basically all the maintenance for the first year on those cars. Um,

Um, so kind of over the course of, I would say probably 10 years as each of our siblings came back, uh, he ended up probably paying about a hundred thousand dollars worth of, you know, money that he put into buying cars for us to essentially get established and have a way to be, you know,

transported while we were back in the country and our parents were still overseas so it's pretty incredible gift on his part um and a pretty awesome story that i've actually never really gotten to tell a lot of people so that's a very cool i love that yeah i love the way the whole thing went down it's a friendship and they just admired your mom and dad and the you know nothing you could listen if you want to do something for someone and blow their minds do something for their kids

Exactly. I mean, that touched your mom and dad more than if they'd have gotten the money directly or if he'd have wrote them a $100,000 check to underwrite their ministry or their mission work. It wouldn't have meant near as much as what he did. Absolutely.

Yeah, exactly. And basically it provided, because they were still overseas when we would come back for college, so essentially it provided us transportation to get to our school during the semesters, our summer jobs during the summer, to basically go and see our extended family in different parts of the country.

Because without that, I mean, my parents definitely couldn't have afforded to buy cars for us whenever we needed to come back to the States for school. Yeah, absolutely. So pretty tremendous, tremendous gift on his part. For sure. Okay, Ben, this might be a weird question in the middle of your giving story, but some calls we've taken on this show, some people have a really hard time receiving gifts. So how did your parents, what was kind of their posture when this friend came forward and said, hey, I want to

I want to give your kids cars when they come home. You know, like were they, was it 100% just they accepted it in this humble spirit? Or did they have any level of like, oh man, we wish we couldn't do it. We can't do that for our kids and that receiving, you know, because I want to speak to that in encouraging people to receive the gift because sometimes I think people struggle receiving as well.

Yeah, I think it was honestly kind of easy for them because I think that they knew that that was something that they weren't going to be able to provide for us whenever we came back to the States. So in a way, it was kind of...

maybe a relief for them and kind of a burden off of their shoulders in terms of having to provide for their kids in that circumstance. For sure. So I think it was honestly kind of a relief for them. Yeah, no, I love that. That's what I pray people's heart is. But I think sometimes people need to hear that to say, hey, it's okay to receive and you can do that. Like it doesn't speak to who you are if you're the one given something. So I love that. That's so great. Very cool, Ben. Thank you for sharing that story, man.

Absolutely. Appreciate it. Absolutely. Merry Christmas. Good stuff. Open phones here, 888-825-5225. Patricia is in Connecticut. Hi, Patricia. Tell us your giving story. Merry Christmas, by the way.

Hi, Merry Christmas, Dave and Rachel. So good to talk to you guys. You too. Thank you. So I just, I was actually the recipient of outrageous generosity that I wanted to be able to share with you guys. And I haven't really told many people this story because I felt like it wasn't my story to tell since I was the recipient, but it's been two years and I think it's time for everyone to know that the business that I run was given to me by

in October of 2020. So I was given a small business, which is actually a self-serve frozen yogurt shop.

Oh, wow. So how did that come about? So, yep. So it goes back a little bit further. I got laid off from corporate America back in 2014 and I decided I didn't want to go back to that. So I picked up a part-time job at the local Froyo shop right in town in California.

November of 2015. And then my husband and I actually started the baby steps January of 2016. And then we finished our baby steps. We paid off all our debt. And then somewhere along the line, the owners had asked me because I was still working at the frozen yogurt shop to purchase the store or they had numerous stores. So they, you know, it had been discussed, but they also knew I didn't borrow money.

So I would always tell them no, because I couldn't afford to own a business, of course. And then COVID, of course, came in April 2020. We had to close the shop down. So I was actually unemployed. It was self-serve frozen yogurt. So it just wasn't sustainable, which was devastating. But we actually did reopen in July of 2020. So my bosses decided to reopen. And that's what we did.

And then a month later, one of the bosses pulled me aside into the back kitchen, which is never a good sign, right? I was nervous. And he had asked me if I wanted the store, if I wanted to take the store, be the store owner. And I said, I don't really know what you mean. What does that mean? And he said, we're going to give you the store.

But you're going to get this store with equipment that is 11 years old. They've been in business for 11 years. Yeah. I'll tell you what, I want to hear the rest of this, and I'm up on commercial because I don't want to run this into the ground. It's too good. Hang with us through the commercial, Patricia. We'll hear the rest of the story here on the annual giving show on The Ramsey Show.

Rachel Cruz, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today. This is our annual giving show here on The Ramsey Show. We're taking your calls with giving stories, receiving stories. This is all about generosity. Live like no one else, and later you can live and give like no one else. We were in the middle of Patricia's story in Connecticut. She left corporate America, went to work for a frozen yogurt shop, and they offered to sell it to her a couple of times. And then during COVID, after going back to work,

The owner walks in one day and says they are offering to give it to her. Now, let's pick that story up there, Patricia. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Yeah, that's pretty much how it went. So like I said, they offered to give me the store and the store had been in business for about 11 years already. So of course the equipment, you know, the machines, all that stuff was 11 years old. So that happened in about August and sure enough, October 14th of 2020, we closed on the business. I started, you know, an LLC, I opened new bank accounts.

And I did all that and we actually closed. And here I am to, you know, two and a half years later as a small business owner in a very small town, but enjoying every second of it. So, wow. What do you what prompted them to do that?

Uh, I, like I said, they'd offered a few times. I think, you know, when, when customers would come in, I was always there. So customers would say, Oh, is this your store? And I would say, no, no, no. But they would always say, well, you treat it like your store because I had so much passion for what I was doing. And it sounds silly. People think it's silly, but you know, at my interview with, with the store owners at, at when I started, I had told, you know, I,

I had told them I treat every job like it's a career. Um, so I'm going to have a lot of passion. I love being around people. Of course there's, you know, our clientele is generally kids. Uh, so I think that after COVID there was a lot of restrictions. Um, and, um,

They actually own a hardware store in the same plaza. So they were really, you know, we all know where everyone was stuck home during COVID. So they were just slammed over there. I mean, they were every day, all day, everybody was home and at the hardware store. So I think it was just time to figure something out to let it go. Okay. All right. But through your diligence of being so excellent, you know, at your job,

you're the person that shined through to receive that, which is amazing. It really is. And it's been amazing. And it's more than just a small business here. You know, it's definitely a family business. I'm actually looking inside the store right now. My husband's covering for me while I'm on the phone with you guys. My mom does all our shopping at Costco every day. So, you know, my retired mom gets to go to Costco every day.

basically a joy for her and uh my son does all the heavy lifting when orders come in or takes the garbage out at night you know i have a bunch of great employees also but um it's the customers that really make it just really worthwhile it's it's definitely what i feel i was called to do oh i think you were yeah you're the backbone of america small business people like you

That's what makes this entire place run. It is not large corporate goobs, and it's not the government. It's people like you that make this country great. The free enterprise system causes people like you to shine, and people like the former owners that were generous to you to shine. Yeah, absolutely. That's incredible. Just handed over a business. Yeah, pretty cool. That's awesome. Very, very cool stuff. Hey, Patricia, thank you for sharing that. Merry Christmas to you. We appreciate you hanging out with us today. This is The Ramsey Show.

Rachel Cruz, Ramsey personality, number one bestselling author. My daughter is my co-host today. This is our annual giving show, the show where we talk about the power of generosity. If you've got a great story that's inspiring on where you've given or received, we would love to hear it.

And you can call us at 888-825-5225. Speaking of giving, this show's free for you on podcast, on YouTube. It's free for you on 680 radio stations all across America. Tens of millions of you join us every week. Thank you. We appreciate that. We are grateful for you. But it's time for you to give back. Yeah.

You need to go and leave a rating, a five-star rating at wherever you listen. And don't leave a one-star. They're not valuable at all. That's why they call them one-star. Put a five-star on there. Thank you. We appreciate that. And you need to subscribe. It helps other people be notified by all the algorithms and stuff.

Oh, the various things that the wonderful people on the Internet do to allow you to know that these things exist. It's caused by you subscribing. So subscribe, leave a rating and share the show. Tell people where you listen to it on talk radio. Send a link to your podcast off of Spotify or Apple or wherever it is or YouTube. Say, hey, you ought to check these guys out. The information is real and it's not, you know, we're not on here. Why?

We're here helping people. And so it's kind of an unusual show in that regard. You ought to spread the word. We ought to get more of this kind of thing out there in this world today. So open phones at 888-825-5225.

All of our callers today will be getting the Live and Give Box, which has in it the Total Money Makeover book, the Baby Steps Millionaires book, and a one-year membership to Financial Peace University. This allows you to break this up and give it away, a book, a book, a book, a class, however you want to do it, or use the whole thing yourself, the Live and Give Box.

By the way, if you want to buy it, it's only $99 at Ramsey Solutions, and that's about $50, $60 under what all of those items retail for. So it's a good deal.

The Live and Give Box. One of our traditions on the giving show that we do is we bring on a few of our Ramsey team members, a few of the 1,100 folks in this building who all practice generosity at different levels and have great stories. But no question about it, Nathan is with us, and Nathan's got a great generosity story. Hey, Nathan, how are you?

Good, Dave. How are you doing? Good. Merry Christmas. Same to you. Merry Christmas. A little nerve-wracking putting on that microphone, isn't it? Yeah, just a little bit. You're doing good. You're going to make it. So tell us your story, man. So my mentor is a guy by the name of Stan Freeze. Super nice guy. I worked with him for 10 years and he

And it's like over the years, he's just been so generous with me. But there was one instance that it completely floored me. So about 10 years ago, I was working for him and I was actually dating a

She is actually now my wife, Lauren, over here. And so I wanted to propose to her, and I was just casually...

talking to Stan about it one day saying because you know because back then This was actually before Dave and so I was very stupid with money so I didn't have the money to buy a ring for for Lauren and so I so I was just kind of kind of venting to him about it one day didn't really think anything of it and then

Probably about two, three days later, he actually drags me to one of the conference rooms. He says, come here, come here, come here. So we go to one of the conference rooms and he gives me a box and he says, here you go. I said, okay. So I open it up and it's a really nice ring. And he just tells me, you marry that girl right now. Oh my gosh. Whoa.

Just like that? Yep, yep. So he gave you the engagement ring? Yes, he did. Wow, that's cool. Yeah, he was... Because I was just floored and I said, Stan, did you buy this? And he said, oh, no, no, no, no. I...

I upgraded my wife's ring so you can have that one. And I'm like, oh my gosh. Oh my goodness. Wow. That's very cool. Yeah. So how tempted have you been to do something like that for somebody now that you're out of debt and doing well? Oh, we just try to find just like every opportunity. My wife's very good with

And so like when she tells me we need to, you know, to give somebody money or to, you know, to help them out, help them move, I always listen to her and say, okay, you know what you're doing. Smart man. I was about to say the same thing. I was like, smart man.

Oh, that's amazing. Okay. That's what I love about the show though, is I'm like all the different ways that people step into people's lives, right? And intersect them in their stories where they're at and be able to, to help. Right. And even something like a proposal to be able to say, Hey, go marry that girl. Yeah. Here's the ring and all that. So Stan, Stan, well done. Is it still the ring you have?

Your wife's sitting over here. Yes, yeah, yeah. That's amazing. Absolutely amazing. There it is right there. I like it. So great. All right, Nathan, how long have you been with Ramsey? Since January. All right, and tell everybody what you do here. I am a... I'm a...

a senior writer with the content team. Absolutely. Very cool. Well, thank you, brother, for sharing that. You did a great job, and that's a wonderful giving story, a wonderful generosity story. Yes. Thanks, Nathan. Very cool. Merry Christmas, y'all. Very good stuff. Fun, fun, fun. That's about as good as it gets. I love it. Hey, open phones here at 888-825-5225.

Teresa wrote in from the Baby Steps community on Facebook group. If you didn't know, there's an official Baby Steps community with, I think it's over a million people in it now, on Facebook. That's the official Baby Steps Ramsey community. I don't know. It's called something like that. Today, a family member reached out asking for help. They're truly struggling receiving food stamps.

But we're desperate for items you cannot buy with food stamps. In less than an hour, I was able to go through my stockpile and fill a giant Ikea bag with every possible item they may need. I'm gifting them toilet paper, cleaning supplies, toothpaste, deodorant, napkins.

air freshener, laundry soap, dryer sheets, tissue, trash bags, and about a dozen other household necessities. On my way over, I'll be picking up dog food, a gas gift card, and some gifts they can give each other for Christmas. I'm so thankful for being debt-free and that a bunch of recent overtime is allowing me to help them without it impacting my budget at all. I'm finally in the season of giving.

And I couldn't be more thankful for that. Oh, I love that. Isn't that great? And even just that a little bit of that convenience where you're like, all right, I'm going to just go through my pantry and see what I have here and be able to fill up. Yeah. Fill up a bag and be able to give it away. Well, and you can double up. I mean, you know, a lot of people...

You know, they do the Costco thing and they buy like six jars of peanut butter. And so they've got plenty, you know, so you're not going to go without. That's right. It works out, you know, it's it's. But just to be able to do that spur of the moment and catch somebody. Katie says for so many years, I hated December, my husband, son and sister's birthday plus Christmas.

I could never do what I wanted. This year, I'm taking five of us to Florida to my parents for Christmas, doing house projects for them while there. Everyone can have what they need and some of what they want for Christmas. Birthdays, plenty for giving, but the hardest part is keeping the list straight. Check.

Checked the bank a few minutes ago because it felt too spendy, and I had only spent 5% of what was allotted. That's weird, but good weird. Keep going. It gets fun. Yeah, there you go. Well, you know what? It takes the stress off of the holidays. One of the biggest elements of stress is the financial threat of a hangover, a financial hangover that lasts till May.

When you've got your money under control. In the name of generosity, right? Yeah, all in the name of generosity. I hated December, she says. Yeah, I get it. I completely get that. This is the annual giving show here on The Ramsey Show. Well, it's our annual giving show. And all day we've gotten to hear some incredible stories of outrageous generosity. This stuff that gets us fired up. It never gets old.

Guys, if you've learned anything from the stories we're hearing today, I hope you've learned that giving is the most fun you can have with money.

and you'll never have more fun than helping someone else change their life. And one way you can do that is the live and give box. Everyone today has been getting the live and give box that calls in with a giving story. This is the box we gave everyone. And today we're offering it. I thought it was $99. This is even more $79.99. That's $20 off a normal. That's like half price for these items.

It's an entire year of financial peace, university, a copy of the total money makeover and a copy of baby steps. Millionaires. If there's someone in your life who needs this and there is, then you give it to them. You're going to show them hope. You're going to show them freedom. They might be the ones calling in on the next giving show because you changed their life. So get the live and give box at Ramsey solutions.com. Super sale on this thing. 79 99 today. Uh,

You'll get it in time for Christmas if you call in today or click on the website today and get it. Nobody calls in anymore. And again, that's ramseysolutions.com slash box. You know, we used to have people call customer care and order stuff. I bet there's still a few that do. There probably is. But majority go on the Internet. I mean, it's just kind of a foreign thing to do. I said plural. That's what John Delaney always says. The Internet's. The Internet's.

Like there's two of them. I know. It feels like there's a lot. I don't know. There's a lot of them. All right. Andrea is with us in San Diego. Andrea, happy Christmas to you. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas, Dave and Rachel. Thanks for having me on the show. Absolutely. Tell us your giving story, please.

I have a receiving generosity story. My husband and I got married last year, November in 2021. And we went through Financial Peace University together and we're on Baby Step 3B. And he is active duty military and is deployed this year. So last month on our one year wedding anniversary, since he's gone, I invited one of my best girlfriends to go out to dinner with me. I said,

Come to dinner with me. This is, you know, my treat. Let's just have a good meal and good conversation, you know, get whatever you want. Don't read the menu from right to left. And so we went out to dinner at a really nice restaurant, the type of restaurant where the manager is, you know, roaming around, talking to people and making sure everything's satisfactory. So the manager comes over to our table and says,

He asks, you know, if we're visiting from out of town because it was a pretty touristy area. And we said, no, we live here. And so he said, oh, you know, what's the occasion then? And I said, well, it's my wedding anniversary, but I'm just here with my friend because my husband is away for work. And he had a pretty good guess. He said, oh, is your husband in the military? And I said, yeah.

um, cause it's a big military community here. And he said, Oh, you know, I'm sorry that, um, you guys are apart, but you know, hopefully we can make your meal enjoyable. And he asked me what, what year wedding anniversary it was. And I just, you know, held up one finger and his jaw dropped and he said, Oh my gosh, you know, I'm sorry. And he said, you know,

which dessert on the menu were you girls eyeing, you know? And so we looked at one and picked one. I can't remember what it is now. And so of course they, they bring out that dessert, which was really nice. And my friend and I are finishing our meal and a waiter came over the server from the next section over. It wasn't our server. And he comes up and taps me on the shoulder. And he said that,

The couple sitting in the next section over the table behind us overheard me telling the manager that my husband was deployed and it was my first wedding anniversary and they had paid for our entire meal. I love it.

As they should have. Well played. That's amazing. I thought you were going to say it was the manager that just like, you know, picked it up and just said we got it. But it was another customer there that did that. Oh, that's amazing. Yeah, I kind of thought when the manager was asking like, oh, which dessert did you like? You know, I thought that maybe they were going to comp the dessert. Right, right. And then my friend and I were just...

So shocked. And luckily the couple was still there. They were like finishing up. And so I was able to turn around and I just said, thank you so much for, you know, your generosity. And,

They said, no, thank you. Thank your husband for his service. I didn't really get to talk with them much, but I asked if they were visiting or local and they said that they were visiting on vacation and they were flying home the next day. That was it. Just the spontaneity and the impact, I feel like that just has such a bigger impact on me than it did

And it's like that makes my first anniversary like so memorable. Absolutely. How long you been married now? Well, last month was our one year anniversary. Oh, this just happened. This just happened. Wow. Okay.

I love that. And I love the picking up the bill at restaurants. Dave, you're really good at that. Like if you see someone, you know, but I think because I've been the recipient of that, not to that extent. Andrea, like, yeah, your one year anniversary with your husband deployed. I mean, like that's just like over the top. But anytime someone does anything that you think, oh, my gosh, like it is. It's so shocking to be on the receiving end and especially with you and all those circumstances like that. That's just I mean, that like literally makes you smile for weeks and weeks. Just thinking about that. Yeah. Yeah.

Very cool. Absolutely. Very cool. Hey, and do tell your husband. We appreciate him, too. We love you guys. We appreciate what you do for America and all the men and women like him and like you and the sacrifice that you do for him being at work in quotes. And if it's out of San Diego, then that could mean a whole lot of things. Yeah, that's right. So, yeah. Wow. Thank you. Thank you very, very much.

Open phones at 888-825-5225. I had the honor of doing some things with SEAL teams. And, of course, they're based out of San Diego. And when they're at work, that means they're downrange. Yeah, that's when it's getting real. So somebody...

Somebody is, some bad guy somewhere is in trouble. That's what that means. So it's pretty serious. And these men and women, they are, their level of sacrifice, their level of honor, their level of training is otherworldly. It's pretty amazing. So anytime you've got the opportunity to bless someone in uniform, please do it. I don't care if it's a police uniform, a firefighter's uniform, or a set of scrubs.

sitting there or certainly a military uniform you just reach over and do that every single time and um you know i watched a guy the other day somebody beat me to it i was in a nice restaurant and this guy walked in with a uh a vietnam veterans hat on just a ball cap just a ball cap and um he was uh

I mean, this guy was, he was, uh, I had served early in Vietnam probably. Um, and, uh, but I mean, it wasn't 30 seconds for people started lining up to buy that tables for, you know, I mean, it didn't take but a second cause you could just look at that guy and go, that's a guy that needs to be honored. Yeah, absolutely. And, uh,

Pretty cool stuff. There's something that happens, Rachel. You're like, right, when somebody buys your dinner like that, regardless of whether you're in a position of honor like that or not, you're just maybe a position of need, whatever it is. But there's something about food.

And that transaction that makes the receiving person feel very special. Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. I know I hate to even say this story because it's nothing compared to the call we just had. But when we had been married about three months, had moved to Nashville, I guess it had been about four months. And we were starting off our jobs, Winston and I, I mean, in our early 20s, just doing it. We had our budget and we couldn't really go out to eat. Like, you know, we were in the Franklin area living. Yeah.

outside of Nashville and we kind of were like, okay, we can go out to dinner like twice a week is kind of like our rhythm. And so we went out on a big date night to Puckett's downtown Franklin one night and some friends that we knew, family friends, they were a little bit older than us. And again, we had just been married about four or five months. And I remember we got waters because we didn't want to pay for a drink. Like, I mean, we were like in that season of life and they paid for our meal and I felt like I won the lottery. I was like,

It's not coming out of our budget? Like, oh my gosh. But yeah, there's just, it takes you off guard. Yeah. There's something that makes you feel special. I know. It's a pretty cool thing. But you do that great. You always are paying for people's meals at a restaurant. And I just love that. I think it's just, it's a beautiful, it's a beautiful thing. Fun stuff. It's great. It's our annual giving show here on The Ramsey Show. Man, I love generous people. They make us smile. They make our eyes leak. This is The Ramsey Show.

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the pods, moving and storage studios, it's the Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. We help people build wealth, do work that they actually love, and create real, amazing relationships.

This day's shows are dedicated to giving, to generosity. It's our annual giving show in honor of Christmastime. Merry Christmas, America. Ho, ho, ho. Hey, we're glad you're with us. Rachel Cruz, Ramsey personality number one, best-selling author, is my co-host today. And we're taking your calls all about giving. We want to hear your stories that are inspiring about giving and about receiving.

Generosity is the best thing you can do with money. It's the most fun you'll ever have with money. And we teach you around here that you will sacrifice to win. You will live like no one else so that later you can live and give like no one else.

So check it out. We want to hear your story. Open phones here at 888-825-5225. Jay in Washington, D.C. is with us. Merry Christmas, Jay. How are you? Hey, Merry Christmas, Dave and Rachel. It's a real pleasure to talk with both of you. You too. Tell us your giving story.

Yes, sir. So I'd briefly like to share today my family's progression of our generosity over the past couple of Christmases and what we have planned this year. But first, my why. So my three siblings and I were raised by a single mother who's a real hero to all of us. All four of us are successful adults, and so I have a real heart for helping single moms however I can.

Over the years, of course, we were helped by family and friends and strangers in many ways, and so I feel compelled to do the same. In 2020, my wife and my first Christmas after completing Baby Step 3, we were finally in a position that we could expand our generosity to beyond our church, and we opted to find a deserving stranger to help. So I chose a diner-type restaurant a few days before Christmas, walked in, and asked for the manager.

I asked him if he had any single moms working that day who could use a little hand up with a money gift for the holiday. Someone came to his mind right away and he was able to help me hand an envelope with a little over $200 to a grateful mom, two little ones. Last year, uh,

Last year, my family and I became a little more strategic than that. I called a different restaurant about a month before Christmas and asked for the manager. And if she had any single moms who could benefit from a monetary gift there, she immediately thought of one mom who had recently successfully completed rehab.

The manager and I schemed for a weekend shift for when this particular waitress was working and my wife and my kids and I visited that restaurant for a drink and a slice of pie that afternoon. And we wanted to be anonymous, but evidently every employee in the place knew, besides the waitress, that we were about to give the gift. They were all smiling and watching us the whole time. And about 15 minutes into our visit, we left the waitress $400 tip and walked out.

So this year, Dave and Rachel, I'm a public school administrator, and I get daily reminders of how blessed my family and I are through the course of serving my school community. And unfortunately, this year I learned recently that two siblings who attend my school lost their father to an accident. And our school team reached out to this newly widowed mom to see how we could support. And she shared that, among other things, she was struggling with finances because her husband handled all the financial matters. Hmm.

I immediately thought that my family and I could personally gift them a subscription to Ramsey Plus that she would really benefit from the financial coaching aspect of that. So I called your company, and Rick, one of your longtime agents, shout out to Rick, answered. I explained the situation on behalf of the company. He generously gifted the year of Ramsey Plus to me to give to the widow.

I'm really grateful for your company for stepping in to help. And, of course, my family and I have been talking about how we will outrageously give this year, and it will go to our widow and our school community. We have to help our single moms, especially those who are widowed. All these ladies are superheroes. Absolutely. Yeah, they are. They do wear a cape, every one of them. And most of them work multiple jobs.

Absolutely. Just to get by. And it's a very real thing. So you've touched a nerve. You really have. That's fabulous. Well done, Jay. Thank you. I love that, Jay. Thank you. Thank you so much for the inspiration. Yeah. And we will continue. Amen. Keep it up, brother. Merry Christmas to you. Absolutely. Very cool. Very well done. What an amazing heart, Jay, you have, you and your sweet family. I'm like, that's...

And I love the intentionality of calling the restaurant, talking to them, right? Like you kind of build it up and then his kids, Jay's kids, you know, going along on that as well. Like there's just life-changing things playing out all around. Well, if you can more carefully identify the target, you're more likely to hit the target. Yes. Random things. You kind of get – sometimes when you're doing this kind of weird generosity stuff –

You get a little nervous and you start kind of thrashing around and get a little bit random. And sometimes you miss the target. You know, it's not your giving doesn't do what you kind of hoped it would do. But in his case, he's being very selective and helping someone go. Okay, that's a person. Okay, now I've got that dialed in. That's very cool.

And you know what? I'll brag on Rick, our guy here, because I know he's talking about over in our Ramsey concierge team. And, um,

All of you folks out there that own and run businesses, that's a leadership lesson right there. You know, the way our team is led, they are one of the, you know, we teach them to have a self-employed mentality. Treat this place like they own it. Treat the books that you sell like you own them. Treat the, you know, the stuff around here like, you know, like you own it. And Rick treated that like he owned it. He said that's somebody that this is something that,

If I owned this company, I would give that. And so he gave that. Oh, by the way, if you're running the company, your leadership style needs to equip and empower your people to do that. To be generous. To be generous without asking. They don't need to check in. Just do the right thing.

And, you know, he didn't give away $10,000. He gave away one one-year membership to Financial Peace University. We'll be okay. You know, it's okay. And so he's equipped. He's empowered to do that all through people all through this place. As a matter of fact, there are more than that. It's like we demand that they do it. It's part of their job to be generous and to take care of people as one-offs. Now, if you call in and just, you know, if you call in and make up a lie and try to mess with us, we'll charge you double. Okay? So...

So we do that, too, because we treat it like we own it. We don't want to be conned. But we do want to be generous. There's a difference, right? I mean, that's the thing. Yeah, no, totally, totally. Absolutely. Way to go, Rick. That's very, very cool stuff. That's how it's supposed to be done. So you can – my point of that is, is if those of you that run small businesses out there, and lots of you do, you're entre leaders, entre leaders meaning you're entrepreneurs and leaders.

You can magnify your generosity just by empowering your team to do it. Because they have more touch points sometimes than you do. So it gives you a lot of ways to do it. This is an annual giving show here on The Ramsey Show.

Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Rachel Cruz, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today. As we do our annual giving show, we are taking calls from those of you telling your giving stories. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Harmony is in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Merry Christmas, Harmony.

Merry Christmas. I am thrilled to talk to you. It is such an honor to participate in The Giving Show. Well, thank you. Tell us your story.

Okay, so my giving story started a few years back. I got a really nice bonus at work and I love my job and I know I'm good at it, but I also know I am nothing without my team. So I wanted to share. And it was kind of a little conundrum because I wasn't really supposed to advertise that I'd gotten a bonus. I don't think there were a whole lot of them given out that year. And I couldn't just give them money because I don't think that would have been appropriate. So I did my Secret Santa idea. Okay.

I just made up some envelopes with cash in them and the person's name and said from Secret Santa, thank you for all you do. And I snuck around and I flipped them under the office doors. And it was just so much fun that I decided right then and there that I would just go ahead and add a line item to my budget so I could have a Secret Santa fund and do it again later.

So I did it again next year. And then I also noticed how great our janitors are where I work. And of course, everything we do would come to a screeching halt if they didn't do their jobs. And they're just always so friendly and cheerful. And they say hi to everybody. And they knock on every door of every office every day and empty the trash and all the other things that janitors do. So

And I decided they would be a part of it too. And then the most amazing thing that happened was that it went viral. One of the janitors sent an email to the all employees distribution list that said, thank you, secret Santa, whoever you are. And people started asking her, what was she talking about? So she took a picture of the envelope and sent that out. And then, uh,

Yeah. So this is like the entire staff gets these emails. And how many is that, Harmony? How many people are getting this? About 500. Okay, okay. That's amazing. So after about a day or so, someone replied to the email chain saying, I got one of those too, and then another one, me too, and these weren't the ones that I had given. Oh, wow.

And Secret Santa stuff started magically appearing all over the facility. Oh, my gosh. Harmony. Sounds like Santa got in on it. I can't believe it. It was so fun. And I can't wait to see what happens this year. Because we're not quite... We work right up until the day before Christmas Eve. So it's going to probably be next week when things really... I'm expecting to see it again this year. Wow. And...

You know, it's right what you said. This is like therapy for me. I get so much more out of this than I would from any stuff or even any experiences that I could buy with the same money. Well, the fabulous thing is you inspired somebody else to start doing it too and didn't even know it.

I think it was her email that really got the word out. I was tight-lipped. No one knew unless some of the recipients that I gave had said something to somebody else. But then when this email went out, that was really what got it going, I think. That's so perfect. That's awesome. Well done. Well done. Great story.

So the original Secret Santa, if there is one, is a guy named Larry Stewart from Kansas City. And we ended up connecting with him, having him on the show several times, developed a friendship with him. He's passed away of cancer since. But Larry was quite an interesting bird. He was down on his luck decades ago, didn't have any money, was hungry.

pulled his pickup into a diner in Mississippi, a little meat and three diner, went in, went up to the counter and sat down and ate. And with the idea that when he finished, he was just going to act like he forgot his wallet and just try to talk because he had to have food. He was hungry.

And he started talking to the cook behind the counter who turned out to be the owner of the diner. We found out later in the story. And the guy realized that he was broke and kind of was running a scam. And he walked around behind him and reached down on the floor and said, hey, I think you dropped this and handed him a $20 bill.

So he was able to pay, he gave him the money. In other words, he was able to pay for his dinner. Larry never forgot that. He later goes on to be, got in the cable TV business and goes on to become a multimillionaire.

and started a tradition of Secret Santa, and nobody knew who he was. And he would go to areas of the country where something had happened. He was in New Orleans after Katrina. He was in after a shooting around Columbine. He was there after that. He was in New York City after 9-1-1. And he would walk around in a Santa Claus suit with his friends who were policemen, would go with him, and he would give away tens of thousands of dollars

He'd walk up and just hand people $100 bills, $200 bills, $300 bills, $400 bills, and he would walk around all day long just on the street and just randomly going up to people and just going, ho, ho, ho, and who are you? And he'd get, Jesus loves you. Jesus loves you. And he handed out, over his life, he handed out millions of dollars as Secret Santa. And so when he got sick...

He created the Secret Santa kit to franchise it so that other people could do it. And you could go to his, I don't even know if the website's still up. He died several years ago. But the website was like Secretsanta.com or something. And you could go there and get, you know, learn how to be him.

because finally the kids no one knew who it was it was a big mystery all the media was trying to track him down trying to figure out what it was and he kept it a secret for many years Kansas City Star finally in his own hometown tracked him down figured out who it was and so he came out when he got sick he came out and told everybody who he was and started telling his whole story and we had him on the air and

He was just a piece of work. He was a lot of fun. But he would dress up as Santa Claus and go into the areas of town where people were struggling or go to towns where something had happened and they just needed encouragement. And it wasn't like $5. I mean, he's giving away hundreds of dollars and $100 bills and tens of thousands of dollars on a given trip in a given day.

It was very cool. He was a great Secret Santa, like Harmony. Harmony's a great Secret Santa. I know. Well done, Harmony. And, you know, the weird thing is that just like Larry Stewart's legacy lives on and people are now doing Secret Santas all over in his memory. Now, Harmony wasn't tracking on him. I'm sure she just had her own idea there. But if you're tracking that whole idea, they don't know who he is. You never know what you inspire. How many of those –

Gen 2, Gen 3, Generation 3 Secret Santas are popping up all over, inspired by you and what you created. And I would say I have enough hope in humanity that, you know, if someone is given a gift like that, that somewhere in their life they will give as well, right? Like it's like when you are given to...

You can't help but then to pass that on, right? It may look different than the original gift given to you, but that's where the generosity kind of butterfly effect can happen. And it may not happen every single time, but I have enough faith in humanity that I'm like, I think it does. Like when something is given to you in a act of generosity, your life is shifted and it changes. And then you in turn want to be able to give too. So I love the passing on. It's inspiring, this thing called generosity.

this is the ramsey show rachel cruz ramsey personality number one best-selling author my daughter is my co-host today this is our annual giving show here on the ramsey show we like to inspire generosity and particularly here at christmas time merry christmas to you america we want you to be givers we want you to enjoy money and the greatest joy you'll ever get with it is the joy of generosity once

One of the ways we also celebrate this day of giving on the show is we get some of the folks that work at Ramsey, one of the 1,100 team members, to come in and tell their giving or receiving story. And Sarah is with us on the debt-free stage to tell her story. Hey, Sarah, tell us your giving story.

All right. So about a year ago and just in the past few years, my grandmother has been such an incredible blessing to my family and myself. Towards the end of last year in August, my grandfather unfortunately passed away due to COVID. But around the same time, my grandmother had made the decision to sell her home and move in with my parents. So while this...

While this was all happening, I was still living at home and as a family, we were like, you know what? We're gonna go through FPU. So we did. And every single video that we watched because it was a remote class, my grandmother was just sitting on the couch quietly, just listening and absorbing all the information. And I really believe that something just changed in her heart that kind of 10X her generosity. And she was already an incredibly generous person. I mean, she'd be the first one to pay for your food.

Every time I went out, she'd be like, oh, can

can I slip a few dollars your way for coffee? Just the sweetest little person, you know, religious giver. And she also didn't just give her time, but she, or give her money, but she also gave her time. And part of the ways that she did that was every single week for as long as I can remember, she would spend a ton of time making just a ton of food for her local church youth group. And every single year, she also hosts our Thanksgiving family. So our Thanksgiving feast.

So she would spend days on end cooking. She would invite her family and not just her family, but the entire church congregation. Oh my God. It was a whole feast and she'd spent days preparing this and she was older in age. So she had a weaker heart and she couldn't even like just cook it all at once. She literally had to break it apart that far just to do this. Wow. So it was just an incredible, just inspiring woman that she did all of this. And through this time, uh,

Towards the beginning of this year, unfortunately, her health did start declining, but she wanted to make sure that her daughter's family, my mom, was well taken care of. So as she was learning all these principles and your teaching, she had made the decision to pay off her vehicle. And a few days later, she had told my mom, you know what, I want you to put this in your name because she knew that it would be her vehicle when she passed and she didn't want my mom to have that burden of a car payment.

And that just helped so much. And on top of that, my grandmother was my biggest cheerleader and my biggest prayer warrior as I had made the decision to move from South Florida to Tennessee to pursue my dream job here at Ramsey Solutions. Oh, fun. Yeah, she would pray with me before and after every single interview. On top of that, she also helped fund one of my grad school tuition semesters. And that just helped incredibly as someone who was on Baby Step 3.

And a few months after that, she actually gave me $5,000 towards purchasing my first car. Wow. As I moved up here, I needed a reliable vehicle to get around. And I actually moved up here without the job, using the proximity principle to get the job. Wow.

And I couldn't have done this like on my own, but with her support, I was able to get my Dave car. I got my dream job here. And just last weekend, I walked from my graduation for my master's degree, all debt-free at 21. Woo!

Oh my gosh. So I'm super grateful for the impact that she's had me on that way, in that way. But it gets even better than that. And as she was continuing through financial peace towards the end, you know, we have that generosity video. And she actually asked my mom one day if she would drive her to the bank. Now, my mom had no idea what this, like why she wanted to go to the bank. She thought, oh, maybe she wants to open an account. But

But on the drive over, she actually revealed that she wanted to pay off my parents' house. Whoa. In full. Completely. Like $200,000. It was insane. And there was nothing stopping her from doing this. Wow. So she went ahead and she paid off my parents' house. And without that mortgage payment, such a huge weight was just lifted off my parents' shoulders. Wow.

And my family and I are just so incredibly grateful for the blessing of that from her and just her lasting legacy of generosity.

And as I've moved up here now, there was a weekend since I knew that her health was kind of declining that I decided to go back and visit her in South Florida. And I flew in really early, I think like 6 a.m. that day. And I got to the home and I was sitting at her bedside holding her hand. My mother was on the other side also holding her hand. And I got the privilege to spend the last 20 minutes of her life by her side. Oh, my goodness.

And just the lasting impact of generosity. I hope that I can carry that on. Wow. And this place helps me do exactly that. So I really am so grateful to be a part of this crusade. Wow. You're incredible. What a great story. Oh, that's amazing. I love your granny. She's awesome. Yes, she's incredible. Man, she's incredible. How old was she when she passed? She was 76. 76. Okay.

Yeah. How many grandkids does she have? Is it you and... It's actually just three. Three, okay, okay. Yes. But I was thinking like, that's what I love about within a family unit, right? How that trickle effect is so real. Absolutely. And as you're standing here, you're like, oh yeah, your life is completely different. Mm-hmm.

Not just from the monetary gifts that she's given you, but it's the spirit, right? That generosity. Yeah, who she is. Absolutely. My mom was like, I hope that I can do that for you guys one day too. And I'm just like, as much as we can do, we're trying to be generous and like, not just the big ways, but the small ways as well. That's right. That's pretty cool. Very cool. Very, very well done. Good stuff. Good stuff. All right, Sarah, tell everybody what you do here and how long you've been on the team.

I am an email marketer with EveryDollar, and I've been here about eight months. And you said you're 21. Yes, I am. And you just got your master's in what? In strategic communications and leadership. Wow. Very cool. That's awesome. Well, you're a great team member, and that was a wonderful generosity story. Very, very well done. Sweet grandmother. I love it. Thanks for sharing it, Sarah. Thank you. Thank you for having me. Good stuff. Generous people make us smile. Generous people make our eyes leak.

I was crying on that one. That one got me. That was good. Right there? It was powerful. Yeah. Papa Dave. Wiping my tears away. Yeah, that was good. So sweet. Good stuff. Well, the granny kicking, the grandmother kicking in and just going, boom, I'm going to do this, and boom, I'm going to do that, and boom, I'm going to do that. And the other thing that just occurs, you know, as I'm sitting there, we've got so many millennials and Gen Xers on this team, and they get such a bad rap as a

you know, stereotypically being snowflakes, not having hustle, not having grind, not having that. And like so many stereotypes that are just inaccurate, there's certainly...

a segment of gen z and certainly a segment of millennial that's awful and a segment of the boomers and a segment of every other generation there's no question and but i got to tell you we work up close and personal with a bunch of gen z's that are like her that lady right there is brilliant beautiful 21 great she's got her you know she's articulate uh just finishes her master's degree i mean uh and and

and is a proud member of this crusade and so on. So, you know, they're out there. They're out there. And, you know, when you get to meet people like Sarah, you know that we're going to be okay.

That Gen Z is, you know, there's enough of those like her in Gen Z. That's right. That's right. Yeah, good stuff. Hey, this is our Giving Theme Hour. Thank you for our theme show today. Thank you for being with us on this. It's absolutely incredible to share these stories. If you've got a great giving story, jump in and we'll try to get you on. The phone number is 888-825-9000.

5, 2, 2, 5. How our lives have changed. Trudy is in the baby steps community, Facebook group. How our lives have changed since finding the Ramsey financial peace university at our church six years ago before FPU, it would be weeks before Christmas. We'd be scrambling to find money to pay for gifts.

Make payments on credit cards. Today, my husband called to tell me it's Giving Tuesday and we still have a sizable amount of money in our charity account. I stopped decorating the house and started a poll in our town for people's favorite charities. This is the most fun you can have with money. Before dinner tonight, we are delivering checks. There you go. That's great. Good stuff. That's the way it's done.

Intentional giving, intentional generosity. This is The Ramsey Show. Our scripture of the day, 2 Corinthians 9, 6-7. The point is this, whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly. And whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.

Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, you cannot do a kindness too soon because you never know how soon it will be too late. Oh, that's a good one. Yeah. You know, he might have a future in that writing stuff, that Ralph Waldo Emerson guy. You never know. This is a giving show for the Ramsey Show. We do it once a year. We should do it more, but we're here celebrating the power of generosity. Grace is...

is in Tyler, Texas. Merry Christmas, Grace. Tell us your giving story. Merry Christmas, you guys. It's an honor to come on air today to share my story. Well, my story was back in 2020 during the height of all of the COVID shutdowns in the world.

spinning, it felt like. My husband and I were both fortunate enough to keep working and keep our jobs and actually have overtime opportunity as well. And so we were doing really good financially during that time when we know a lot of people weren't. So when those rounds of stimulus checks started coming in from the government, my husband and I both agreed that we wanted to use those checks to bless somebody who was

who was struggling during that time. You know, we were praying about it, like, Lord, lead us to how you would have us use this money. And since there were so many needs, we didn't know, you know,

Which need to meet. There were so many. And the Lord put on my heart to just reach out to a friend of mine who the year prior had moved to Uganda with her family to oversee and operate a children's home there. It's basically like a foster home for babies.

newborn through age five who either don't have a family or for one reason or another aren't able to be cared for by their families. And they take care of these babies and love on them and provide for them and care for them until they're either reunited with their family or are placed with some kind of permanent placement or care.

in some cases, domestic adoption. And when I reached out to my friend, I found out that they had been really hurting because of all of the lockdowns. There in Uganda, the lockdowns were extremely strict. It was really difficult for them to be able to leave their facility. They had strong regulations regarding that. And even when they were able to leave, it's not like all of the markets were open and bustling. And so they were running crossroads

quickly out of supplies for their clinic, medications, equipment, as well as clothes for those growing babies since babies grow like weeds and they needed clothes in the next sizes up and were not able to get them. So I asked my friend for a list of everything they needed.

for their clinic, in terms of clothes, for the office, everything. And she sent that over to me, and my husband and I went to Walmart and completely cleared the list and packed up five very large boxes and express shipped them internationally to Uganda for them. Whoa! That's fun! Grace, that's amazing. That is great. When they got those boxes, they must have thought Santa had shown up for sure.

Yes, it was so sweet. My friend, when the first boxes started to arrive, she opened it and with some of the older babies, you know, the toddler age, sent me a picture with some of those babies holding some of the new clothes and items from the boxes. And that just, it made me cry just from the joy that I was feeling that I got to be, that we got to be a blessing for them.

you know, because we were doing fine financially. We didn't need that money, and to be able to bless them in that way was just so incredible. It was the most fun I've had shopping ever. Amen. That is the most fun ever. Oh, Grace, that's amazing. Well done, Grace. Very well done. Well, I like it. Ian is with us in Milwaukee. Merry Christmas, Ian.

Merry Christmas. I haven't slept because I've been so excited to be on this show. Well, I'm sorry. We didn't mean to have that effect. Tell us about it. Tell us your giving story.

So I am currently 37. When I was 35, I had been a police officer for 13 years, and I just recently been promoted to sergeant. And up until that time, I had never had any inkling of having mental health issues. I extremely healthy. I'd done everything I ever wanted to do at the department.

And all of a sudden, something just clicked, and I was completely debilitated by a form of OCD where you think you're going to or you think you did harm your kids. And my little girls were two and five at the time, and I love being a girl dad.

And I was at work and I'm constantly around all these bad people and I'm like, oh my gosh, that's me. I did something. I hurt them when I was changing their diapers. And my doctor's like, no, Ian, you have OCD and you have it so bad. You need to contact Rogers Behavioral Health because they're, I mean, the best in the business. So I called them and they're like, we need to get you in our residential program now. You

You are, you know, you are one of the most severe cases we've seen. And so I'm like, all right, let's do it. I called my insurance and they said, no, we're not covering it because it's not worded inpatient, even though that's what it was. And so I'm thinking, my gosh, we have, we were in baby step, still are four, five and six. And I said, we can cover this, but what happens if my treatment runs out?

Past 12, 16 weeks, and the department says, you're not fit for duty. We're going to leave. I mean, I was just so scared because that had been my life. And their foundation says, look, we will cover 100% your stay inpatient. Wow. And we will make sure you get treated. Now, whose foundation? The Mental Health Organization's foundation or the department's foundation? No, the Mental Health Organization. Oh, wow. 100%. Wow.

And when I came out and did their partial program and daily therapy, we cash flowed that without touching our emergency fund. Wow. And I did the disability process for retirement all by myself, and I was able to retire full pension. And...

I could not thank them enough because they, they really did save my life 100% and my family's life. And, um, you know, now I get to be a girl, dad, I get to talk about this. I actually just wrote an article. I talk about this at churches and, um, leadership conferences and schools. And, um, you know, you guys are my inspiration to do that. And that's what I get to do now. Well,

Well, very well done. Sounds like you're doing good, are you?

I'm doing good. And, you know, actually, there's a couple of people at your organization, Tristan, Dawn, and Aisha, they're listening today and actually just filled out an application for one of the positions with you guys to give it a shot and maybe share my talents with you guys. Wow. Very cool, Ian. Very cool. That's a powerful story, though. And yeah, the generosity, that piece is what a burden that's lifted off, you know?

When you don't have to pay for something like that. I mean, that's absolutely incredible. You know, there's things that are definable and you can put your finger on. Mental health things often aren't as easy to define. I mean, if you need heart surgery, that's a very definable, objective thing. If you've got that form, in his case, a form of OCD, that's a little tougher to define.

and to define that goes, oh, there's an end to this treatment. Yeah. You know, and those people stepped up and as he said, literally saved his life. That's pretty incredible. Very cool. And that's the beauty of having around health care, mental health or physical care, either one having a

foundations and things that support and move that it's absolutely vital well guys that's a great giving show you folks out there did it again you inspired each other you inspired america by calling in and giving your great stories rachel this whole generosity thing is a big deal

Well, it is. And it's a huge piece of why we do what we do here every day, getting people in a place where they can be freed up, where their money doesn't control them so that they can truly live and give like no one else. And this is that piece that we get to celebrate today. So thank you guys so much for calling in.

Great job, Austin, Zach, Ben, James, Andrew in the booth, the booth dudes. They make the show happen. That puts us our in the booth, in the, oh, whatever. We'll be back with you before you know it. In the meantime, remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial peace, and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus.

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