The Ramsey Show - App - It’s Our 2024 Annual Giving Show!

Episode Date: December 18, 2024

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's the Ramsey Show, where we help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create actual amazing relationships. George Campbell, Ramsey personality, number one best-selling author, is my co-host on this very special edition of the Ramsey Show. Today is your favorite and one of our favorite shows to do in the entire year. The entire show is dedicated to giving. We're going to take calls from people who tell us the story of having received or having given at some point in their life just to inspire generosity because we teach you to live like no one else so that later you can live and give like no one else. There we go.

Look at that. I nailed the pop quiz. That was it. You knew the answer. Real nail biter. Give you the look and you just pick it up. Well, I was just thinking I should have brought some tissues because usually these stories make my eyes leak. Yeah, I cry in an Applebee's commercial, so we can be predicted that I'm going to have a problem.

But yeah, the story, some of them are I'm going to have a problem. But yeah, the story, some of them are that way, and some of them are just, yeah, that was a good thing. It's okay, because sometimes there's fireworks and emotion around generosity, and sometimes it's just, no, that's the right thing to do. That's simple. So today's giving show is brought to you by the folks at Convoy of Hope. They are a faith-based organization that partners with local churches and civic groups to provide relief to people affected by disasters and hunger. For instance, they were some of the first and still on the ground in Asheville, North Carolina when that disaster hit. They're that type of thing. You see them show up there all the time. We've been friends with these guys a long time. You can trust them because they've got a track record of over 30

years of supplying food, water, recovery to communities around the world. So if you live and give like no one else, you can donate and support their mission at convoyofhope.org slash Ramsey, convoyofhope.org slash Ramsey. They're our sponsor for our giving show today. No irony there at all. Open phones as we take your calls about your stories. You jump in. The phone number is 888-825-5225. It's all giving all day or receiving all generosity all day. Greg is with us to start the show off. Wichita, Kansas. Hi, Greg. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas to you guys. Absolutely, man. So tell us what your generosity story is. Yeah, yeah. I think this will be better than an Applebee's commercial.

That's a low bar, man. I know. Well, you said it. So yeah, I'm a youth pastor in Wichita, Kansas, and about seven years ago, eight years ago, I was meeting with a guy and discipling him, and just we were getting into a place where we're starting to share personal prayer requests, and one of ours for my family was we had a daughter that was a few years off from going to college, and we started saving, but we had a desire to see them, both of our kids graduate debt-free. And the plan was we would pay 50% after a scholarship, and they would pay 50% after a scholarship, and beginning to go, hey, how are they going to do this? And so just praying about our kids taking their mowing business to the next level. My son was mowing three yards.

He could basically put a mower in the back of a minivan and go a few doors down or a neighborhood over. But we're praying about buying a truck and a trailer and a mower at some point, but the truck was definitely felt outside of our reach. Well, three, four months after we began to pray, I got contacted by my friend and he said, Hey, my wife and I would love to stop by the church today. We just have a brief meeting with you. And I was like, Hey, I'd love to do that, but I can't today. We have a meeting at the church called perspectives and they were like, we'd love to come it literally will take like two minutes and so it was like 9 30 10 o'clock at night they took me to the back of the church

um and they said hey check that out and it was a 2013 black ford f-150 with a trailer and a brand-new John Deere 48-inch zero-turn mower on the back. Which costs more than the truck. Oh, my gosh. Wow. Wow, that is wild. Yeah. That's crazy. Blew us away.

And, man, God's generosity through them. But then just the way the moving business took off, we actually had somebody give us 10 yards. They were moving, and normally they might sell it. And they said, hey, we want to give these to you and your kids. And so they started with about 15 yards and during the next six or seven years um made over a hundred thousand dollars and were able to graduate college debt free both of them wow i love it those kids are going to turn out yeah now i'm wondering do they need college at this point there's some budding entrepreneurs right there where they it that's awesome man very

cool yeah they they loved college and are you know still growing but yeah they've they've turned out well and not only did they graduate college debt free but they just they worked hard and i just saw their generosity through this that's amazing Just mowing free for people and mowing for a pregnancy crisis center. So they paid it forward like crazy then. Yeah, and just it's cool to see what God has done in their life as they look back and just can't help but notice this generosity. Yeah, the fingerprints, I love it. I got to tell you, that is the the best kind i i my one of my favorite it's not the best kind overall but it's one of my

favorite kinds of giving and when you can you know they gave uh i don't know 20 000 bucks we'll call it there okay that turned into hard work and a hundred plus thousand dollars so when you can give pay dividend into something and it causes you know something 10x or 20x or 5x to happen because of the giving because of the generosity that's a super cool well and that checked off about four boxes on the ramsey plan we're talking about number one generosity the kids are going to college debt-free and they started and launched this debt-free business and grew it. That's Entree leadership right there. I mean, you got your start mowing lawns way back in the day, didn't you?

Twelve years old, yeah. Can you imagine if someone did that for you? You might have a lawn care business right now. I'm not getting into this. Dude, I cut so much grass by the time I was 19, God told me I never had to do it again. I'm just saying. Oh, man.

Oh, I hate it. But, yeah, that it's just a wonderful form of giving where you allow someone uh to you know take the gift and 10 exit with their work or with their uh whatever there's some other way to expand the giving yeah beyond just a one and done kind of thing and so that that's a beautiful beautiful beautiful picture. Yeah, you're right. That did check a lot of boxes. One of the boxes, teach kids to work. Oh, that's right. That was another box.

There was no entitlement here. The kids worked hard. They learned a lot. What great kids. How do you do that? That's the magic trick. They were busting it, number one. Number two, they're in agreement that we're going to pay for cash for college.

Number three, then they're generous with their thing. These are great kids. Yeah, these kids are not going to be the Grinch when they grow up. They're going to remember this for the rest of their life. Well, and they're never going to call the show and say, you know, I haven't been able to find a job in four months. That won't be them. They'll never make that call because they'll always be able to do something.

That's right. Because they're not afraid of that. And you know their kids are going to go to college debt-free. And so the ripple effect of this thing is massive. It's a generational gift, and it's a zero-turn John Deere. Who knew? I like it. Two of Dave's favorite things.

I'm telling you, man, that's an expensive tractor. That was a nice gift. Nice gift. You paint green on them, they go up a lot. That's a pretty big deal. So good stuff. Very cool. It's the annual giving show here on The Ramsey Show. It's our annual giving show here on the Ramsey Show. George

Campbell, Ramsey personality, number one best-selling author of the book Breaking Free from Broke. He's my co-host today as we take your calls on your stories of generosity either receiving or giving and uh we're fired up about that interesting thing the folks at every dollar i just talked to our team over there uh our our budgeting app is one of the largest best run best budgeting apps in the world it's called every dollar you give every dollar a name you can download it for free and get control of your money and that way way Christmas won't sneak up on you next year. But one of the things we're able to do, since we obviously, the app is ours, we're able to look at the app and see what's happening there. We can tell in the charity or generosity category of the budget that people using every dollar are giving around $50 million a month,

$30 to $50 million a month. So that's going to be somewhere around $500 million this year. And we just started looking at this and started tracking it this year. And so as we start tracking it and start encouraging it, we're pretty sure that every dollar users will be easily giving a billion a year away. Wow. And we don't know where it goes. We're not getting in people's business.

We don't have categories for it. It's just the people, they have that in their budget, in their charity line, and it's running $30 million to $50 million a month right now. Americans are some of the most generous people in the world. I know we hear about all these things negative in the press or this or that and all these things out there. Everybody's got an opinion. But when you actually get into the numbers, the amount that Americans give to each other, to causes inside the country and outside the country, there's not another country on the planet that's even close or ever has been in the history of humanity. that Americans give to each other, to causes inside the country and outside the country.

There's not another country on the planet that's even close or ever has been in the history of humanity. This is the most generous group of human beings that has ever walked the face of the earth right now. Now, people don't talk about that, but that's the actual data. That's the numbers that we know about generosity nationwide. And just with our app, we can tell easily $500 million just on that one thing there, easily. And I bet the people that aren't giving would like to give more, and that's the power of the budget is you've got to find the margin to be able to give, to be able to look up and see those opportunities. And so that's the best part about it.

That's why we put the giving line item first, not every dollar budget. You're exactly right. And live like no one else so later you can live and give like no one else. There we go. Got it. We can get this down, George, almost like a routine here. Grace is with us in Waco, Texas. Hi, Grace.

Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Tell us your generosity story. Hey, thank you for having me on. Sure. Yeah, so let's see. About eight years ago, 2016, my mom tragically passed away. I had just graduated high school. My whole community just rallied around me.

They supported me. They did fundraisers and got me a pretty big lump sum of money enough so I could buy my first car, my first laptop so I could get to college. It was just absolutely fantastic. So that in itself is absolutely amazing. Now, fast forward six years from then. So two years ago, me and my, we were fiancees or my fiance then, we're married now. We were trying to save up for our wedding and trying to just pick up extra shifts and really didn't want to go into our marriage with any debt, especially not from our wedding. And so unfortunately, though, we had racked up about $2,000, give or take a few. And randomly, one of my mom's friends from whenever she was alive, she messaged me just

one day randomly and said, hey, there's a bank account that is for you that we set up that has the money in it. And, you know, I don't know why, but they hadn't, they hadn't given it to me. I think they had just forgotten or something had happened. Um, anyways, long story short, ended up being the exact amount of money that we were in debt, um, on our mom, my credit card. And so it was just amazing. People had given and putting this put it put it into an account for us um and then six years later it was still there and it just just shows how good god's grace is and that it's never ending amen amen the timing on that's amazing and the amount matching up the whole thing that's that's the way the story should go right there yeah yeah god's hand very precise

exactly exactly very fun very fun and i'm sure that inspires you guys to be keeping your eyes open for generosity as now that you're married and out there running around doing your own thing right oh yeah absolutely yeah anytime anytime we just it's really not even a second thought sort of thing it's just like if i have this and somebody else needs it, absolutely. And we just had our first child about seven months ago. So even then, having a child and just seeing how giving people were for her and just for us, and it's just, it's amazing how kind and generous people can be. And it does, it has moved us in ways that I don't think people will ever really know.

Right. We just have to repay what we can as often as we can. There you go. I love it. Way to go, Grace. Good job. Thank you for sharing that. That's good.

Love that one. Christy Sue is with us in St. Paul, Minnesota. Hi, Christy Sue. Tell us your generosity story. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. I don't know how you do this every day. I'm so nervous. You'll be all right. We've never lost a patient. All right. Thank you. So there's a couple layers to this onion. So when I was growing up, my family was plagued with addiction, alcoholism, and mental illness. And my mom left when I was growing up, my family was plagued with addiction, alcoholism, and mental illness.

And my mom left when I was 10 years old. And I was with my dad then. My sister and I were with my dad until I was 13. And at that point, again, there was those layers of addiction, alcoholism, and mental illness. And he brought us to stay with our aunt and uncle for what we thought was going to be the summer. And then that ended up being about three years. And then I went and I was in a couple of different homes after that. And so, as you can imagine, I was just at the age of 17, I was just bitter and angry.

And I had a teacher. I ended up in a home economics class. And I had a teacher that just took me under her wing and could see that I was angry and bitter. But I was still a good kid. I didn't get in trouble or anything like that. And she showed interest and she wanted to come to some of my sporting events and was like genuinely invested in me as a person. And now as an adult, understanding that she had three other kids that were around my age. So she was juggling all their activities too. And she still, you know, made that time for me. It was super precious. And like I said, I didn't really get

into trouble, but there was one day before prom, I got pulled out of class by the principal, and he gave me an envelope that had nearly $200 in it. And he said, he have a good time at prom. And I begged him to tell me where this $200 came from, and he wouldn't do it. And to this day, I'm still very good friends with this teacher. Her name is Nancy. And she still won't admit that she was behind that $200, but it was. But she was. It was Nancy.

Yeah. And, you know, it wasn't just that it was the seed of compassion that she planted in me. And that has just really changed the trajectory of my life. I could have certainly followed the path of my parents and I didn't, I ended up going to college. I'm in law enforcement now. And, you know, what I went through with my parents really helps me be more compassionate to the people that I deal with on a daily basis. And then, you know, her compassion touched me in such a way that I wanted to give

big. So God placed it on my heart in 2021. I donated my kidney to a stranger. And in that, I called Nancy. My husband and I were kind of keeping it close to our chest because there's a lot of things that can go on with the surgery like that, it getting rescheduled or things like that. But I really felt that I needed to share that with her. And she said, so you're just donating to anybody? And I said, yeah, I didn't know anybody that needs a kidney, so I just was going to donate to whoever. And she said, I know someone that needs a kidney, and it's my best friend from seventh grade.

And so because I knew before the donation, the National Kidney Registry has a program. They do, like, paired donations and things like that. So I was able to give her friend who I'd never met a voucher so that she could then get a kidney. So I donated in February of 21. Her friend was able to get her kidney in October of 21. And then because that was so rewarding, May of this last year, I actually donated 63% of my liver to a stranger. My goodness, lady. You just keep going. That's amazing. Wow. Well,

thank you for sharing that, Christy Sue. Merry Christmas. Hey, George Camel here with a not-so-fun fact. Every American social security number, including our children's, has been hacked and is now on the dark web. And this is not a scare tactic. This isn't fear-mongering. It's a reality that could turn into a nightmare for a lot of people. And believe me, I've been a victim of identity theft, and I would prefer it never happen again. Because once the bad guys have your social, it's the lifeblood for all of their activity. Think of all the places you use your social. Your banking, your employer, government offices, utilities, cell phone companies, everywhere. And once they've got it, thieves can open new accounts, drain existing ones,

steal payroll, and wreak havoc all in your name. Not cool. And to be real, it's not a matter of if, but when. So you've got to protect yourself with Zander's ID theft protection. Zander has all the cyber tools to help, including home title monitoring, full recovery services if you do become a victim, and stolen funds protection. Not to mention, it's the best value on the market. They've been protecting my family for over a decade, and I trust them to protect yours too. So get enrolled today by calling 800-356-4282 or just visit Zander.com. That's Z-A-N-D-E-R dot com. George Campbell, Ramsey personality, number one bestselling author, is my co-host today on our annual giving show. Brought to you today by the fine folks at Convoy of Hope. They partner with churches and civic organizations around the world to help in times of crisis,

hunger, and a lot of other wonderful things that they bring in to support literally around the world. But where you'll see them pop up is when you see something on the news like an Asheville, North Carolina type event. You'll see their trucks and their people on the ground. They're immediately helping. So convoyofhope.org slash Ramsey. Be sure and check these guys out.

We appreciate them sponsoring today's giving show. On the debt-free stage, live right here in the lobby of Ramsey Solutions, one of our own Ramsey team, Meg Loney is with us and Meg, welcome. Hey, you're here for the generosity time, the generous, the giving show. So before we get into that, you've been with Ramsey, what, about six years? Going on seven in March. Seven years. Okay, cool. And tell everybody what you do here. I am a marketing operations specialist, so I make things work. Marketing operations specialist.

You make things work. What the flip does that mean? All the back-end things that a lot of people don't want to do, I do. She's being nice, Dave. It's above our pay grade. We'll never understand. She's a senior digital marketing analyst. So, yeah, this is mega smart, people. That's above our pay grade. I know. We'll never understand. She's a senior digital marketing analyst. So, yeah, this is mega smart, people.

That's what we're trying to say. She's dumbing it down for us. Yeah, she's trying to dumb it down for her CEO. I tried. Yeah, well, it didn't work. You didn't get down low enough for me. You got to get the cookies down on the bottom shelf. All right, tell us your generosity story.

So, I have my four-year-old daughter tilly is here with us today uh when she was five months old she was diagnosed with epilepsy and we went through lots of medicines 10 medicines um none of them stopped the seizures she was having three four seizures a day sometimes more man that's terrorizing um it was very scary i can't breathe just hearing it um and then ultimately we went the surgical route so they found a small piece of her brain that hadn't fully developed or developed properly and they were like hey we think if we remove this part of her brain that it will stop the seizures. And at that point we had gotten to, she was getting rescue meds like once a week. So

she was having seizures lasting longer than five minutes that required some extra medicine to stop them. So at that point we were kind of like, we gave it to God. We said, we know that we've been praying for answers, and you've presented this one. So we started down the surgical route. And at that time, we applied with Make-A-Wish Middle Tennessee, which is just an extraordinary organization. Yes, they are. And they worked with us to find the the best wish for tilly to have and so then she had her surgery in october october 18th um and then in april of 2024 we were able to go on this amazing trip to disney world and so more. So they covered, they picked us up in a limo.

They covered our flights. They got us a rental car. They have an amazing resort called Give Kids the World Resort, which is only for Wish families. Wow. It is like a small apartment. There were two rooms. Tilly's room had the bathroom connected to it

and justin and i actually had to like leave to go use the bathroom only the best for right she had like the owner's suite um like it they provided meals at the resort um and they have rides and a pool so it's everything in a resort you could want and then they give you tickets to Disney World with the Fast Pass or whatever it's called now. So we got to skip the line. Tilly went on her favorite ride Slinky Dog Dash three times in a row because they're like yeah just go back on it. We went to Universal Studios and she had a blast and they give you a debit card so that you can buy meals at the parks, you can buy souvenirs. It was just bigger than we could have ever imagined.

Even starting dreaming with them, it was bigger than we could have even imagined. And it was just an amazing way to kind of cap off that journey. So because of today, as of today, she is 14 months seizure-free. Yay. Praise God. That's amazing. Wow, that's awesome.

She's clapping too, which I love. That says it. Yeah, amen. Everybody clap. So the Make-A-Wish Foundation has an incredible reputation of making these dreams come true like this they do a great job um uh do you did they find out about you or do you apply or how did how did you make the connection on that um so i actually made the connection when i was in one of the epilepsy

groups on facebook just a support group and i saw someone had mentioned that their child was able to get a wish. Um, and I was like, uh, I thought that make a wish was only for children that had cancer or had a terminal illness. And then I did a little bit more research and I talked to our epileptologist and he was like, yeah, you should definitely apply. Um, so we did. So they have an application process that they use. Okay. Yes, they have an application process. Okay. So you did apply and then it takes a few months or whatever

and they get back to you or what? It wasn't even a few months. It was maybe a week or two. Oh, wow. They just kind of verify everything that's going on. And I know they do like to move quickly so that they can help all of the children that apply that meet kind of the criteria so they are super quick and they meet with you they came to the hospital when we were in the

hospital with tilly during her first surgery because we were in there for nine days for monitoring so they came out and they saw us there and they took us out for ice cream they did all sorts of things even leading up to the wish. Wow. Wow. That's cool. That's cool. I can't think of anything better to do than make sure a child gets a wish like that. That's pretty incredible. Very cool. And we love hearing how she's doing today.

Yeah, absolutely. And the end of the story is a great one. Yeah, it's amazing. And she's a wish ambassador now, so she helps to raise funds now for other kids to have their wishes granted, which we love to be able to then give back to the organization. Yeah, that's good. And you did today because you just told the world. I would love if all the donations to Make-A-Wish could just take off

because these kids deserve it all. They go through so much more than anyone should have to, let alone being three, four, five, six. Amen. And obviously you were part of this team here during all that time, right? I was. And the generosity from Ramsey during all of it was just amazing. There was never a question of like, oh, you need more time off?

You have another doctor's appointment? It was so much grace. And I can't imagine working anywhere else during the time that we went through that. And the team also, that nine-day stay at the hospital, the team also raised a lot of money. They gave us like a thousand dollar gift card to be able to buy food so we didn't have to eat hospital food for nine days in a row. Amen. Glory, hallelujah. I like that. Good stuff.

Very cool. What a great story through a really painful and scary terrorizing time. When your kid is sick, it just takes your breath away. That's a whole different thing. It's one thing to get sick. It's a whole other thing to have a kid or a grandkid sick, and that's a process. And then you just go through this slog of of getting getting past it and now and now we've got a tiger on our hands that's awesome oh yeah as it should

be she's been playing and smiling this whole time totally ignoring mom just being a rock star on the stage which is how it should be as it should be very cool meg thank you very much yeah bring her up let everybody see her yeah that's if you're watching on the Ramsey Network app or on YouTube. Yeah, they'll be able to see you. Oh, cute, cute, cute. Love it. Great outfit for the appearance, too. There we go.

That's perfect. There we go. A great wave from Tilly. The princess. I love it. Very cool stuff. And now an ambassador. What a cool title at four years old.

Yeah, George. I've never been an ambassador. Have you? No, but I'd like to be. I think we just were co-ambassadors just during the segment that's right just sharing tilly's story for a moment i feel like i'm part of it now for a moment we act like we had something to do with it yeah very cool good stuff meg thank you for sharing that excellent excellent job it's the annual giving show the show on generosity

where we tell stories about giving that has happened to keep everybody inspired, to keep that ball rolling out there. Paying it forward, paying it forward. This is the Ramsey Show. Rachel, do you ever get these sketchy text messages that are like, hey, you need to update your address and verify so we can get you the package you didn't order? Yes, I have. George, sketchy and never trust them. And that's why we recommend Delete.me. They help with that. Yeah, they do.

Delete.me actually goes in and removes your information from data broker websites. And it is an incredible service that everyone needs. And there's a lot of shady companies out there that solely exist to sell your personal data to bad guys. And that means your info, like your email address, your home address, your kids' names, your name, everything is just out there for scammers and spammers to find. That's right. And then once they remove your information, then they're going to send you a detailed report telling you where they found your information, when they removed it, how many hours they've saved you. I mean, it is incredible. So detailed and it's beautiful. I love these reports. So far, get this, they've reviewed 27,000 listings on my behalf,

removed me from 240 data broker sites, and saved me 77 hours of time. It's incredible. Absolutely amazing. And Winston and I now get fewer texts, weird emails, spam calls, all of it. I love it. So you got to be sure to check them out. Ramsey fans get 20% off their annual plans. Just go to joindeleteeme.com slash Ramsey. That comes out to less than nine bucks a month. Super affordable. It's amazing. So again, that's joindeleteeme.com slash Ramsey. Make sure to check it out, you guys. Our annual giving show here on The Ramsey Show. Thank you for joining us, America. We're glad you're here. George Camel, Ramsey personality, is my co-host today. John is with us in Orlando. Hey, John, tell us your story about generosity and Merry Christmas to you, sir. Hey, Dave. Hey, George. Merry Christmas. How are you

guys? Better than we deserve, man. Awesome. So my story is a bit of a three-part story, but it goes all the way back when I was 13 years old. I lived in Pennsylvania and New Jersey at the time, and I was in middle school. It was the very start of the school year. I was in art class, and the teacher from across the hall runs in and tells my teacher to turn on the TV. So he did, and it was the World Trade Center with smoke just spilling out of one of the towers. Moments later, we watched the second plane hit the second tower. And as a middle school kid, I certainly did not understand what was even going on. And I raised my hand to my teacher and I said, that's where my dad works.

That's his office building. I'd been there a million times. And he gave me a look, and that's when I started to realize how bad and serious this was. The rest of the day and the days after are a bit of a blur, but we found out, we know my dad was outside of the buildings when the plane hit, when the both planes hit. And he called home and he left a voice message on the machine. And he told us how much he loved us and how things were really bad. He then went back in to help evacuate and save people that day. And he unfortunately was not able to get out himself or save himself.

So things, of course, were very, very difficult for my family and many, many other families after that. But the giving and generosity that took place for my family and other 9-11 families was very, very incredible. And that was the first time I saw giving and generosity at such an extreme level. And as a 13-year-old kid, I knew I wanted to be able to give like that someday. Many years later, I met my wife, my beautiful wife, and we struggled with infertility for many, many, many years. And then that giving and generosity came back into our lives again, with love and support and prayers. And even our company that we worked for paid for all of our infertility treatments. IUIs, IVF, the works, close to 50 grand. And again, that giving and generosity blew us away. And then a miracle happened, and we had a beautiful little girl, our daughter.

Her name is Journey. We named her that because it was a journey to have her through IVF. And then another miracle happened, and we are currently expecting our second in the new year. Wow. Again, yeah, we have one on the way. Fun. And it just blew our minds. And again, that giving and that generosity that kept coming into our life time

and time again, when we don't deserve it. And you know, things are just, it's just amazing. And this summer coming up in the new year, we are celebrating our 10 year wedding anniversary, and we're doing a big vow renewal. And we are taking all of our family and all of our friends, Turks and Caicos, and we're paying for the whole thing we're doing you know the all-inclusive resorts and uh the whole shebang and um that that's that's our giving generosity story wow so 24 years ago you were 13 so you're 37 36 yeah 36 okay wow yeah I mean because 9-11 feels emotionally for most most of us that were alive at that time, like yesterday. Of course.

It was 24 years ago. You were a kid, and now you're a 36-year-old man who's taking people to Turks and Caicos. Pretty cool, man. Pretty cool. Thank you. Thanks to your team and the Ramsey plan, that's the way we're able to do and Caicos. Pretty cool, man. Pretty cool. Thank you. And thanks to your team and the Ramsey plan. That's the way we're able to do it. Wow.

Wow. And I would imagine, I mean, I have, uh, uh, the Todd Beamer story and several of the other stories around nine 11. I had friends that were writing the books and doing the stuff and, and were involved in getting the stories out on some of the heroes that were writing the books and doing the stuff and were involved in getting the stories out on some of the heroes that were involved. And I would imagine you kept learning for years about different things with your dad having gone back in time and time again to get other people out, it sounds like. Yeah, he was the property manager of World Trade II, and he knew everyone. He knew

everyone in the building, and he was just that light, that type of personality. Everyone would say, hey, Bobby, how are you? Hey, how are you? And we have a bit of a timeline of his morning and step by step and everything that we know people who he's helped, people who he saved. And even though he didn't make it out, he got a medal from President Bush a couple years after 9-11, and it was very special. And we got to go to the White House, and it was beautiful. Wow. Wow. That's incredible. Fabulous story. Thank you, John. Thanks for sharing the details. Yeah, generosity in times of good, that's fun.

But generosity in times of grief and trauma, that will change you forever. Shifts everything. That's legacy. Yeah, and the thing about that is you don't get to choose your timing. If you're the person doing the giving, you've got to be ready when it happens. You've got to be ready for spontaneous giving. Exactly. You've got to have this instantaneous reaction there.

Student loan debt is an epidemic. Defaulting on debt makes you feel even worse. But our question of the day sponsor, why refi refinances defaulted private student loans and builds a custom loan based on your ability to pay. You'll have a payment you can afford with a low fixed interest rate that you couldn't get anywhere else. Go to why refi.com slash Ramsey. That's the letter Y R E-E-F-Y dot com slash Ramsey. Might not be in all states. And in honor of our giving show, we're going to do a giving story instead of a question of the day. So today's giving story comes from Morgan in North Carolina.

An older couple came into the small bank where I worked to open a checking account. The husband mentioned he was expecting a wire of over $1 million. Immediately, my alarm bells went off. Someone had contacted him claiming to be the executor of a cousin's estate with documents and a website to create legitimacy. When I pointed out the flaws in the documents, the customer was devastated. He had no car and had planned to get one with his newfound wealth so that he could provide for his family. Every year, I collect money and donate items in my papa's honor. I called a friend who has an auto repair shop and asked him for help. God was working behind the scenes, and he knew someone who was selling a reliable van. The lady who owned it lowered the price to the exact amount we had to spend. We called the couple

to let them know we had a surprise for them and were heading to their home. The man and his wife broke down in tears when they saw the van. he had just gotten home after walking in the freezing cold to get a loaf of bread i'll never forget squeezing the keys in his hand and saying that he would finally be able to provide for his family again wow man uh and that's like um off the back end of an almost scam yeah he was getting scammed and she puts a stop to it as a you know a brilliant bank employee looking up and seeing uh this is not real you're getting scammed because they were getting ready to do a switch on him is what they were doing she turned it from grift to grace oh's the book they're gonna make a movie about it that title's free yeah it'd be a hallmark movie if they use that but yeah yeah wow man that's good great george you you gotta tell i got more

the grift that keeps on giving no all right i'll be here all week that's a really cool story though that is fun and again you have to be able to look up and see the opportunity. When you're so focused on your own situation, your own money problems, it hurts your ability to give. Well, when you have a car and you didn't have a car, you can go to work. And when you go to work, you can provide for his family. That's what he's crying about. I mean, that's real.

So, I mean, you give somebody a $2,000 car, you change their life. You give somebody a $4,000 car, you change their life. You give somebody a $4,000 car, you change their life. And by the way, you can do 10 of those for only $40,000. That's cool to think about. Put that on your bucket list of generosity. I mean, cars are like, you start giving away cars, you're like Oprah. I mean, come on, really. I mean, even if they're $2,000 cars or old minivans that come from the mechanic.

Yeah, if your car doesn't work or you don't have one, a $2,000 car might as well be a $100,000 car. And this lady felt like Oprah handing the keys over to that. And he's squeezing those keys in his hand going, yes, I now got a shot. I got a chance. She gave him dignity. She gave him hope. Absolutely. Both. Very cool. Very good. Every year I collect money and donate items in my papa's honor. There you go, man. Seeing a theme here, legacy, paying it forward, contagious generosity, special. Annual Giving Show here on The Ramsey Show. Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's the Ramsey Show, where we help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create actual amazing relationships. George Campbell, Ramsey personality, number one best-selling author, is my co-host today as we do our annual giving show brought to you by Convoy of Hope. They're a faith-based organization that partners with local churches

and civic groups to provide relief to people affected by disasters and hunger. This is a trustworthy organization. They've been doing this for 30 years, and they do a great job. We want to honor their sponsorship today by having you guys go to their website, convoyofhope.org slash Ramsey. It's an opportunity for you to support their mission, and they'll show up at places like Asheville, North Carolina, where they were some of the first on the ground, and they'll be some of the last on the ground, because they're still there after the TV cameras left. I met Hal, the founder of Convoy for Hope, a couple of years back at an event,

and he and I got to spend some time together, had an instant connection because he spends his whole life serving people that are struggling in one way or another and has devoted what is now hundreds of millions of dollars of donations annually of food and all kinds of things all over the world. And so today we've got Ed Garvin with us. Ed is the Senior Vice President, Chief Partnership Officer at Convoy of Hope. And Ed's a former pastor, joined Convoy of Hope. Matter of fact, Ed and I had spent some time together. We did an event at his old church down in Orlando at Calvary one time.

So welcome, Ed. Good to have you. Well, it's an honor to be with you today. Good to have you, sir. And we're honored to have Convoy of Hope as a part of our giving show. It fits in just perfectly because when those big trucks roll in, when people are hurting, they start smiling because they know help is on the way. They know there's getting ready to be some food, getting ready to be some water, getting ready to be some chainsaws on the ground or whatever is needed. So very cool stuff. So talk about how Hal began this 30 years ago and how this thing has evolved because the

scale is enormous today. And, you know, this evolution over 30 years, what are you guys most proud of there? Yeah, I think of everything that Convoy of Hope does, the fact that we bring lasting change and move people from desperation to resiliency, that really is the hallmark of Convoy of Hope's missional footprint. Right. And in the old days, they just started out, and it was the first thing they did was what, when Hal first started it. Yeah.

So Convoy of Hope started in 1994. It actually was the outgrowth of how his background is in journalism, and he was asked to go to Calcutta, India to ghostwrite a book for some missionaries that were based in Calcutta. And while he was there, he was asked as part of the book to interview Mother Teresa. Whoa. Yeah, and so while he's interviewing Mother Teresa, she, as one would expect, she turns the tables and looks at him and says, young man, what are you doing to respond to the needs of the poor and suffering? Just get called out by Mother Teresa. That'll do it. Mic drop.

Well, and in that moment, you might think about lying, but I don't think you should really. Mother Teresa. Yeah. And so Hal was honest, and he said, I'm really not doing much of anything. And she looked at him and said, young man, everyone can do something. Just do the next kind thing. And as a young man, this shook him. He took 30 days when he got back

to the United States, going to some of the major cities in America and seeing the plight of the poor and suffering. And out of that, emptied his bank account and started distributing food to the migrant workers in California where he lived at the time. And out of that, Convoy of Hope was born. And now, some 30 years later, Convoy of Hope, last year alone, helped more than 37 million people. That scale. Yeah. All because Mother Teresa asks a pointed question, and that begins the journey. And so, what are some of the different areas you guys have that our listeners can jump in and support? What are some things where they would see you and know you're there? Yeah, one of the things that I love about Convoy of Hope is that it does have a neighbor's donation

strategy. And so we're involved all across America. One of the big things that we do is we do disaster relief. We have responded to right at 100 disasters already this year. What that looks like, an example would be Asheville, North Carolina, that area responding to Hurricane Helene. Convoy of Hope has delivered more than 200 semi-loads of relief supplies into that devastated area. The missional footprint of Convoy of Hope reaches around the world. We're currently feeding right at 600,000 children. We do that every school day. We have more than 40,000 women and girls that are in our women's empowerment program. Globally, we're training more than 35,000 farmers. And so Convoy of Hope does everything from children's feeding to coming alongside rural churches in America

and helping people move from poverty to that place of resiliency. So it's not necessarily just a triage to stop the bleeding, but you also come along and help them completely heal so that poverty is in the rearview mirror. You can have sustainable programs in these situations that's important so we look at uh in the ramsey foundation one of the things we look at when we're doing giving to organizations uh we look at their operations costs and how much is actually going to the need and you guys are uh man the numbers are you're only doing about 10 for operations operations. Everything else, 90% is going

out the door to serve the needy and serve the distressed. How do you guys keep your ops so low? Yeah, so we're blessed by having an amazing volunteer army, 136,000 volunteers last year, which allowed us, like our overhead rate last year was 8.4%, and we'll probably be somewhere in that area again this year. But having exceptional partners and an army of volunteers really allows us to make the difference. That's impressive. So I want to speak to the person out there who wants to give, they may, you know, go, I don't know if this is trustworthy organization. How do you get someone who has not given to go, all right, I I don't know if this is trustworthy organization. How do you get someone who has not given to go, all right, I'm going to jump into this cause? What is the target demo

there? What gets them to give? Well, when we think about our giving, when we think about what we're doing philanthropically, we really do want to make sure that we're operating with wisdom. And so my encouragement would be, whether it's Convoy of Hope or any other organization, make sure that we're operating with wisdom. And so my encouragement would be, whether it's Convoy of Hope or any other organization, make sure that you do the homework and make sure that you dig beneath the surface. And one of the things that I love, so I was a donor to Convoy of Hope for 15 years before I joined the organization on the team. And one of the things I love about Convoy of Hope is it's actually more impressive even from the inside than it was from the outside. And if you look at the various accountability organizations, you're going to find that consistently Convoy of Hope, that we get the highest of marks. Very good.

Good stuff. Ed Garvin, the Senior Vice vice president chief partnership officer at convoy of hope he spent 22 years of his life serving as a lead pastor now is serving this organization as they serve uh distressed and needy and hungry all around the world and in your backyard they're our sponsor for our annual giving show today first time we've ever had a sponsor in 30 years of this particular show. So, and it made sense to have Convoy be that. So we're honored to have you guys along,

partnering with us and honored to let our audience know about you guys. Thanks. Thanks for dropping by, Ed. It was a joy. Merry Christmas. Convoyofhope.org slash Ramsey. This is the Ramsey Show. There's a time in your life and at the baby steps for renting, Ramsey trusted to help you make the move from renting

to home ownership wisely. Churchill understands that when you buy a home the Ramsey way, your mortgage payment will be a consistent, manageable part of your monthly budget. Plus, when your home is paid off, that was your largest expense. Now it's extra money in your pocket and an asset towards turning you into a baby steps millionaire. So get started on the American dream of home ownership today at churchhillmortgage.com. That's churchhillmortgage.com. This is a paid advertisement. NMLS ID 1591. NMLS ConsumerAccess.org. Equal Housing Lender. 1749 Mallory Lane, Suite 100.

Brentwood, Tennessee 37027. George Camel Ramsey personality is my co-host today. This is our annual giving show where we take calls from you to tell your generosity stories, where you are receiving or giving generosity, and do that to inspire everyone out there and remind everyone out there there's a lot of good human beings walking this planet. They're everywhere. Brought to you by Convoy of Hope today. The phone number here, 888-825-5225.

Jocelyn is in Knoxvilleville hi jocelyn merry christmas hi hi dave hi george thank you for having me on sure tell us your generosity story i would love to so just a quick back story my grandfather's best friend through school once he graduated and got married, him and his wife needed somewhere to stay. So my great-grandparents let them rent a cabin that they had in Gatlinburg for a couple years. But when they went to move out, my great-grandparents then gifted them all that rent money that they had paid just as a gift to jumpstart to life. So fast forward 50 plus years, my grandma's randomly like,

hey, I want you to go out to eat and meet somebody. So my family and I, we got to eat. And I walk up and I meet this older man. He's in his mid 80s. And we sit down and he starts talking about how him and my grandpa were best friends my grandpa had passed since then and he's telling me all these stories that they shared and he ended with in his honor and because of the friendship they had he would like to send me to school so I got to choose any college I wanted to go to. He would pay for my, yes, he would pay for my tuition, my housing, and also wanted to gift an allowance because he did not want me to work

to concentrate on school. And the only requirements he had was that I keep above a 3.0 and that I would meet with him after every semester. And so that's what I would do. I would drive to his house. I'd pick him up. We would go eat. We would talk about everything. He would, he would, we would talk about my grades, how everything was going. And in 2016, I graduated completely debt-free from college. And I would like to add, because he did that for me years later, now my brother is about to graduate in May from college with his engineering degree. And after all his, my parents will actually have put him through school with the help of his, what he had got from school as well. So he will graduate debt free.

Wow. So all because of what my great grandparents did now 50 plus years later we've my brother and I have both that it came around to us so wow the ripple effect of that is pretty cool yeah how do you even choose when the world is your oyster what college did you end up going to what'd you study um i actually i went to epsu and i got my bachelor's in mass communication so public relations and advertising is what my concentration was from east tennessee state yes sir yeah okay wow so that was near home of course since you're you're in Knoxville, right? It was. Yeah, it was. Yeah. Okay. Very cool. Very cool. That's neat.

So I'm thinking, so this guy's 85 and he was 20 when they were renting the cabin in Gatlinburg and got the money back from your great-grandparents, and he was friends with your grandfather. I got that right, didn't I? Yes, and I never got to meet my grandfather. He passed when my dad was actually young. So I believe him and my grandma actually lost the connection there at some point, and they ran into each other randomly and started talking, and that sparked their conversation on, well, do you have grandkids?

And that's how I met him. Did your grandmother even know the G gatlinburg story before they bumped into each other no she knew she knew of him they were best friends and and she knew him but as far as knowing that rent story i'm not really sure if she knew that beforehand or not wow he was waiting a long time for some payback and he got the idea talking to grandma and went i know exactly i really like this guy this is class yeah this is very well done since since this has happened he did he did pass in 2020 uh but he has a special place in my heart he really did change my life and the ripple effect to that he he really did make a difference man that's pretty serious that is so cool i love this story because it took so long to unfold yeah then my grandparents just has good faith and he was a

great friend they did that and here i am yeah so it was it was something that I will never forget. And, you know, I knew it was a big deal when I was young in my 20s. But as I get older, you know, those acts of kindness, they mean more and more as you get older. You realize how much of a deal that was. Oh, man. Well, he tucked that in his heart, and for 40 years or whatever, 50 years, you know, he's carrying it around.

Well, I mean, 60 years from 20s to 80s. Oh, yeah, you're right. You know? And then 60 years later has a chance to bring it back around. That's pretty stinking incredible right there. I love that. I like the long tail on that. Yeah, amen. Carla is in Nashville.

Merry Christmas, Carla. Tell us your generosity story merry christmas dave and george uh thanks for having me on sure um in january of 2021 our 13 year old son brett was diagnosed with leukemia and the day that he was diagnosed, we were told he might not make it through the night. Um, yes, his white blood cell count was 865,000, which normal is between like 4,000 and 11,000. So they basically described his blood being like sludge. So it was causing, you know, problems with every organ. He spent 19 days in the pediatric ICU at Le Bonheur in Memphis. And then a week of that, he was in a coma. So at one point during that, they called family in to say goodbye.

And the staff was just surprised. Every day, he just kept making it. And so we had thousands of people that were following we had a facebook page brave like brett where people were going to check for updates and we had people praying for brett from all over the united states and from over 40 countries wow so after that first 19 days in the ICU, he was transferred over. It was just five minutes away, but it took that long to get him stable enough to be able to transfer to St. Jude, where he spent the next 300 days. And so when he got there, he couldn't hold his head up. He could

barely wiggle his toes. He couldn't remember, you know, what had happened 30 seconds before, which honestly at times was a blessing that he couldn't remember some of those things going on. He just faced overwhelming odds over and over for the next, you know, 11 months while we were there. He had a brain bleed, had lost most of his vision. He had multiple relapses with his cancer. And in August of that year, he received a bone marrow transplant and his brother was the donor. His brother Bond was a 100% match.

And so that was a huge blessing. Um, and we were able to go home in December of that year. So his doctors that were with him from the beginning, from the very beginning called him a miracle and they, tears would roll down their face, you know, and they would see him coming back for follow-ups. They had never really even seen him walk, you know, at the time that they had had him. And so Brett is currently, he's 17. He's three years post-transplant. We have moved to Nashville. He is legally blind now, continues to have the short-term memory loss challenges,

has some mobility deficits, but he's attending high school full-time. He's involved in church and best buddies at school. So he is currently cancer-free. Wow. This all happened during COVID, so we weren't allowed any visitors. So there were so many people, though, that were so generous during that time. And so, I mean, we had our next- neighbor mowed our yard for an entire year just without anyone asking. Just did it.

My husband and I were both coaches. Referees would just sign over their checks, you know, at our ballgames. Sometimes they would do that. So all your financial needs were just miraculously covered by community. We had lots of help from lots of different people for sure. That's special. So glad he's doing so well. That's pretty cool.

Miracle comeback. I love it. This is The Ramsey Show. Hey, you guys. I'm not a fan of the big banks, and you probably already know which ones I mean. But I do like credit unions because they're nonprofit organizations that focus on their members.

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So go to fairwinds.org slash Ramsey to learn more. And while you're there, look at the combined checking and savings account bundle they created just for Ramsey fans to help you take control of your finances. That's fairwinds, F-A-I-R-W-I-N-D-S here on The Ramsey Show. Thank you for joining us, being part of the program today, America. Well, Christmas is here. Can you believe it's here? I mean, it's amazing. Last-minute shoppers out there, game time, obviously.

This is your last chance to grab some life-changing gifts like books and tools. Up to 30% off right now. We've got deals running right now and they end on friday so hurry before they're gone like the total money makeovers 30 off building a non-anxious life by dr john deloney's 30 off breaking free from broke george's number one bestseller is on sale. Classic Questions for Humans deck cards by Dr. Deloney on sale, just $12. Check it all out at ramseysolutions.com. Click on the deals, and they're everywhere. Our annual generosity, our annual giving show, this particular version brought to you by the fine folks at Convoy of Hope.

And Landry is next in Oklahoma City. Merry Christmas, Landry. Merry Christmas. So tell us your generosity story. Okay. Well, first I just want to say my name is Landry Johnson. I'm a sophomore at the University of Oklahoma, and now I'm going to just give a little backstory. So when I was 15, my father, Noah

Orlando Johnson, passed away to suicide very abruptly. During this time, I was 15 and my older brother was 17. Obviously, we're getting ready to go off to college. And it was definitely just a lot going on. Not only did my father take his own life, before taking his life, he shot my stepmom six times. Oh, my God. And just during this time, it was very hard financially, mentally, in every single way. Trauma. Yeah. Yeah, it was a lot going on all at once, especially for a 15-year-old girl.

We were also traveling back to and from Oklahoma to Texas to see my stepmom while she was in the hospital. We were definitely very much there for her a lot of it. But obviously, hospital bills and all the things like that, it was a lot. And then we found out my dad didn't have life insurance. He also didn't have a will of any sort, which just left me and my brother and my stepmom just in a very hard place because my brother Christopher and I were both getting ready to go off to college. And we didn't really have those funds set up because we weren't expecting this to just happen. No one was expecting him to just do what he did. So my brother and I immediately just started looking for scholarships and things like that once we got our heads in the right space.

My brother is now at Texas State, and I'm at, obviously, the University of Oklahoma. But during our research, we found a website called Life Happens. And through this website, it has a bunch of different scholarships for kids who have lost parents that didn't have life insurance. And one of those companies is called Zander Insurance, which is the company that so gratefully and graciously gave me my scholarship. And the scholarship that I got with them, I get it every year. So it's reoccurring. And it's actually the scholarship that puts me to where I need to be. So I don't have to take out any student loans and I'm debt

free from college because of the scholarship, which is truly just a blessing. Yeah. So not only has it opened doors for education, community, meeting people, it's put me in a place where my situation as losing my father isn't going to define my future based off that, which is really amazing. You're amazing. Wow. You come through that trauma and you got a head on your shoulders like this and you're a sophomore in college. You're impressive. I'm proud of you. Good work. Xander chose well. Yes, they did. Yeah, they're awesome. Yeah. So what are you studying? I'm studying healthcare administration with a minor in

marketing. I bet. Yeah, that's perfect. Very good. Very cool. And you're extremely well-spoken, young lady. I'm proud of you. You just came on in front of millions of people and handled that like a pro thank you i appreciate that and wishing you the best with the rest of college and i forgive my ignorance i didn't know xander did that so that's a really cool program they have i knew they did a lot of generosity things and they have all kinds of different things they do and giving in uh that we have participated in i was not aware of that one that's pretty cool that's very interesting. You'll have to ask Jeff Zander about that next time you guys hang out. Yeah, we'll send him a clip of this.

That'll make his eyes leak. That's a good thing because I like watching Jeff cry. It's fun. Well, it's cool to see the other side because when you're Zander, you give out the scholarship. You may not hear from them. So it's cool to see the progress and momentum and how she's changed her life because of this, going to school debt-free. For those of you not figuring out what we're talking about, Jeff Zander is Zander

Insurance, and he's been an advertiser on the show for, we've advertised for him, for people to, oddly enough, get life insurance. That's where we send you to, to get life insurance, and they shop among a bunch of different companies, get you the best deal. Obviously, Landry's dad did not have that, and that's how this all set up, and that's probably why they give to this particular fund you know is is a way to uh give back so to speak um and uh so they we've endorsed that company for gosh 30 almost 30 years and uh sent sent people there um by the hundreds of thousands over the years and then he turns around with uh of the profits from running that organization and does this.

So what a great generosity story. Love that. Well done, Jeff. I'm proud of you, my friend. Well done, Landry. You handled that call like a pro. You told that story beautifully. I don't know many sophomores in college can do that

no that's pro level right there yeah well played teaching her well at uh university of oklahoma well played danielle is in grand junction hi danielle merry christmas hi hi how are you better than i deserve tell us your generosity story okay So my husband and I are both educators in a small school. And in 2018, there's a theme I've noticed today in the show, but unfortunately, we lost two students to suicide. And it was one of the hardest things as an educator that we've had to go through. And we decided we were on baby step six, and we decided to go ahead and take a goal that we had for Baby Step 7, and we went ahead and started a college scholarship in the name of my brother. His name was Evan.

And we raise money and we give scholarships to students at our high school. And so far to date since, we've been able to give 15 scholarships, ranging from $750 to... Actually, I'll pause real quick and say that where we get the funds is we don't... I have an annual fundraiser in the summertime, and the students at the school will help me to put on the fundraiser and we sell food, burritos and salsa and the community is extremely generous. And so I'll tell people that, you know, the food costs a certain amount, but they'll tip me like crazy because they know that every dollar that they give to us will go straight to the college scholarship, straight to the kids. And the reason

why we wanted to do the scholarship is because the loss was, you know, felt really real to us, and we wanted to have change in the community. But we also knew that we couldn't, that we would prefer that the scholarship be more about going to school without loans than mental health and so our focus is on teaching kids also on how to go to school without any loans love it love it that's well played yes and you said you've done how many scholarships so far we have given out 15 so far and we've awarded over 64 000 in scholarships I love it. Yeah, it's really, it's a community, like the community is very generous, plus we have some really generous donors, and how the kids will qualify for the scholarship is they have to listen to the Borrowed Future or watch the documentary,

and they have to come up to us and let us know how they're going to school without loans, and so our scholarship renews every year for up to $10,000. And I'm proud to say quite a few of these kids, I know it's made a difference in them going to school. We changed their mindset and they go to school without any loans. And that makes me very proud. And it's the only positive thing I can say that came from the losses that we had. Yeah.

Wow. You ought to be proud. I'm proud of you. Listen to this story. What a great reminder. You don't have to give a lot personally, but Danielle was bold and said, I'm going to start this thing

and the community rallied around it and made it happen. You just got to raise it up. Have a vision. Exactly. And beautifully done. Beautifully done. And tied to it,

the whole debt-free thing. They get to see George. That's right. On Borrowed Future. That's fun. There we go go i wouldn't call it a feature but there it is that's a cameo this is the ramsey show Hey, you guys. Health insurance costs are only moving one way, and that way isn't down. And if higher costs aren't enough, the wait times to see your doctor are longer, and it's harder than ever to get anything approved through the bureaucracy. So if you feel like the system is working against you,

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So learn more today and join at chministries.org slash budget. That's chministries.org slash budget it's our annual giving show on generosity here on the ramsey show george camel ramsey personality is my co-host today frank is with us in nashville hey frank merry christmas merry christmas to you and george d. Thanks for taking our call. Absolutely. Tell us your story about generosity. Well, Linda and I began overgiving about seven years ago. We were in a restaurant, and on the way in, we noticed a van, a couple of people in the van, young children. And they stayed out there. We went in.

We had our dinner. And they came in just before we finished our dinner they finally came in they talked with the uh owner and the the uh server they were trying to bargain for two buffet uh payments for a meal to feed them two and their three kids. And so we're in earshot of this, and we heard what was going on. And finally, the owner finally agreed to have the minimum take some stuff for the kids. But then we went over to the table. As we finished our dinner, we went over to the the table and we wished them Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday. And we told them that we will buy all five of their meals. And we told the server that it was going to be on us and we were going to pay

for it. And we then emptied our pockets of whatever cash we had, which is just over $100 or so, and we gave it to that couple. They definitely seemed to be maybe passing through, definitely destitute, and looking for a need, so we responded. Absolutely. Well done, sir. Well played. Well played.

The good news is they got a full belly belly and you got a great story for the rest of your life absolutely and and that changed our life after that we we were we had already been millionaires a little bit before that and uh we said you know we're just not getting enough where we have no children there's there's no one for us to leave this to except our nieces and nephews, which, you know, we do help on occasion. And we said, you know, we need to just give better, give more, give better, better tipping, better involvement with certain causes, you know, charities and veterans associations because, you know, I'm a veteran,

and, you know, we need to boost up the population. Yeah. Well done, Frank. Well done. I like it. I like it a lot. You know, and the interesting thing is, folks, Frank's story is, Merry Christmas to you, Frank.

Frank's story is just a reminder. All you've got to do is just lift your eyes up just a little bit and look around the room. There's somebody somewhere in the room. I mean, all the time. There's you at the gas pump, at the wherever. I mean, there's. If you just start listening and start looking, you will find so many opportunities to give.

That's amazing. And, you know, where occasionally $100 makes a big difference. You know, just $100. I mean, you got a million well and just the the surprise element of kindness is just so shocking in today's culture that it really does change a person's day their week maybe even their year and here's what's interesting the power of giving what it does is it it reshapes when you give, regardless really of what you give to, but the more personal it is, like Frank's situation

or some of these stories we've had in the last couple hours here are just incredible. When you give, it reshapes and changes you permanently. You are moving along the spectrum from selfish to selfless. And generous people are highly attractive because they smile more. It's hard to find someone who's depressed who's generous. If you're outrageously generous, these are some of the smiliest people you'll run into.

It's hard to find someone. If you're outlandishly generous, it spills over into your marriage. If you're crazy generous, it spills over into your parenting. You're the one that holds the door for someone. You're the one that picks up the groceries when the bag drops at the bottom of it and stuff's rolling all over the parking lot and you help and stop that it reshapes who you are because you become by definition other-centered rather than self-centered selfish and um that's the beautiful thing about these stories is it reveals that someone was looking outside of themselves george we've had some great stories written in, too.

Pick one of them up. Oh, yeah, this one's from Carl in Knoxville, Tennessee. Here's what he had to say. My wife is vision impaired. Every time we buy tickets for a concert, we always have to buy as close as possible so she can somewhat see the show. A lot of times that includes using third-party vendors

to get the better tickets. The Eagles had a concert at Thompson Bowling Arena in Knoxville April 1, 2023. We bought a pair of tickets for around $1,200. A week or so later, we found a better pair of tickets for $1,100. We decided to purchase the second set and turn around and sell the first to recoup our money. To make a long story short, we tried for over a month and could not sell our tickets. We drove to Knoxville the night before the concert, and the day of the concert, we decided to eat at one of our favorite restaurants in Knoxville and it was about three or four hours before showtime and we still had the two extra tickets. That is when my wife and I decided to give the $1,200 tickets to our server. She was a grandma

and raising her two grandkids and a very nice lady. We asked her if she had plans that evening and she said no. We then asked her if she had plans that evening, and she said no. We then asked her if she liked the Eagles. She said she did, and we asked her if she'd like to go to the concert for free. Whoa. It took us about an hour working with her phone and hours to transfer the tickets on Ticketmaster, but we did get it taken care of and even gave her a big tip on top of that to cover her parking.

The concert was fantastic, but my wife and I enjoyed blessing her and her husband even more than the concert itself. It was the first concert she had ever been to, and the Eagles is a great first concert to go. Absolutely. She texted us after the concert and told us she and her husband had a wonderful time and thanked us again. Best $1,200 my wife and I have ever spent.

Biggest tip that waitress ever got, too. That's the truth. And I know, Dave, you and I have ever spent. Biggest tip that waitress ever got, too. That's the truth. And I know, Dave, you're a big Eagles fan. And, you know, being a Knoxville fan, it's all there. This is a very Dave story. If I had to make one up. I had nothing to do with the story, but it does. Yeah, it's all around me.

If I said, Chad GPT, give me a generosity story that Dave will love. It's going to involve the Eagles and Knoxville. Well, you didn't do that. That's not a made-up AI story. That's a real story. It's going to involve the Eagles and Knoxville. You didn't do that. That's not a made-up AI story. That's a real story. That really happened, and I had nothing to do with it, I'll just say. But yeah, that's pretty incredible. That's fun.

And, you know, it's interesting, again, this whole thing, the formation of character comes out in this. That's pretty stinking cool right there. This lady, honey, what happened at work today i got a 1200 tip in the form of eagle and she'd never be able to concert that's wild yeah that's very cool very cool hey folks uh the next segments of the Ramsey Show are on the Ramsey Network app only or talk radio only.

And so if you want to tune into those, you need to download the Ramsey Network app. You always get the last segment of the show by having the Ramsey Network app. You can get the first segments of the show in video, audio, whatever. You can search the show by questions. If you've got a certain question you want answered, it'll pull up calls from that. You can send us emails directly through the Ramsey Network app. It costs absolutely nothing. There is no subscription, and no salesman will call.

So if you'd love to have more Ramsey Network stuff, including the back ends of this show, the place to do that would be the Ramsey Network app. And again, you can download that for free on wherever great apps are sold, right? Although this one is not sold. It's free. So check it out over at the Apple Store or Google Play or whatever else you need to do to get an app in. And you'll really enjoy picking up the rest of the story, as Paul Harvey used to say. There you go. So good stuff. Good stuff. Folks, I can't inspire you enough.

I can't remind you enough the power of giving and how it loosens up your view of life, how it changes your peripheral vision, how it changes the way you walk through this life versus, you know, being so inward focused, you become outward focused, and it just makes you highly attractive. So one of the reasons we love to teach on and preach on and encourage generosity any possible way we can. That puts this hour of The Ramsey Show in the books. Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's The Ramsey Show, where we help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create actual amazing relationships. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host, George Camel, Ramsey personality number one, best-selling author of the book Breaking Free from Broke.

He is our co-host today. Today is a special day on The Ramsey Show as we continue our giving show on generosity, taking stories and calls from you about times that you received generosity or gave generously. And these are great stories. They inspire us. They cause us all to want to do better at our giving. And it's been a pretty incredible couple hours so far. We've got more calls to come in. If you have a great story on generosity and want to share it, you call us at 888-825-5225. This particular hour is brought to you by the fine folks at Convoy of Hope. Convoy of Hope is a faith-based organization that partners with local churches and civic groups to provide relief to people affected by disasters and hunger.

And you can trust these guys. They've got a track record of over 30 years of supplying food, water, recovery to communities. And the website, if you want to learn about them and do some donating, some giving of your own, go to convoyofhope.org slash Ramsey. Convoyofhope.org slash Ramsey. This is a wonderful group of folks. They are some of the first on the scene in a disaster, for instance, Asheville, and they stay long after the TV cameras leave.

They're still in Asheville. And while most people have not forgotten, and it's still a mess, still a lot of work to be done, a lot of people to be helped there. And so they're still on the ground helping, and they do that all over the world. And over 100 disasters they've responded to in the calendar year of 2024. 37 million people have been helped by Convoy of Hope. It's a massive organization for disaster relief and for hunger issues. So we're honored to have them as our sponsor today of our annual giving show.

Jonathan is in Atlanta. Jonathan, Merry Christmas to you. Merry Christmas. Thank you all for having me on. Absolutely. Tell us your giving story, your generosity story. Yes. Uh, I'll try and make it as quick as I can. We were, uh, long story short back in 2016, uh, me and my wife, uh, we had a baby boy in November and, um, he

ended up passing away about three weeks later due to a heart condition. And then, uh, the, uh, same thing happened again in 2017 and, um, the babies were full term. Uh, they just, they just had a heart conditions and, um, after visiting doctors and stuff. So me and my wife, we went a couple years just trying to figure out what to do. And then one random evening in 2019 in the summer, I think it was June or July, we got a Facebook message from a girl that we used to go to church with that she was in the youth group and i think she was 16 at the time and she had uh is going high school maybe 17 she had gotten pregnant in high school and they knew about us and they through facebook they offered she offered us her baby.

The opportunity to adopt. Correct, yeah. Wow. And we wanted to make sure that she was serious because the whole adoption thing, I'm sure a lot of people go through all that. So we wanted to make sure that she was serious, and they had prayed about it,

and they thought that the best thing that they could do for that baby was to give it up and to let me and my wife have the opportunity to adopt her. And it ended up being awesome because my wife got to go to all the doctor's appointments with her and be in the delivery room. And, you know, she was born January of 2020, and the adoption was finalized later that summer, and she's about to be five here in a couple weeks. Oh, my goodness.

Because not only, you know, did me and my wife, we didn't lose just, you know, two sons. My parents, my in-laws, they lost grandboys and nephews and cousins and stuff so so every uh every uh christmas you know when it comes around because her birthday's in january um you know i'm not sure a lot of people can comprehend of giving up a child for what they would think would be a better life but we were me and my family were we're blessed with that uh opportunity and it's uh it's a every day is a great day now oh my gosh it's been wow that's uh that's poignant wow wow yeah and she's uh in the the mom now she's doing great. She's now married with one, with her husband, and they're doing well. And so it's all turned out great. But, you know, me and my wife didn't really know what we were going to do,

and the Lord was more than we could ever think of coming out of the, you know, two terrible situations for both sides. Yeah, the sun comes out after the tragedy. Wow. Yes, sir. Tragedies. That's correct. Oh, my gosh.

Wow. You guys were able to help in a time of need, and you were blessed in the process. That's right, yeah. Right, yeah. Just some random Facebook message changed both our lives, thankfully. Wow. So Facebook did something good, at least. good we can finally give facebook credit for something yeah all right i like it very cool that's neat well jonathan thank you for sharing that story absolutely incredible

and merry christmas to you adoption is uh, adoption, those are a special kind of generosity, not only by the person letting their child be adopted into what they perceive to be a better life going forward, but also, of course, the people doing the adoption, both. Everyone wins. The child wins. Everyone wins in these things, and everyone has a generosity factor. These people, Jonathan and his wife, are giving their lives away to this child. This child is giving them joy, and the mom gave the child a different path forward, a different future than they might have had with a 16-year-old mom.

Yeah, that little 5-year-old's got a thriving future. A lot of giving there. That's pretty crazy, and it's a big deal adoption is a um is a special special place in the uh i think in god's eyes uh and in terms of the way people are able to serve and serve through the foster programs and those kinds of things as well so we see see a lot of that with our foundation. We see a lot of people, a lot of different places and ways people move in those communities and create gaps or fill gaps for children. Yeah. Well, there's a lot of wraparound ministries. I mean, adoption and foster just tugs at the heartstrings. You just want to support those families. Exactly.

It's easy. Pretty cool stuff. George Campbell, Ramsey Personalities, my co-host. This is the annual giving show here, generosity show here on the Ramsey Show. It's our annual giving show here on the Ramsey Show.orge camel ramsey personality is my co-host today there's a lot goes into buying or selling your home there's going to be a lot of property start to move it looks like we're going to have another interest rate decrease right now heading that way is possibility anyway we'll know shortly and all heading into the new year we're going to really see some things start to move in the first quarter of next year. And if you're thinking about real estate in the midst of that, and you should be,

and you want to know more about real estate, about a purchase, about a sale, and you need the tools to look at it, go to the Ramsey Real Estate Home Base, ramsesolutions.com slash real estate, and you'll find calculators, you'll find start-to-finish guides, you'll find how-to articles, you'll even find a podcast, a book, even a video course, all packed with actionable steps to help you navigate the buying or the selling process. Ramsey's Real Estate Home Base, ramsaysolutions.com slash real estate.

Be sure and check it out. This is our annual giving show. George Camel Ramsey personality is my co-host today. George, let's pick up another one of these that were sent in to us by email. Let's do it. This one comes from Ryan in Dallas, Texas. He says, at my last job, it depended on the month, but I sometimes worked at the office till midnight or later.

Sometimes months would go by without having to work late, and sometimes I'd stay late two to three times in the same month. I'd be typing away on my computer trying to catch up on emails or projects, and the janitor would show up in a pickup truck to start his work. The janitor would usually get there around 11 p.m., clean up the office, and leave by 2 a.m. Over the years, we developed a silent mutual respect. We didn't say much to each other, but we'd say hi and bye when one of us were arriving or leaving. I'd move my chair and gather nearby trash cans when he came close to my desk. Anyways, one night, he was venting a bit, and I could sense he was slightly overwhelmed with family, car issues, finances, etc. I listened and validated him. Then I went out to my car, got $100 cash from my cubbyhole that I

stored in case of emergencies, and I gave it to him. He was surprised, thanked me multiple times, and we both got back to work. Frankly, I forgot about that instance till about a year later. It was some random night where I stayed late at the office, we set our customary highs when we arrived, and continued working. As I packed up to leave, he pulled me aside and said, I want to thank you. A year ago, you gave me $100. It was a very challenging moment in my life. I felt overwhelmed with bills, kids, family, work, and he choked up. I was thinking some really dark thoughts. Really dark thoughts. I don't think I'd be here right now if not for what you did last year. We don't even know each other. I don't think I'd be here right now if not for what you did last year. Whoa. We don't even know each other. I don't know your name. And you showed such kindness in a very dark

period of my life. Thank you. Wow. You never know what the result will be of your generosity. Man. $100 saved his life. That's pretty wild. Kindness. The act of the generosity. It wasn't the actual dollar amount. Exactly. Wow. That's powerful.

Garrett is in Sacramento. Hi, Garrett. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Merry Christmas. Hi, George. How are you? Better than we deserve, brother. How can we help?

Yeah, so my story is about my grandma. She was one of eight kids growing up in the 50s, so she learned to be really frugal and save all of her money. She helped pay for my college and even gave me a truck to drive while I was a student. Two years ago, she was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer, which if you know about that, it's definitely a challenge. But one of her sayings was always, I'm not taking it with me when I die. So I might as well spend it on the people that I love. Um, she even paid for my wife and I to lead a mission trip, um, as she went

through chemo and she, she passed away in September. Um, she was a believer, uh, still a challenging time, but when she passed away, she had a $1.4 million net worth, which included her house, and that helped my parents pay off their house and just shows how, you know, being good with your money, saving and blessing others, you can transcend even what you can do in your own life. That's pretty cool. That's very cool. A godly man leaves an inheritance to his children's children, Proverbs says. Leaving an inheritance is a godly move. And what a neat lady. Yeah, even in the hardest time of her life, at the end of her life,

she was thinking of others, wanting to bless others. Yeah, she became more grateful, more giving. How old was she? She was only 70, so a little young. Just a baby. So what was her name norma wow that's neat we could all be a little more like norma amen we sure could very good that's a good way to honor her is to bring her memory in that um you know in that character quality of hers that generosity because this was a woman who was a tightwad she saved everything and yet she was still generous absolutely now that's because sometimes tightwads aren't generous

she was very generous obviously but i mean she had done a great job built up this great net worth it was self-sustaining sufficient as far as financially goes and in the midst of that was giving out to the kids the grand, and then later through an inheritance. That's pretty neat. Yeah. And there's an interesting concept. I was talking to Dr. Arthur Brooks on my YouTube channel, and it was our highest performing episode thus far,

and he said something I want to get your take on. He said, the more you give to charity, the richer you get. And this was not a prosperity gospel thing of the karma. He was saying, based on his research that those who gave a dollar got a dollar sixty back and he wrestled with it and he talked to a psychologist and it turns out the more you give the more effective you are and the more effective you feel and he found that the people who give are problem solvers they wanted to solve problems and therefore wanted to be effective at that and therefore ended up making more money in their careers and other things. It was a very interesting

concept that changed the way I looked at it because there's always the theory of, well, you don't want to give to get, but there is a result of those people tend to be more prosperous. They do tend to be more prosperous. And one of the reasons is what we were saying earlier too, is that generous people are just more attractive. I mean, do you want to be around a selfish person? Do you want to be around a generous person? Not because you're not attracted to them because they're going to give you something. That's not the point.

Or because of their wealth. Or their wealth or any of that. The way they carry themselves, their spirit around them is different than a selfish person um there's a kindness compassion that automatically is installed in a generous person it's really hard to be a grouchy generous person you know it's really hard to be the grinch and be a generous person um so those are the people you that tend to get promoted or you want to do business with think about it if you're running a business and you have two people working there and one of them is a grouchy, you know, snarling, snapping, selfish person

and the other one is generous and they have equal skill sets, who gets the promotion? Who do you want to work with when you're hiring someone? Who do you want to work for? If you're highly talented and you're selecting which employer to go work for who are you going to lend your incredible talent to the generous one give given a choice you're going to be you're going to be in the generous line not because you necessarily get paid more but because the environment is different around those people and so yeah that

i i think brooks is on to something there i think that's probably solid research uh well with him environment is different around those people. And so, yeah, I think Brooks is onto something there. I think that's probably solid research. Well, with him, you know it's solid research, in my opinion. It's all data. Yeah, I mean, he's a data-driven dude. But yeah, I've never seen the $1.60 back thing. But you know what? I don't doubt it. I don't doubt it at all. I even had, you know, I was speaking at a Baptist church in Kentucky many years ago, and I did a talk on tithing from a Christian perspective, giving a tenth of your income to your local church. And the old Baptist church, the old Baptist pastor, when I got done, he said, you know,

he said, I've been pastoring here for 35 years. I've never had a couple in my church who tithe get divorced. Interesting. And I said, okay okay so what are you saying are you trying to be mystical with me and say that you know god protected their marriage because they gave to the church or something and he's like oh no no he goes tithers people who give steadily regularly are generous people and they make better husbands and they make better wives they're not they're not you

know you don't it's hard to be a princess and be a and be generous it's hard to be a you know a prince or whatever we want to call the guy spender the guy out of control the selfish little boy in a man's body and be uh and be generous yeah and so character qualities they're selfless whether you're in a marriage with your generosity if you you're more selfless, it's going to go better. Yeah. And so if your marriage goes better, your finances go better. We do know that there's lots of data on that. And so if you're giving, you have the margin to do so, which means less money stress in

your life, less money problems. That's interesting to correlation here. I think you should be a professor. You should look into this. It turns out all these things work together. Who knew? Yeah, that's right. But it does.

It can begin and end both with generosity. And that's why we're talking about it today. This is the Ramsey Show. George Campbell Ramsey personality is my co-host today thank you for joining us America this is our annual giving show brought to you by the fine folks at Convoy of Hope they are sponsoring our generous generosity show today and because they are a walking display of generosity 24 7 they show up when there's distress they show up when there's hunger They show up when there's distress. They show up when there's hunger. They show up when there's disaster and are a conduit for generosity. They were telling us at lunch, I was having lunch with the guys that run it,

and he was telling me one of the big retailers, and I didn't ask permission, so I won't say who it was, just called them up one day and said, can you guys use 200 tractor trailers of toys? Wow. And they said, uh-huh. And they called a bunch of churches that they work with and 200 different churches and said,

can you use a tractor trailer load of toys to serve the underserved in the community? And they, you know, so they just basically were a conduit between this generous retailer um and i have no idea why they had 200 tractor trailer loads of toys left over overstock who knows who knows i have no idea what it was but uh give it away and all they had to do was cover the the logistics and the drivers to get them to the 200 different churches and give them away but that's that's scale.

I thought all the corporations were greedy, Dave, but here we are. We're the story of generosity involving a nonprofit. This is beautiful. I actually thought this particular company was trash. And so I was really happy to hear that they did something good. They're doing good behind the scenes. Yeah, that they did something good. I didn't have a high opinion of them, can you tell? We've changed it a little bit today.

Either way. I mean, you can change my mind with generosity, I can tell you. All right, Cassie is with us in Denver. Hi, Cassie. Merry Christmas to you. Merry Christmas to you. Hi, George. Hey.

So tell us your generosity story. Yeah. So in June of 2022, I lost my husband of 10 and a half years um i was widowed when my oldest daughter was 19 months and i was 14 weeks pregnant with my baby girl taylor oh my goodness what happened to your husband no he took his own life oh i'm so sorry and you've got babies in the house oh my yes yeah um and i can tell you that our church community rallied around us and we lost the breadwinner we lost all sense of certainty and hope in those days and um our church community came through with, I mean, cash and gift cards for gas and for groceries and to the tune of about $29,000. And they kept us in our home.

Wow. They took the time and babysat my girl so that I could go work extra jobs, cleaning apartments and offering financial coaching to some other people, and then was able to pay off my car. My parents cashed out a large chunk of their retirement to be able to pay off my vehicle for me so that I could continue to have a car that would fit my children comfortably and not have that weighing into the monthly budget. And so because of the generosity of our community and the people that loved on my family, we are okay. Wow.

What year was this again? 2022. It's been just two and a half years. Wow. What year was this again? 2022. It's been two and a half years. Yeah. How are you guys doing today? Today, we're incredible. My oldest just turned four and my youngest just turned two and they are wild and getting into everything. And I will tell you, we've been consumer debt free since that incident when everybody contributed. We've been able to get out of consumer debt. And I mean, we're making the monthly budget. There's not a lot of room to spare, but not having debt payments eating into the day-to-day life has been such a blessing and such a freedom to know that not every second of the day, everything's on the line. What's the church's name that you were a part of that helped you? Yeah, it's Tower Community Fellowship in Aurora, Colorado. Excellent.

They are incredible. Um, they have sponsored your, um, foundations of Ramsey education for a couple of the local high schools. Um, I, I actually was an FPU coordinator, um, when all of this happened and I was in the last week of the class. And so I can tell you the people in that class really rallied around my family as well. I mean, one of them just called me a month ago and offered to take me to buy groceries. There's a family that continues to meet me once a month to fill up my gas tank to try and just help us make ends meet and be able to provide a steady, secure place for my kids. They're living the definition of church out properly.

That's beautiful. Hello. That's cool. Yeah, way to go, church. Glad to hear you're doing well these days in the midst of still processing a lot of grief. It's still hard, but I can tell you that turning the dial towards gratitude, as John says, has been overwhelmingly helpful in being able to move forward and move on. And I think that 2025 is going to bring big and exciting things for my family.

I am positive you are right, 100%. You've got two little babies, and you're a warrior princess. You're going to fight your way through. I'm proud of you. Proud of your church. Proud of your community. Very well done. Great story.

Thank you for sharing that. Inspired. Michelle is in Madison, Wisconsin. Hi, Michelle. Merry Christmas. Hi, how are you? Better than I deserve. Tell me your giving story, your generosity story.

Yes. So my story really took place 13 years ago when I was 21 years old. I had just completed my third stint in a drug and alcohol treatment center for heroin addiction. Wow. And yeah, after that last treatment, my parents were like, you are not moving back home. We are done with you. So they had me move to a city I'd never been to before, which is where I live now. And I moved here with two suitcases full of clothes. And that is all I had to my name.

And I moved to a sober living house here, which I ended up getting kicked out of because I continued to make poor decisions. And so I had nowhere to go. And I had an aunt that let me sleep on her couch in her basement with spiders down there and there was mice and it was just awful. And during that time, I found out that I was unexpectedly pregnant. And so just when I thought things really couldn't get much worse for me, things got pretty scary. And that changed the entire trajectory of my life. Honestly, it saved my life. And I did not have a job.

I did not have a car. I did not have a job. I did not have a car. I did not have a place to live, and so my grandmother purchased me an $800 car, and it was a 1991 Ford Taurus, and that car is the car that I drove my son home with from the hospital when I had him, and so it really, that, you know, her act of generosity propelled my future forward. I was able to find a job. I saved money and got an apartment. I started going back to school and finished my degree. So the baby on the way caused you to go completely sober?

Yes. Oh, yes. Like, it was a giant wake-up call. Good for you. Proud of you. Yes. It was scary at the time. It's great now.

But really, he saved my life. He doesn't know it yet because he's only 12, but he really did save my life. And that $800 car helped me to get to where I needed to be and help get my job. And so I graduated in 2017 with a degree in business management and I have been working in insurance ever since and sober and had another baby and I'm getting married in October. Good for you. Wow. Yeah. That's amazing. So please tell me you got pictures of that car. Oh, my gosh. I don't think I do.

It was a four-door. It was blue. I know. It was gross. Oh, my gosh. The kind of car you got to have a name for. I know. But it saved your life. That car is iconic.

Yeah, I had cars like that when we went broke. They were the $800 car that saved your life. It was pretty cool. You remember that more than the expensive one. Oh, definitely. Definitely. And I didn't take a picture either. There you go.

Dave didn't want to remember. No, I just didn't take a picture. That's all it was. Wasn't a big thought going into it there. This is The Ramsey Show. Our scripture of the day, 1 Thessalonians 5, 16 and 18. Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. Whale said, be thankful for what you have.

Your life is someone else's fairy tale. That's a good lesson in gratitude right there. I kind of like that. That's a good one. Our annual generosity show, giving show, and we're taking calls from those of you that have great stories on giving. The phone number is 888-825-5225. This annual show is for the first time ever. It's been an annual event that we've done ever since I've been on the air

to inspire giving this time of year right around Christmas and remind you that God gave his only begotten son. The greatest giver of all time. Absolutely. Can't beat that. The greatest gift of all times without a doubt and um of course it was brought to you today the first time ever it was what i was getting ready to say and i got sidetracked there for a second was um convoy of hope was our sponsor

today and so be sure and check them out and uh we appreciate them coming alongside us and being part of our annual giving tradition here. And good stuff. LaDonna is in Lexington, Kentucky. Hey, LaDonna, Merry Christmas to you. Merry Christmas to you. Very fun. So welcome. Tell us about your generosity story.

We are very blessed. And every Sunday afternoon, well, almost every Sunday afternoon, we go out for food and fellowship with our brothers and sisters from church. And on the occasions when others can't go, there's a local waffle house that we run into. And this particular Sunday we went in, and we will always ask our waitress if there's any prayer requests that they have because we're going to pray before our meal. And luckily, and air quotes there, luckily found an available apartment and started explaining a little bit more about the gentleman that she was renting from. And the more she shared, the more we realized it was someone that we went to church with that had a lot of rental property. So we got a little bit more of her story. And after we left, we contacted that gentleman and were able to pay a huge portion of her rent.

He had just had a place open up and moved her in because of the situation, and she had only been able to pay so much down, and he was just very generous in allowing her to make payments. And we were just fortunate enough to be able to take care of that first month for her. Nice one-two punch, tag team over the rope between you and the landlord, and the two of you get together and take care of her. That's awesome. And, you know, it was just all God's hand in allowing us to be there that day, that time for her and God, you know, providing that opportunity.

It was just a, it was as much a blessing or more a blessing to us to be able to do that. And we stopped in there this past week and were able to, to give someone probably about a 250% tip. And just say, Merry Christmas. You know, it's, to gift someone probably about a 250% tip. That'll do. And just say Merry Christmas. You know, those people are serving day in and day out for thankless jobs, and we want them to know that people are appreciating them,

and God has just blessed us to be able to do such generous things that way. Amen. Sometimes God's hand looks like LaDonna. You know, that's pretty cool. I don't take any, I even hesitated in making this call because, you know, it's that don't let the right hand know what the left hand's doing, and we never do that for a prideful thing but man when you know god is just opening those doors it is and you know the key thing here is um yeah we're going to give god all the credit because he gave you the money

to do this yeah and he gave you the opportunity and put you in that situation with exactly the timing you couldn't have done that by yourself if you'd have wanted to. So we'll back up 26 steps and give him the credit. There's no pride involved. But I'll tell you, the one thing that you did do, and we will blame you for this completely, is you were listening. You were available. And, you know, you had your ear cocked.

Other people just blow through, eat a waffle, head back out the door, and they're done. I love the sneak attack of the prayer request then becoming the opportunity to give. That's pretty interesting. That's real just sly. So I might use that move. Hey, we're going to pray for the meal. You got anything we can add to the list? Sure, here's a thing.

Yeah. And then you hear the whole story of, you know, domestic violence. I got to get away from this guy. I had to go get a thing yeah and then you hear the whole story of you know domestic violence i got to get away from this guy i had to go get a thing you know you get this whole drama laid out before you just from a simple you just ask you're right that's exactly people will share and you're available and you listen you will have opportunity i've seen a theme here this show that's very very cool thank you ladonna i appreciate you sharing that a lot. Very nice. And, you know, that'll help me to, you know, I'll just take a little run off of that. She said she goes out, they go out to eat with the brothers and sisters from church every Sunday after church.

I will tell you that I have griped at my brothers and sisters in Christ more than once on this show because most servers don't want to work Sunday afternoon because some Christian coming out of the church are the cheapest people on the planet on tipping. And so if that's you, stop it. You need to be putting up a better witness than that. You need to be with LaDonna here. She's helping rebrand the church.

250% is a good idea after church. Hello. You just came out of church where you learned that God gave his only son for you, and then you leave a quarter over there at the dadgum diner. That's just ridiculous. So if you can't afford a tip, don't go out to eat. Amen. I don't care if you're a dadgum believer or person of faith or not just you're too

cheap those people those trays are heavy you get your little butt under one of them trays one time and carry it around your back will be hurting all day i wish everyone could be a server for a day they would it would change the way you tip i'm well crap they put up with off of human beings so it's just ridiculous so hey you guys especially my brothers and sisters y'all tip like double shut up oh my god right here at the holidays especially i mean that's just basic giving well dave i was so inspired by this show i wanted to give you something so i got you a little gift uh-oh you don't have to open it now, but it's something that some would say is priceless. This is Mama Camel's homemade baklava.

Ooh, my mouth is... She said, get it today. I can't eat while I'm on the air, George. I know. We'll save it. Oh, and I love your mama's baklava. She has brought me some before, but it was never hand-delivered by you before today, so thank you.

Some call me an angel. Some call me a messenger. Some say you're a baklava deliverer that's right there's that yeah just my way of saying merry christmas but thank you and thank you for doing this show i really does this show really does inspire me to give more hearing the other stories giving me new ideas changing my spirit and this really put me in the holiday spirit i'm i'm i'm in the spirit right now i'm in the baklava spirit you don't have to tell sharon about this gift this can stay between you and i okay it's a secret i keep looking for a green box in here george i don't see one producer james is a little upset now my bad should you got

to bring some green boxes for the people in the booth i guess i need to get to work tonight i'm just saying the elves to work making baklava get your tail end over there and let's figure this out man you don't you can't leave the booth people out i'll share it with you guys after the break since george didn't think of you but i'll just i'll i'll be i'll be a giver we need a we need a two how did we turn george into giving me a gift and george being the being seat being the bad guy i know this happened it's faux pas to give the ceo a gift people call it brown nosing. Oh, that's what it is. Okay, yeah. That'll get the people in the booth up there. I call it baklava nosing.

It's different. Well, it worked. I'll just tell you. It had the desired effect. Yeah. Your generosity stature has been increased. I hope I inspired many of our listeners and viewers out there to give like no one else. Yeah, find your mom to make some baklava and then give it away.

Man, you guys don't know George's mom, man. I mean, she's, what's her heritage? She's Syrian. Syrian. And my dad's Egyptian. So a lot of good cooking in the Camel House growing up. I'm talking Mediterranean cuisine, baby. Yeah, Syrian mama can make some baklava.

I'm just saying. She's very generous with those talents. Good stuff, you guys. So, Dave, grateful for you. Thank you for doing this show. I'm grateful for you, brother. Well done. Merry Christmas to everybody. Good stuff, you guys. Dave, grateful for you. Thank you for doing this show. I'm grateful for you, brother. Well done. Merry Christmas to everybody.

Very good stuff, guys. That puts this hour of the Ramsey Show in the books. 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.