The Ramsey Show - App - Our New Church Helped Us in Our Time of Need (Hour 2)

Episode Date: December 20, 2019

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Music Music Music Music Music Music Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the Dave Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king,

and the paid off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. This is our annual giving show here on the Dave Ramsey Show. And what that means is we're taking calls from those of you that have a great giving story. Maybe you were given something or maybe you were the giver. Either one. We love generous people. All of us love generous people. Generous people make us smile. Generous people make us laugh. Generous people make our eyes leak sometimes. Great giving stories. And we want to hear from you if you have a great giving story. The phone number is 888-825-5225.

It's an annual tradition to take the last live broadcast before Christmas and do a giving show with with it we've done that for almost 30 years now and that's what we're doing today tracy is in colorado hey tracy merry christmas tell us your giving story hey thank you for having me sure um i wanted to tell you my story. I am a parent who has had a child pass. His name is Eamon, and he was 29 years old. And as a parent, always wants to have their child remember forever, and people don't forget them. So after he passed, I had a memorial bench put up at the University of Alabama. He was a president at Pi Kappa Phi. And my son had a tattoo that said, what we do in life echoes in eternity. So I wanted that to be my mantra of how I lived my life and how I honored my son. So after I had the bench installed, I started looking for things that

I could give back all the time, something that gave back all the time. And I found a place called Angels of Hope Ministry. And I'm from the East Coast of Central east coast of Florida, and that's where they're based. And what they do is they help homeless veterans, homeless children, homeless people. And they were looking to raise money for a van. They needed a van to bring supplies. They had their homeless riding bicycles 15 miles to get to the doctors. So I was fortunate enough to have the funds, and I bought them a van. And they honored my son by putting a plaque on the back that said, in loving donation of amen and, you know, please donate.

And they use that van all the time. It's been three years. They use the van to feed the homeless, to take van all the time. It's been three years. They use the van to feed the homeless, to take them to the doctors, and it's a gift that keeps on giving. And they are a very, very needy organization, and I love that it keeps getting back. Yeah. Wow.

Very good. Good use of money. Good use. Yeah, and, you know, when I have a little bit of extra money, I'll call them up or I'll text them and I'll say, hey, guys, it's summertime. Is there anything you need this summer? Their biggest need was bug spray. I mean, this is an organization that needs everything. Socks, underwear. I mean, when you're homeless, you don't have, you know, the facilities, they need things and they're very much in need. And it's when you're a parent, everything you do

to give back, you can honor your child's memory by doing that. So I hope everybody, if they're looking for Wayne, it doesn't have to be expensive. Sometimes I go and I'll go to a fast food restaurant and I'll buy 10 gift certificates. And I'll put a heart on the front of it with my son's name on it, Amen. And I'll either send it to them or my daughter Layla lives in New York. And I send them to her and she hands them out to the homeless. Yeah. What did the van cost? It was $ dollars two thousand dollars wow yes very cool great story Tracy congratulations great story uh heads up for you charities and ministries and non-profits out there, people are more likely to give to help you do a certain thing

or an item like that than they are just give in general to your general fund. If you call up one of your supporters and say, we need a van, you're more likely to get money than if you call them up and supporters of supporters and say we need five thousand dollars so uh folks like to have the experience that tracy had where you actually see the tangible effects of your giving very cool stuff kimmy is with us in colorado hi kimmy merry christmas merry christmas dave how are Better than I deserve. Tell me your giving story. Okay. So my story happened about 10 years ago. I was a grad student in Florida, and I had two little kids, 18 months and three years old,

and I was going through a divorce. And it was a really tough time. The situation had gotten so bad that I needed to move out, but I had very limited resources. My graduate assistance stipend was $1,600, and I would need an apartment, child care for the kids, and I also didn't have a car. But, you know, God raised up a collection of people who just really blessed me. I had a professor, and I didn't even really know her that well at the time, but she said, you can come live with me. Whoa. Yeah, and she took me in.

I lived with her for four months. I had never even been to her house until the day that I moved in, and she had a room ready for me, a bathroom of my own, and I lived with her. In that time, my parents lived in Atlanta. They said, you know, just bring the kids to us, and we'll take care of them. So I drove the kids to Atlanta, left them with my parents in those four months, and they let me do that so I could just concentrate on school and have to worry about child care and I could just save my money and get ready to lease an apartment. My mom also had a car at the time that she was getting ready to sell because she still had payments on it, but she was no longer working. And the family decided that they would give me that car,

and my three siblings made the payments on that car for two years until I was done with school. Wow. And sorry, I didn't know about you then, Dave. But there were payments on the car, and they took care of it until I was done. Wow. Yeah, and, you know, I had friends that just gave to me. My friend Erin, she gave me, you know, dinnerware sets

and kitchenware sets when I was moving out. I didn't have to buy. So, Kimmy, how long ago was all this? This was 10 years ago. So you graduated with your degree in what then? I graduated with a degree in accounting, a Ph.D. in accounting. How are you doing now? I'm doing great.

I bet. I bet you are. I'm in a tenure track position at a university here in Denver. Wow. I got married, remarried again five years ago and added two more kids to the mix. There you go. Yeah. So the end of the story is the generosity paid off once again,

as you're the recipient. And all the while now, you'll be looking over your shoulder for some young lady who's in a bad situation who needs a leg up. Wow. Needs a hand up. There you go. Well done. Thanks for sharing that.

I got a call the other day and I thought it was worth talking about again. It was from a wife looking for life insurance for her family. She asked why I only recommend term life insurance instead of cash value plans like whole life. I usually explain how you overpay for coverage, earn a horrible rate of interest, and don't get your cash value when you die. But this time, I just had her go straight to Zander.com and get a rate. And then we compared that rate to the whole life plan, and she immediately saw the huge savings. She realized all the things she could do with that money, like paying down debt, investing in a smarter way. That made it real for her. It makes no sense to buy or keep a cash value plan when there are smarter, less expensive ways

to protect your family. That's why I suggest that everyone go to Zander.com or call them at 800-356-4282 and get a free quote. That's Zander.com or 800-356-4282. It's a giving theme hour on The Dave Ramsey Show. We're glad you're with us this hour. Open phones at 888-825-5225. The Ramsey Network is pretty much everywhere now. You can check us out on YouTube. We're the top 1% of all YouTubers now. And millions and millions and millions of you watching millions and hundreds of millions of hours of minutes on YouTube all the time.

It's unbelievable. You can tune in on Sirius XM. You can tune in on one of our many, many podcasts that are out there and one of the many different places you listen to podcasts. And of course, you can listen on radio. I'm on 610 radio. It was huge. And then since then, my husband finished school and we still live very Dave Ramsey. We drink the Kool-Aid. We're card-carrying Dave Ramsey members. Our only debt is a little bit left on our house, and we are FPU coordinators. And this year we were able to take five mittens off the mitten tree and bless five different families or people in need.

Yeah, yeah. And you will the rest of your life because you know how much it means. Yeah. Yeah. It was awesome. Pretty amazing stuff. It's weird that the thing that God directs someone to bless you with ends up becoming very often the thing that you replicate.

It's not unusual at all. So absolutely incredible. Wow. Good story. And you're completely right that the most fun you replicate. It's not unusual at all. So absolutely incredible. Wow. Good story. And you're completely right that the most fun you will have with money is sharing it and giving it. And whether I get to see those families open their gifts or just know that they get to open a card and have something they didn't,

it is an awesome way to bless someone, especially at Christmas. Absolutely. How many years ago was that that your kids your kids got those uh toys and you got the 400 dollars it was 2008 oh you said that i'm sorry 2008 so no it's okay 11 years ago and when you talk about it it still brings tears it does so that's what that's what happens when you fill those needs on those mittens you pulled off the tree this year. Yeah, that's what I'm hoping. Eleven years later. Overwhelming generosity.

You know, it's just, like you said to Open, God did it for us, and it is a blessing to do it for others. Amen. Well done. Good story. Thank you for sharing that. Very well done. Erin is next in Kansas. Erin, tell us your giving story.

Dave, it's great to speak with you. This is another Christmastime story. Sure. A little background on the story. My dad, this was many years ago. We were little kids at the time. It was Christmas season. My dad had lost his job that year. Excuse me. It's an emotional thing to talk about. My dad had lost his job that year and was working on much lower income than he was used to,

and it was a really tight year for our family. He was also giving his time at our church and was in charge of coordinating giving Christmas gifts to families in need at the time. And my family and my mom and dad decided that they were just going to stay quiet about their own needs, and they drove around and delivered donated gifts to families in need, while their own family didn't even have a Christmas tree. And I remember as a little girl still seeing the doorbell rang and we opened the door and there was a little Charlie Brown Christmas tree on our front set and an envelope with $500

taped to the door. And we were so affected by that, that someone had recognized our need and taken the time to give for us. And the beauty of giving is that it inspires giving. And I can tell you, when things turned around for our family and my dad, every Christmas he's handed out envelopes to those in need. I bet. Yeah, I bet there's a lot of Charlie Brown Christmas trees landing places, yeah? Oh, man. Yeah, exactly.

Yeah. Because there's something about the rhythm of this, the timing being just right. When the timing is just right, the memory and the effect, the impact is just lasting. It becomes an eternal impact, doesn't it? It is. It is. And I really believe that people are inspired to do those types of things. And when you're directed by God, it changes you, and it changes the people you serve.

Yeah, and the joy comes because you listen. So be sure, folks, that you're listening. You're listening. And when you hear, then do it, because that's when you get to be part of one of these magical moments. Listen. You know what I'm talking about. You know situations where you knew in a weird way in your mind you were supposed to do this.

And those of us that are Christians, we call that god speaking to you and you're just supposed to go do that then but it's weird because it's not like it's not audible or nobody sent you an email it certainly didn't show up on twitter it's just a in your mind you have this idea that you're supposed to do something and then we all we go back to busy and we got to check our phone and see who emailed us no stop stop stop stop stop stop listen listen and then do it it's a giving show on The Dave Ramsey Show, where you tell your story of giving or receiving. One of our own Ramsey team members, Katie Bivens, has been with us about nine months. Katie's on the Financial Wellness Team, which is the team that puts financial peace materials this stuff we teach

through smart dollar into companies all over america has an hr benefit and she works as a relationship coordinator with the with that team katie tell us your giving story hey dave yeah thank you um so my giving story is about my friend lonnie cleave and her husband, Brian, and her kids, Maggie and Cooper. And it starts in mid-August of 2014 when I pulled into my driveway, checked my bank account on my phone, started crying because I had managed to get my bank account down to a mere $14. And it was about halfway through the month. And that was supposed to last me through the rest of the month because at the time I was being paid once a month. And I just couldn't figure out why I kept allowing myself to do this.

And so I was just pretty heartbroken and feeling hopeless. And later that week, I was volunteering with Lonnie. At the time, we were just acquaintances. And at the end of the day, I found myself in a conversation with her and her husband and they were about to go close on the selling of their home after they had already moved into their new home and they were really excited. It had taken longer than they thought it would and they said the only way that they had been able to do that

is because of Dave Ramsey and Financial Peace University. And I was like, oh, Dave Ramsey, I've heard of him. I've tried to read his book. I've tried to read his book. I haven't gotten very far. And I was like, I could use some help. And I thought that I was being super nonchalant. But she saw right through me. And I think that was definitely a God moment. And rightfully so, she saw right through me, because not only did I only have $14 in my account, I also had $30,000 plus in consumer debt

and was at the bottom of the financial barrel, if you will. And that day ended with two practical strangers crying in the parking lot because she offered to send me to Financial Peace at her church. And I was crying because I think I was so relieved that someone saw a solution to my need that I didn't know how to get. And she was crying because I think she recognized the need because they had been there before. So I went through financial peace. She became my accountability partner. She helped me set up my first budget. She took an hour out of her work week every week to sit down with me and go through numbers. We became fast friends because nothing is

makes you a faster friend. Nothing says friend like budgeting. Like budgeting, right? Here are all my personal finances. And her husband and she gave me the opportunity to start babysitting their children, which is essentially what funded my first emergency fund. And then about a year later, I got a job offer in Texas. And so I was moving away. And we were in Alabama, that's where I'm from, at the time. And so I was moving to Texas and she and her husband gifted me with a thousand dollars to furnish my apartment, help me get started. And she gave it to me at one of our budget meetings. And we were at a restaurant, you know, out in public and we were both sobbing as she's

giving me this a thousand dollars. And we found out later that the restaurant owner thought that she was like firing me or something. So that happened. And so we maintained a relationship, had biweekly calls. I was in Texas for three and a half years. We had biweekly budgeting calls. Obviously, we have grown very close to her family by this point. And earlier this year, I was feeling the call to come back closer to home. And also, working here has been a dream ever since I went through financial peace. So I applied and got a job offer with Smart Dollar, which is super exciting. And she was the first person that I called other than my parents. And she immediately offered to come help me move from Tennessee to Texas.

I mean, from Texas to Tennessee, knowing that my parents probably wouldn't be able to. They're aging. And so she flew out, helped me pack up my apartment, did the 15-hour drive with me, my dog, and my cat. And she was like deathly allergic to cats. So that in and of itself is service enough. And then when we got here, her husband and her children, and she helped me unpack and set up my entire apartment. So it's just a full circle generosity. This lady has just

stayed embedded in your life. Oh yeah. She's not going anywhere. I won't let her. No, I bet. Yeah, absolutely. That's a, that's real, uh, service, real friendship, isn't it? I mean, uh, blow by blow, item by item, line by line has just stayed right with you. So the month that you opened it up and when the story starts, you have $14. How'd you get through that month? Credit card. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Because I started going to, that was the problem, right? But I started going to Financial Peace in September. Okay. And I sat through the first lesson and I was super overwhelmed by the $1 dollar emergency fund i was like i'm overspending by four hundred dollars every single month how am i supposed to save a thousand dollars and so

that's when i went to her crying like i don't know how to do this and so we reallocated some things i had money yeah not spending it well yeah yeah okay all right so she helped you slash the old budget yes she told me i could not go to two um bachelorette party trips that i had already planned she was like you can't go where are you how are you going to pay for it and i was like i don't know and so it was it was great but you need you need someone like that that's going to tell you no lovingly accountability yeah they gotta love you enough to tell you no yeah yeah that's great very cool very cool and now you are uh doing that for thousands of families yeah isn't that interesting yeah it's a really cool full circle story and i think it's such a great story of generosity in a variety of ways um you know i'm in baby step

two so i can't necessarily maybe give $1,000 right now, but I can give my time and my resources and relationship, and that's what they've done for me this whole time in and out. Yeah, very cool. Great job, Katie. Woo-hoo! Good job. Man, that's great.

Good story. Very good giving story. All right, Jill is up in Washington. Hey, Jill, tell us your giving story. Good afternoon, Dave. So my story is January 3rd of this year, I was going on my lunch break and I got a phone call. And on the other end was an alcohol economist crisis representative telling me that my husband, who was working 500 miles away,

had called the crisis line and was in trouble, and he needed to go to a treatment center or rehab as soon as possible. And I'm a strong person, but with that phone call, my world just crumbled. My worst fear was happening, and I had no idea what to do. But thankfully, I had a women's Bible study at my church that I'd been going to for over a year, and there's three women that in that group became my warriors. I reached out to them, and one helped me with my kids that day. Another, her husband had gone through the same thing, and he reached out to my husband. And then the reason for my call is because of my third warrior. My husband had been through treatment plans before, but nothing had worked. And so after a bunch of research, we found a program about 400 miles away that lasted for 10 days. On day three of his treatment,

my husband was told that our insurance denied his claim and we were supposed to be able to pay $10,000 out of pocket for his treatment. I was, oddly enough, at my Bible study when he called me to tell me this information, and he also called to tell me that he was going to check himself out of treatment, and we both knew he wouldn't have made it home if he did that. So my Bible study leader saw me. She knew what was happening, and without question, she said she'd be willing to pay up to $10,000 to help us keep him in treatment. Wow. So he finished the treatment because of that,

but I'm kind of my own kind of warrior as well, and I fought the insurance tooth and nail, and my appeal was approved, so the insurance did end up paying, but my Bible study leader insists on paying the $1,500 balance that we still owed. So he got well. Praise God that my husband is almost one year sober. He sought mental health and is kind of a new person. I have him back in my life, and most of all, my kids thankfully know nothing is wrong. Nothing happened according to them. So we're on baby step two, and we're about to take Financial Peace University,

which we were planning on taking when all of this happened. But I'm just praying for the day that I can pay for someone else's treatment. Amen. Amen. Amen. One year dry. Touchdown. Yep. It's a good thing.

Yes, sir. Proud of him. Tell him we're proud of him. I will. Thank you. Great giving story. Thank you for joining us. Open phones this hour.

This is the Dave Ramsey Show, all about generosity, outrageous generosity. What's your giving story? What has happened in your life that changed everything? Our question of the day comes from Blinds.com. They have a 100% satisfaction guarantee, which means even if you mismeasure, you pick the wrong color, they will remake your blinds for free. You get free samples, free shipping, and with the new promos they run every month, you'll save even more. The promo code is RAMSEY to get the best possible deals. Lance in Florida gives us our question.

My wife and I own a business that we feel is doing great. We're in our second year of marriage and business ownership, and we want to be 100% debt-free. We make a good yearly amount, but we've had to borrow some to get started. Now, I disagree with that. So with the debt snowball, we're not quite sure if we should let some business debts ride out for a bit and focus only on the personal debts. The business has 70,000 in debt and personally we have 246,000 looking for info on where to start the journey. Lance, you don't have any business debt. You run a small business and they don't loan businesses your size money. You have money you borrowed and and in your mind, you categorize that as business debt.

But you're the signature on it. They don't loan businesses your size money. So you have $70,000 plus $246,000 in debt. Just put it all in your debt snowball and work your debt snowball. That's how I would do it. Becky is with us. Becky's in Nebraska. Hey, Becky, tell us your debt snowball. That's how I would do it. Becky is with us. Becky's in Nebraska. Hey, Becky, tell us your giving story. So Dave, I'm actually in Iowa, but that's okay. Our closest big city is Omaha, Nebraska. Oh, okay. Just across the line. Okay, cool. Yeah.

Close enough. How can I tell us your story? So when my youngest son Bradley was seven, he went in for a well child check and we found out through further appointments and testing that he had a heart defect. And so this happened, I believe, starting at the end of October into November into December. And so we were preparing to have open heart surgery for Bradley to fix this heart defect. And Murphy and his entire family and all his cousins came and moved into my house. We had our washer break down. My camera was on the fritz and that's kind of my second side gig. I hit a deer with my van. I lost my eyeglasses. Two other things happened. I just remember that at the time I kept saying seven things. Oh my gosh. And like every single thing felt like it

was like the biggest thing ever. In addition to worrying about Bradley and his heart surgery. So anyway, I was feeling really overwhelmed. I was still working full time, as was my husband, and trying to go to our other kids' activities. They were 10 and 13 and very involved in our small school and small town and preparing for Christmas and everything else. And one day I was at lunch with a couple of friends, and I just was breaking down because I just was feeling the burden of it all. And these two ladies were so amazing. And they offered to take my Christmas list, buy all the gifts, wrap them and deliver them to my house for me so that I did not have to worry about that. Wow. And I remember at the time, sorry, kind of still brings me to tears. So

I remember at the time thinking, how can they do this at Christmas time? They have their own families to buy for and, you know, how can they help us? But I let them and my mother-in-law helped as well. But it was just so amazing that it was one thing that I didn't have to worry about, just off my list. And Bradley did actually really amazing. And they had told us he would be in the hospital for five days. And, you know, who knows the recovery time depends on how surgery goes and everything. And we were actually on our way home from the hospital less than 48 hours after he came back from recovery. Oh, my goodness.

So he did fantastically terrific. And one of the great things is I had texted these two ladies and said, Hey, I sent the story into Dave Ramsey. I'm going to be able to tell this story. And one of the ladies goes, it wasn't much. She said, you're so generous with all your time. And that's way more to me, you know, than just giving some money and i'm like but for me that money at the time was like a huge gift to us wow well and just getting that that uh i don't know that all that work off of you because really going out and shopping and wrapping everything's a lot of work yeah and you know it takes time and at the time i didn't have

it i was still trying to work and do everything else. And it was just like I couldn't even look at my calendar and figure out when I was going to have the time to do that. And, you know, it's not like five minutes. We don't even, we live like an hour from a big city. So if I needed to go to the city and get something, and, you know, we were traveling to the city a lot more. And when you go to doctor's appointments,

then you end up having to eat while you're there and paying for gas. And so there was a lot of other expenses involved. So our money was already dipping down. And we do live in a small town and the people at the school organized a bake sale and got some money from that. And so that was really awesome and helped some too. And then even at my work, I work at a hospital and pretty small hospital, but we have about 300 employees and they put out a request, you know, could people donate some PTO because I had no idea how long I was going to be off and my PTO balance wasn't that high because I'd used a lot for appointments and I got a huge amount of PTO given to me. Well, then when Bradley did so well after his surgery and he, I didn't have to take off two or three or four weeks like we thought I might have to,

another coworker of mine was suffering from brain cancer. And it came on very suddenly. She had some symptoms. They went and they found it, and it was really bad. And she wasn't able to work. And because she didn't have much PTO, she was going to lose the insurance because they didn't have the money to keep the policy going. So I took all that PTO that had been donated to me and just turned around and donated it to her because I felt like they gave it to me and I didn't need it. And so I turned around and gave it to her. And so that was one of the best feelings in the world. And I

remember the HR person at the time kept saying, are you sure that's a lot of PTO and you don't have that much? And I said, but I don't have that much and i said but i don't need it right now and she does and they gave it to me to help me and i feel like i'm supposed to help her absolutely well done i love it great story great story i'm glad little bradley's doing well good stuff thanks becky merry christmas to you thank you for sharing your giving story betty jean is with us in mississippi hi betty jean tell sharing your giving story. Betty Jean is with us in Mississippi. Hi, Betty Jean. Tell us your generosity story.

Hey, Dave. My son, Damien, is there at your show today, and he called me to tell this story. I haven't been telling, I've never told this story. But in 2013, my granddaughter had a birthday party. She was 13 years old, and of course her friends were there. And I noticed one of the little girls, a beautiful little girl, but her teeth were protruding. And we had just had my granddaughter's teeth done, you know, at the orthodontist and had braces put on her. And I said, oh, my God, that child needs help.

And so my husband and I decided that we wanted to help her, but we didn't know whether her parents, you know, her mother would object or, you know. So we went to the school. My daughter-in-law went to the school and asked the principal to talk to the parents. And they said, okay. And so we had her go to our same orthodontist and had her teeth done. And I didn't see until this year her picture. My daughter-in-law sent her senior picture, and she's beautiful, and she's won all these scholarships, and she's in college now.

And it was just something we had to do because I just couldn't see that child growing up, you know, with that problem. Well, it changes her personality. It changes her self-esteem. Yes, it did. Yes, I think it did. And I hadn't seen the child since then. They don't know that we did that. But it just made us feel good, you know, when I finally saw her picture.

And, you know, it just really made me feel so good. Betty Jean, that's awesome now now nobody knows but 17 million people so no no big deal well my son is there and he loves you dave and he just he he's following you every day and so with that's a wonderful thing too thank you thank you congratulations that's a great giving story that is a really good thing you did uh my friends that do dentistry uh all over the nation i've got folks that we endorse and folks i'm friends with all over the nation and they talk all the time about the um that even people sometimes have personality changes uh because of their ability to look people in the eye and the ability to smile

when they get their dentistry right. It's a big deal. It's a big deal. People that have never suffered from it don't know, but that was a great gift. Great gift, Betty Jean. Well done. Very well done. All right, this day is all about generosity. This day is all about giving. Outrageous generosity. Merry Christmas. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, it's Blake Thompson, Senior Executive Producer for the show.

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