The Ramsey Show - App - "Greedy Rich People": Secret Santa AKA Larry Stewart (Hour 2)

Episode Date: March 15, 2022

Dave Ramsey & Dr. John Delony discuss: The legacy of Secret Santa and Larry Stewart's outrageous generosity, Should you give money to your church if they aren't transparent with their budget? How you can teach your kids about money. Want a plan for your money? Find out where to start: https://bit.ly/3nInETX Listen to all The Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3GxiXm6

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, 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. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host, Dr. John Deloney, Ramsey personality, best-selling author, host of the Dr. John Deloney Show, is my co-host today. We'll be taking your questions about your relationships, mental health, your anxiety, your boundaries, your family, your job, your career, your money, your wealth, whatever it is you want to talk about, basically, we're here. Open phones at 888-825-5225.

You jump in. The call is free. Some say the advice is worth exactly what you pay for it. Jean is with us in Cincinnati. Hi, Jean. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hi. I'm so excited to talk to you.

You too. What's up? So my husband and I need your advice about a subject that we're conflicted on. So we have been going to a church for about a year. We both had our own churches. We got married several years ago, and it took us a while to find our church, and we're very comfortable with this church. But we're conflicted on whether we should help with something over and above our tithe, and we're conflicted on that. So I'm calling

to see if you can help us wade through this. Why are you conflicted? Well, our pastor, he addressed the church recently to explain. This church is about 10 years old or so, 10, 12 years old. And he explained that when they started this church, they started storefront, and then they found this property and they borrowed money to purchase this property and to do renovations. And so he said it was $350,000 to $400,000 total. And he came before the church recently to say that they owe maybe $250,000 or so on the church, and he would like us as a church, as we can, his goal is to try to get this debt paid off. But he also indicated he would like to expand the church and build a bigger sanctuary, etc.,

without explaining whether or not they're going to borrow to do that. And I am Dave Ramsey-fied. And so my husband and I are debt-free, and we're totally in 100% agreement on that, and we also tithe. And I want to help, but I don't want to help them pay this debt off to help them go get another loan. And there's not a lot of transparency in this church. We've been there for a year. We don't know what tithes are.

Our former churches, both of our former churches, I came from a very large church. He came from a very small church. We're very transparent about contributions, tithing, and then where that money was going, and we both came from debt-free churches. Does the church, if you went in and met with a pastor and asked for the annual budget, would they give it to you? Well, that's what I said to my husband. That's how I think we need to approach that.

He feels like he's uncomfortable. It's almost like he feels like he's questioning our pastor. No. And I said, no, I think we have a right to know where this money is going. What we call around Ramsey, I'm invested in this. I'm a stakeholder. Okay? And so, you know, you're a stakeholder.

You're a stockholder in a sense you're a tither and so it's not um you're not questioning someone's character and you can make that plain you just go listen we just want to know we've been tithing and it brought up the discussion and we just want to make sure you know we're we're real diligent with our finances it appears you guys are and love to see a copy of the budget um i will not tithe and attend a place that will not allow the tither to see the budget because that i i've just been around i mean 50 000 churches have taught financial peace university so believe me we've seen some stinkers okay and't, you know, there's only one reason to hide something or to not disclose something. Something's wrong.

That's the only reason. So I think they're going to let you see the budget. I don't think they're going to be a problem with it. It's very standard. But they just don't make it a big deal about publishing it everywhere. Maybe they don't want it in the paper or whatever. I don't blame them. But if you went in and sat down and had lunch and said,

hey, I need to ask you a couple questions. We want to give to this new project, and we want to continue to be tithers. We've made this our home church. We love you. We trust you. As a matter of just our normal course of business, we'd like to look at the budget, and I want to ask you about your plans to continue to borrow

because I'm an anti-debt freak and I just I just want to know about that and we're not going to leave the church over it we're not going to be mad at you we're not going to cause divisiveness we're not going to gossip we're not going to work against you we just want to know what's going on and so how and so we can feel comfortable supporting the whole process and do you hear what dave just said there which is masterful which is this is our our philosophies is our problem not yours we're not coming at them guns a blazing but this is how we do life and we want to see if if this is something we want to partner with and we want to be good stewards yeah well you don't even have to say that because it indicates to him that he's a bad steward if he doesn't do it your way is there something else that you're not finding trustworthy there it feels like there's something beneath this it's not that we we love this pastor and we believe that he is um the real deal he is

amazing cool and how big a church is this it it's um maybe three four hundred people it's a smaller church than i'm used to. Okay. Well, the things he's doing now are going to lay the foundation for you to go to 3,000, or they're going to keep you at 300? That's what he wants. He wants to grow this church. I know, but he's not going to grow it if he doesn't make the decisions you and I are talking about properly. Right.

It is part of the process. You have to lay a foundation, literally, in order to. You don't start building until you know. Exactly. We've talked about that. You talk about that. The Bible talks about it. Well, the numbers on churches, let me tell you,

it's like 90% of the pastors are gone within five years of a multi-million dollar building project. They don't make it. It ends up costing them their job 90 percent of the time they leverage it to go to a bigger church well something but it's just they're they're not there they don't see it through and so i was at a church the other day that that i'm friends with and i'm friends with the pastor i'm friends with the last five pastors they've had that's how old i am and so and this guy is still saddled with the debt of a guy four pastors ago from a project and he's he's swimming in it man and it's a mess so i don't believe in it i'm with you but i'm also i'm also

don't tell people to leave a church just because of debt i don't and i don't want to leave the church i'm not and i'm not i don't want to i don't want And I hate debt. No, I don't want to leave the church. I'm not. And I'm not sick of it. And I don't want to pay off debt so he can go borrow more money. Yeah, and I don't blame you. I don't blame you. I wouldn't. I could keep tithing there if I were you and keep attending there

if I could see the budget and not participate in the debt reduction or building program because it's going to end up with more debt if he says, no, we're going to borrow. I could do that. With good conscience, I'd be fine. But I'm not. I'm with you. I can't give to something where the bank is going to be the beneficiary of it, not God's kingdom. And God's kingdom has absolutely nothing to do with banks. I am assured of that. Shots fired.

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People are craving connection. They're craving community. They're craving the energy that only comes from humans being with other humans. And we know that. We hear you. We need it too. We got to get back out there, people. We got to get back to your cities.

We've been coming to your cities for 20, 30 years. And we miss it. And we're about to get back to your cities we've been coming to your cities for 20 30 years and we miss it and we're about to get back at it so first up we're going to do building wealth live we're doing the tour we're announcing and have almost sold out already orlando on may the 19th that's george camel rachel cruz and i oh and we're going to bring dr john deloney and king coma for some side sessions as well while we're there and then we're going to bring Dr. John Deloney and Ken Coleman for some side sessions as well while we're there. And then we're going to announce five more cities, one more this spring, and four more in the fall for the Building Wealth Live. And we're bringing back to Dallas October 22nd the Smart Conference. Yeah, you're going to be smarter.

It's a day-long event. You will leave exhausted and inspired and better and smarter in every area of your life, from mental health to money to career to anything you want to talk about. We're going to cover it that day. Amy and Craig Groeschel, our friends from LifeChurch.TV over in Oklahoma City, the largest church in America, are going to do the marriage section for us. I'm really looking forward to having them with us. The Smart Conference, October 22nd in

Dallas. So far, the first Building Wealth Live, not quite sold out. Orlando, May 19th. You can still get tickets, but you do need to get them. RamseySolutions.com slash events. RamseySolutions.com slash events. It is time to get back out in the real world with people, John. I can't wait. So time to talk about James. Our producer has come up with this great idea that every so often we should feature some greedy rich people. Because we all know that rich people are horrible. We all know that it's a horrible thing that they're going to hell because the camel can't get through the eye of a needle. We know that rich people are awful, that the love of money is the root of all evil well they just they're they're dragging america into the into the sewer we're just dragging america

greedy rich people dragging america into prosperity against its will and it's just awful it should stop they're They're awful. We featured several of them lately. Shaq and some money that he gave away that was ridiculous. The worst. Dolly Parton. It was awful how much money she had given away. She's the worst. She's just ruining the reputation of the greedy rich people.

She wants kids to read. This guy, I got to know this guy personally before he died. And I hate to talk bad about people that died. But he's rich. It's time. Larry Stewart deserves to be talked about because he's a greedy rich guy so here's what happened in 1971 larry was homeless before he was a greedy rich guy and he was broke no money and hungry so he went into a diner in houston mississippi this is known as a small town.

Sat at the counter, ordered a sandwich, got a sandwich, finished eating. The owner of the diner was observing this guy, realized he had absolutely no money, walked around behind him, and reached under the stool that the guy was sitting on and said, hey, mister, I think you dropped this and handed him a $20 bill to pay for his lunch. And Larry said, if I ever get any money, I'm going to do that a lot. Well, Larry went on to move to Kansas City, got in the cable business, became a multimillionaire, and started a thing. For many years, no one knew who it was. He was called Secret Santa.

And he would dress up as santa claus with a police escort and give away tens of thousands of dollars a hundred two hundred dollars at a time just walking down the street seeing someone making eye contact with them and going that person needs a lift that person needs a smile that person needs a couple hundred bucks and so he went to uh new orleans during after katrina he went to new york city after um after 9-1-1. Before that, many other cities. He would just find a place where they were having a hard time. There had been some kind of a disaster, catastrophe, tragedy, and he would go in to cheer everyone up as Secret Santa. It started in Kansas City, his hometown. The Kansas City Star followed him around for years.

The newspaper was trying to figure out who he was. Never could find out who Secret Santa was. It was a big deal. We knew about it. we talked about it on this show years and years ago and then uh sadly larry got cancer and uh was given a death sentence and uh and he came on the show and we had featured him several times but we didn't know who he was and uh then he came on the show and revealed on this show who he was told america who he was and um then he asked everyone to co-become secret santas and he actually set up a kit to show you how to do it and that was his legacy that he wanted to leave before he passed away and it's estimated that larry stewart this greedy rich, gave away well over a million dollars, millions of dollars as Secret Santa over the years, but now has inspired a whole other generation of Secret Santas. And we don't know who they are, but they're also, of course, greedy rich people.

Man. You greedy rich people should be ashamed of yourselves. And I'm probably not supposed to say this this but i've been on the road with you before and i've seen you i've seen people's eyes bug out just because you're so generous with folks who are helping with bags and things like that it which has inspired me it's there's something about hey i don't have a million dollars to give or i can't give ten thousand dollars project there's something life-giving about saying i I can make this person, I'm just going to grab this gas, especially these days. I'm going to grab the gas. I'm just going to go stick my

debit card in this person's gas as they're getting out of the car, this mother getting out of the car. And I'm not going to say anything other than blessings to you. I hope your day's a little bit better. Handing somebody a hundred bucks as a tip instead of the expected $2. There's something about being able to do that and seeing an entire, it they they turn into sunshine right it's just this because it restores it's not just about the money it's about humanity it's about i thought everyone's against me and this person's not and it's something magical man and it's infectious yeah but you greedy rich people should stop doing that yes yes yes yes middle class and under middle class folks you're giving a bad reputation to the greedy rich people when you do this stuff. I know.

You're supposed to only reinvest in yourself. When you're unbelievably generous and you just blow people's minds, it just messes up the whole narrative that greedy rich people should all be punished and give their fair share. I mean, you're messing up the narrative when you're generous like this. It's from private jets to your special parties that you... I don't know what... I'm trying to make something up now.

Yeah. But hats off to our friend who's graduated on to heaven, Larry Stewart, the original Secret Santa. And there's currently Secret Santas literally all over the place. This is so cool. All because of him. That's a great legacy. Golly.

Well done, Larry. Well done, my friend. I can't think of, I mean, that's a pretty incredible legacy. You talk about fun. That's fun. It fun it's such a oh it's so fun it's unfair how fun that is rose is in sacramento rose welcome to the ramsey show rose hi thank you for taking my call sure what's up hi so um i actually have a question i have two little girls and one is just about the age where she's starting to understand the concept of money and learning that she can um you know make money and buy stuff for herself that we generally don't buy for her is she 22 how old is she? She's five. She's five, okay.

That's fun. Yeah, she's five. And how old is your other little girl? She's 18 months. Okay, and your question? So my question is, I did not grow up with great financial advice, and thankfully my husband and I found you when we were in our 20s, and now we would like to kind of set our daughters up. So we want to know, do you suggest us giving an allowance,

an age-appropriate allowance, with the purpose of learning to save, spend, and give? Would they be attached to chores? Because we want her to know that she has to participate in the house, like making her bed and cleaning up her toys. And we don't really want those to be incentive-based. I agree. So here's what we did.

Here's what we did. Number one, it's age-appropriate, so take it easy. She's just five. Okay? We're not sending her to the salt mines. She has a princess dress addiction. It's okay. Our goal is to do four things with money.

We want to teach kids to work age-appropriately. That's make up your bed when you're four. Pick up your toys when you're five, okay? And I'll help you, but you get all the credit emotionally for doing it. And then we pay you. And so there's a connection between work and money. So you're on commission. You're not on allowance.

Words are powerful. Allowance sounds like welfare. We need to make allowance for you. You're awesome. You can bring it so bring it rockstar toy cleaner let's do it okay and then we teach you to save we teach you to give and we teach you to spend wisely after we taught you to work hang on i'm going to send you a copy of the financial peace junior kit which will teach show you how to teach your five-year-old exactly

how we taught our kids growing up and a copy of of Rachel's book that I did with her called Smart Money, Smart Kids on how to teach your kids how to handle money. It covers every bit of this. That's a really good question. Dr. John Deloney, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225. In the lobby of Ramsey Solutions and on the debt-free stage, Bobby and Cindy are with us. Hey, guys, how are you? We're great. How are you? Great. Great to be here.

Honored to have you. Where do you guys live? We live in Charlotte, North Carolina. Cool. Welcome to Nashville. Thank you. How much debt have you paid off? We paid off $68,000. Cool. How long did this take? Two years. Good for you. And your range of income during that time? We were about $85,000 and we ended at about $158,000. Whoa, nice jump. What do you all do for a living? Bobby's a contractor, home improvement, and things like that. Then I was a finance manager with a law firm, and then actually just when we were about finished with our debt,

I went out on my own and started my own bookkeeping business. And that's where the increase came? A little bit of both. Actually, he received a number. It took off tremendously. As soon as COVID hit, my construction business went crazy. Everybody was home, so they wanted work to be done. Well, they happened to notice that that stuff was broken. They didn't see it before because they weren't ever there.

Yeah, when you visit that bathroom 10 times a day, you get to see a difference and if you're only there twice so what kind of debt was the 68 000 you know it's all the normal stuff but primarily um credit cards um car loans some medical bills uh camper loan uh you name it it was just normal it was what we had grown up with it was what we had always lived with both of our lives. We had never really had any kind of financial guidance. Yeah, nothing. When I grew up, my parents were pretty poor.

So it was always couponing for me. I even do it in my business now, even though I'm making money. He's my master couponer. I love it. I love it. Good, good. So how long have you all been married? Seven and a half years. business now even though he still is he's my master couponer i love it i love it good good so how long y'all been married uh seven and a half years so what happened two years ago the pandemic and what i mean is that kind of what woke you up or what was the wake-up call not really i

think you know our journey started kind of a couple years before that we actually had around 90 000 in debt and you know but over five years, we realized we had barely moved that needle. We had maybe moved it $20,000. Yeah, the more we were making seemed like the more we were spending. Yeah, we just kind of kept living up to the lifestyle. And you think it's normal, but you're really just playing a shell game of you pay off one thing and you think, oh, I've got an extra $300 in my budget. We'll go get a camper.

You know, so, you know, you just, you just, you know, stupid builds upon stupid. Yeah, over and over. And we, when we first moved here from Massachusetts, where we're from, we came here and we were here for about a year. But we came to look. And it changed everything. A lot of things changed. And it was up to about three years ago that I found out that this is not my money. This is the Lord's money.

And what are we going to do with this? So that started the ball going. Really being a good steward of recognizing that, you know, the money wasn't ours. It was a gift and a blessing from the Lord. So how do we. And that flipped the switch to cause you to get intense. It did. And then you got involved in this and she was talking about you.

And I'm like, this Dave Ramsey guy. This is another scam. What are you doing now? Me too, brother. Me too. So it really, you know, and I think the thing for both of us is, you know, Bobby didn't really, I think, get fully engaged, but he trusted me to do it. And I think, you know, we hear so much about everybody having their budget meetings and doing all of this stuff together. And our journey was a little bit different.

We weren't really so much on the budget component of it. I certainly used the EveryDollar app, which, by the way, you need to rebrand that as the EveryPenny app. Because I'm telling you, I was so intense on using that app. And, you know, if the electric bill was, you know, 30 cents over, I was adjusting it in the EveryDollar app and then finding that 30 cents someplace else to either spend it or to save someplace else. And I just went along with her. You know, I actually just said, here you go. Okay. Take over.

Stayed out of the way. I did. I really did. A coupon. A coupon. And that was our vacation money too so yeah yeah yeah he loves to anything he saves on a coupon he takes that money that's his own envelope system and he kind of puts it aside and says okay now how much money do we have in the you know in the uh the vacation fund here so how does it feel now that you're free

incredible it's just really life i gotta pinch myself every morning i get up i am telling you i i'm 66 67 whatever it is but i wish i was their age when yeah when this happened yeah you know what my life would be right now, but I can't cry over that. But here I am at this age, so if I can do it, anybody can do it. It's incredible. Well, and I think the other thing that happens when you no longer have that debt, not only does it, you know, it changes, you know, like Romans tells us, you know, we are not to conform to this world. And I think that the way the world views money is that's what we were doing.

We were conforming to the world view of it's okay to have debt. It's okay to not have a future. And to suddenly have a future and to be able to have that freedom just by being different, it's bold to be a Christian in this day and age, but it's also bold to be free. And so for us, I think it was a combination. It walks hand in hand with how we are being good stewards, but also what we're doing for our future. We've become the people that we should have been a long time ago. That we wanted to be, yes.

But I think the other thing, too, is how we're using our resources now. Bobby moved his sister from Florida to Portland, Oregon. So talk about going from one end of the country to the other. But that took two weeks. And a year ago or two years ago, we would have never been able to have even considered the generosity of time and effort that it took to do that because that would have meant two weeks of income out of our house. And now we're able to do things like that.

We help our church. We help our family. I think you had a picture of my granddaughter. You know, while he was in Portland, I went up and took care of my granddaughter for the weekend and, you know, just to be able to have those type of experiences. Never been able to do that before it's just really special this question's burning a hole in my heart how can you run a construction business without a hundred and twenty thousand dollar truck loan is that possible she's got the truck i was given a 98 chevy suburban by by one of our church members. Church members. Free.

And it's still getting the job done? I have that to this day. That's all I use. You're a magician, my brother. Well done. I try. So it's funny because your last debt-free couple, they said, well, they're pretty private.

And we are too. And I think there are people who have helped us without realizing they were helping us, like the gift of that Suburban. You know, he said, I'm not going to get anything for it as a dealer. Do you want this for a work truck? And talk about a God thing. Literally, his old van had just died like the week before.

They had like 15 years. Yeah. Incredible. So, you know, God will just lay out the path for you if you will just listen to him and you will follow him. And he has just blessed us in so many ways. You're heroes. I'm so proud of you. Thank you.

Actually, we appreciate you. If it wasn't for you, I don't think we'd be here. I didn't do it. I know. But, you know, God put you in our path for a reason. And I think that it's important for people to realize that, you know, I'm 56, he's 66. You can do this, you know. And so, you know, our next journey is to get that house paid off. And we've laid out the plan that that's a five-year plan.

There you go. So, you know, it just builds hope upon hope upon hope. And that's what we are praying that this will do for other people. All right. Well, it's Bobby and Cindy from Charlotte, North Carolina. We got a copy of Baby Steps Millionaires for you and a copy of Total Money Makeover for you. Because we want you to be millionaires and give that Total Money Makeover book to somebody and get them started. They paid off $68,000 in two years.

But I think a whole lot more than that happened. Making $85,000 to $158,000. I love it. You guys are amazing. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We're debt-free! Yes! Love it.

Wow! Powerful. This is The Ramsey Show. We'll see you next time. Dr. John Deloney Ramsey personality is my co-host. Open phones at 888-825-5225. John, we use a lot of joke lines and one-liners for people's memories around here for different things. Live like no one else, so later you can live like no one else or better than I deserve. One of the things is we just yell all the time, don't be normal, normal sucks. And she brought that up in that last debt-free scream. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, Romans 12.2. And so what happens is if you don't want to be normal, you have to renew your mind and what's interesting is there's so much data out now that uh confirms

that biblical truth that your mind can literally be literally with the neuropathways can be renewed i love it that it's renewing that it's a it's a it's not for me it's not a one-stop it didn't happen once like i'm constantly renewing that thing right i'm constantly learning and being around wise people and getting new insights and um i love that like but your brain literally changes neuroplasticity right i love it neuroplastic that thoughts have a physical shape to them yeah they've got a weight yeah there's an actual thing that they can measure as a thought, and a negative thought has a place, a physical place that it lives.

A positive thought has a physical place that it lives. And a chemical reaction that works through it. As a result. And so being normal, considering that normal in our culture today is overweight broke exhausted full of anxiety horrible relationships kids are out of control marriage is on the rocks uh hate my job normal is it sucks yeah it's that line just is what it is it's and i just reject that wholesale it's not it it is what It is what it is, but it shouldn't be. It shouldn't be, yeah. It doesn't have to be.

And I love what she said. She said, I don't want to be normal. Yeah. I don't want to be like everybody else. And part of their journey was not that they mathematically paid off the debt. Part of their journey was they no longer accepted normal as okay. They were turned inside out. And, you know, the new book you've got

coming out on your past change your future your your reform and the and your story is a way to reset the thought patterns in the brain right with the newer neuroplasticity and so what we've been doing with teaching people how to get out of debt is reject the cultural norm that is destroying your life by the way and that's true of how you've been taught to handle trauma or how you've been taught to handle your mental health uh your worry your anxiety your panic attack uh how you've been taught to handle uh boundaries with your crazy mother-in-law isolation loneliness lack of friendships toxic work environments all of it right we're just told this is just the way this is and life is short and then

you die yep and it is short and you die but man there's a lot more autonomy and a lot more transformation that can happen in that gap and you can choose that's right to not be conformed, not be normal, with the renewing, be transformed, transformed with the renewing of your mind. And that's true when you're getting out of debt. It's true when you're getting a new job with Ken Coleman. It's true with own your past, change your future. And you want a different mental health outlook. And mental health, by the way i i think some of you are caught up to this but some of you aren't when we're talking about mental health around here

we're not talking about everyone that that is that anyone who wants to deal with mental health is crazy no i want better health i want better physical health i want better mental health right that's exactly what we're sitting here talking about. Neuroplasticity, new thoughts, renewing your mind. That is the health of your mental. But mental health, people in my generation, it's like if you go to a marriage counselor, you must be about to ready to divorce. If you say mental health, it means, uh-oh, crazy word.

And so once you say mental health is like whoa that's over there that's those other people yeah but no i want to be healthy yeah mentally in fact i even goes far to say that there's really no such thing as physical health and mental health and relational health and spiritual health it's all just health now that we know enough that my thoughts actually impact my physiology and my lack of sleep impacts decision making all that stuff works together man if you don't have relationships your body's going to be hollering at you to get connected and all that stuff works together but yeah i want to have better control of my thoughts and i want to stop waking up at 2 a.m every night after every night i want to stop having my body take off on me just because me and my wife get in disagreement i want to take i want to be more engaged parent i

want all these things that's mental health and. And that's spiritual health. That's right. Take every thought captive. Yes. I'm not going to allow, I'm going to make a conscious decision that, and you know, our debt-free screamer in an earlier segment today, how'd you do that? I'm just not worried about what the guys at work think. Yeah. He took a thought captive.

Ta-da! He took a thought. The thought that I need to impress other people, i took that captive and i tossed it to the curb in the idea that the world uh revolves around you right this zip tie duct tape its mouth and throw it to the curb yeah i mean i'm gonna take this thought captive i'm gonna capture it yep i'm gonna kidnap it and throw it out of my brain yeah you know and you physically in your mind almost look at that i'm gonna zip tie hog tie i don't cowboy rope i don't know what you're gonna do how is it you capture something in your world right but uh and throw that thing to the

curb man and that's what he did he just said i i wasn't worried about what they thought yeah it's me and her and you know we come back to this choice thing, Dave. I've been through enough debt-free screams now. Did you know the smile's the same when somebody says, we paid off our $170,000 house and we paid off our $1 million house? The smile's the same

because they're smiling for freedom, right? And we get caught up in this choice of, well, yeah, I'll never have $100 million. Great. You can still be a millionaire. You can still be free. We're making these choices that we tend to Instagram them or, well, that influencer. Man, the smile over here is the same.

When people are free, they are free. And you make that choice for you and your family in that season man and then you get after it it's just something i don't know i always thought freedom would be when it was 500 million or 600 million or 100 i watch this this this freedom on people and it's just something else 55 000 bucks yeah i paid off 60 grand and my whole family's different now and my whole life i became the person i should have been that's what he said that was a great line i became the person i wanted to become man it's a great line it's just something beautiful man that we get caught up in the choice comparison and the chance just choose and go for it well i i know that there's a way that we're going to come up

with to redeem the value in social media but there's so much harm done yeah that i'm i'm really comfortable just being off of it yeah i mean i'm on it but i got people here that run it i'm not on it anymore i quit i just quit yeah i can't stand it it drives me bananas and um and i just i have i have to make a choice what i'm going to put into my brain yeah i mean what because whatever i put in my brain if i put crap in my brain my brain is crap yep you know and there's something you know i put aid in my brain i just stay mad all the time well yeah your body responds to it it's ready to fight right um this past week i was in new york for a bunch of media meetings and it was the week that they had just been released.

Yeah. And I tell you what, man, it was almost teary-eyed. I just watched these friends and these coworkers hadn't been together in months coming together and having these communal reunions. First time they've seen each other physically since 2020. There was laughter from their guts. There was deep conversations like truly how are you questions not just passing man you don't get that on zoom you don't you don't get that on social media you don't get that on instagram you don't get that thumbs up by the way those 43 people

on facebook aren't your real friends no they won't be there at 2 a.m if you have a problem they don't even know you're there right they're not even sure they're who you are, but they click friend. There's something powerful, Dave, about getting well, getting connected, and being free. That's why I'm excited to go back out and do these live events again in person. I mean, I'm not going to get to have a conversation with 2,000 people, but I'm going to get to be with 2,000 people. And they'll be with you. That's right.

And be with you and be with Rachel and George. This is just who we are here at Ramsey and so some of you don't like that and it's okay you don't have to come there's room you know it's gonna sell out anyway but we'd love to have you but you don't have to come just come just try it just try it you'd be amazed what happens this is the ramsey show Hey, it's John Deloney, co-host of The Ramsey Show. Did you know over 18 million people listen to The Ramsey Show every week? A lot of those people listen on one of our 600-plus radio stations across the country. To find a station near you, go to RamseySolutions.com slash show.