The Ramsey Show - App - Special Replay: The Annual Giving Show from 2022 (Hour 2)

Episode Date: December 25, 2023

You're listening to a special rerun episode of our annual giving show. Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the pods moving and storage studios. It's the Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. We help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create actual amazing relationships. Thank you for joining us, America. Rachel Cruz, Ramsey personality, number one bestselling author three times over. And my daughter is my co-host today.

As we take your calls today, we're talking about giving. This is our annual giving show. If you have a great giving story, some outrageous generosity that you received or that you caused to happen, meaning you gave. Hey, we want to hear inspiring giving and generosity stories. The phone number is 888-825-5225. Merry Christmas, America. Tis the season for generosity. This is the place where we celebrate that.

We teach you to live like no one else so later you can live and give like no one else. Generous people make us smile. Generous people make our eyes leak. And that's what this show is all about. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Starting off this hour with a giving story, Ben in Birmingham. Merry Christmas, Ben. Merry Christmas.

Thank you for having me on the show. Absolutely. So tell us your giving story. So this is actually kind of a receiving story that my siblings got. So my parents and our family have been missionaries for the past 20 years. My parents moved overseas in early 2000. But prior to that, my dad, while he was in seminary, was working at FedEx, and they met some friends who basically became really close family friends. And as my dad was working, he kind of made his way up in the ranks at this job where he was working. And when they decided to go overseas, this family friend basically said that because, you know, my dad was willing to give up his career and kind of go overseas to serve, that they were

going to basically purchase cars for all of their children whenever they came back for college. So there's five of us, five children. Wow. So whenever we ended up all coming back, he essentially bought a $15,000 to $20,000 car for each of us. He paid for the insurance for the first year for that car. He paid for basically all the maintenance for the first year on those cars. So kind of over the course of, I would say, probably 10 years, as each of our siblings came back, he ended up probably paying about $100,000 worth of money that he put into buying cars for us to essentially get established and have a way to be transported while we were back in the country and our parents were still overseas. So it's a pretty incredible gift on his part and a pretty awesome story that I've

actually never really gotten to tell a lot of people. That's very cool. I love that. I love the way the whole thing went down it's a friendship and they just admired your mom and dad and the you know nothing you could listen if you want to do something for someone and blow their minds do something for their kids exactly i mean that touched your mom and dad more than than if they'd gotten the money directly or if he'd wrote him a hundred thousand dollar check to underwrite their ministry or their mission work, it wouldn't have meant near as much as what he did. Yeah, exactly.

And basically it provided, because they were still overseas when we would come back for college, so essentially it provided us transportation to get to our school during the semesters, our summer jobs during the summer, to basically go and see our extended family in different parts of the country. Because without that, I mean, my parents definitely couldn't have afforded to buy cars for us whenever we needed to come back to the States for school. Yeah, absolutely. So pretty tremendous, tremendous gift on his part. For sure. Okay, Ben, this might be a weird question in the middle of your giving story,

but some calls we've taken on this show, some people have a really hard time receiving gifts. So how did your parents, what was kind of their posture when this friend came forward and said, hey, I want to give your kids cars when they come home? Was it 100% just they accepted it in this humble spirit? Or did they have any level of like, oh, man, we wish we couldn't do it. We can't do that for our kids and that receiving, you know, because I want to speak to that and encouraging people to receive the gift because sometimes I think people struggle receiving as well. Yeah, I think it was honestly kind of easy for them because I think that they knew that that was something that they weren't going to be able to provide for us whenever we came back to the States.

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

Very cool, Ben. Thank you for sharing that story, man. Absolutely. Appreciate it. Absolutely. Merry it. Absolutely. Merry Christmas. Good stuff. Open phones here, 888-825-5225. Patricia is in Connecticut. Hi, Patricia.

Tell us your giving story. Merry Christmas, by the way. Hi. Merry Christmas, Dave and Rachel. So good to talk to you guys. You too. Thank you. So I was actually the recipient of outrageous generosity that I wanted to be able to share with you guys. And I haven't really told many people this story because I felt like it wasn't my story to tell since I was the recipient.

But it's been two years, and I think it's time for everyone to know that the business that I run was given to me in October of 2020. So I was given a small business, which is actually a self-serve frozen yogurt shop. Oh, wow. So how did that come about? So, yep, so it goes back a little bit further. I got laid off from corporate America back in 2014, and I decided I didn't want to go back to that. So I picked up a part-time job at the local Froyo shop right in town in November of 2015.

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

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

So my bosses decided to reopen. And that's what we did. And then a month later, one of the bosses pulled me aside into the back kitchen, which is never a good sign, right? I was nervous. And he had asked me if I wanted the store, if I wanted to, you know, take the store, be the store owner. And I said, I don't really know what you mean. What does that mean? And he said, we're going to give you the store, but you're going to get this store with equipment that is 11 years old. They've been in business for 11 years. Yeah. I'll tell you what, I want to hear the rest of this and I'm

up on commercial because I don't want to run this into the ground. It's too good. Hang with us through the commercial, Patricia. We'll hear the rest of the story here on the annual giving show on The Ramsey Show. 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, try a biblically-based alternative to health insurance, Christian Healthcare Ministries. CHM is a health cost-sharing ministry that's helped hundreds of thousands of families like yours

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Rachel Cruz, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today. This is our annual giving show here on The Ramsey Show. We're taking your calls with giving stories, receiving stories. This is all about generosity. Live like no one else, and later you can live and give like no one else. We were in the middle of Patricia's story in Connecticut. She left corporate America, went to work for a frozen yogurt shop, and they offered to sell it to her a couple of times. And then during COVID, after going back to work, the owner walks in one day and says they are offering to give it to her. Now, let's pick that story up there, Patricia. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, that's pretty much how it went. So like I said, they offered to

give me the store and the store had been in business for about 11 years already. So of course, the equipment, you know, the machines, all that stuff was 11 years old. So that happened in about August. And sure enough, October 14th of 2020, we closed on the business. Um, I started, you know, an LLC, a new bank account. Um, and I did all that and we actually closed and here I am to, you know, two and a half years later as a small business owner in a very small town. Um, but enjoying every second of it. So, wow. What do you, what prompted them to do that? Uh, I, like I said, they'd offered a few times. I think, you know, when, when customers would come in, I was always there. So customers would say, Oh, is this your store? And I would say, no, no, no. But they would always say, well, you treat it like your store because I had so much

passion for what I was doing. And it sounds silly. People think it's silly. But, you know, at my interview with the store owners when I started, I had told them I treat every job like it's a career. So I'm going to have a lot of passion. I love being around people. Of course, you know, our clientele is generally kids. So I think that after COVID, there was a lot of restrictions. And they actually own a hardware store in the same plaza. So they were really, you know, we all know everyone was stuck home during COVID.

So they were just slammed over there. I mean, they were every day, all day. Everybody was home and at the hardware store. So I think it was just time to figure something out to let it go. Ah, okay. All right. But through your diligence of being so excellent, you know, at your job, you're the person that shined through to receive that, which is amazing. It really is. And it's been amazing. And it's more than just a small business here. You know, it's definitely a family business. I'm actually looking inside the store right now.

My husband's covering for me while I'm on the phone with you guys. My mom does all our shopping at Costco every day. So, you know, my retired mom gets to go to Costco every day, basically a joy for her. And my son does all the heavy lifting when orders come in or takes the garbage out at night. You know, I have a bunch of great employees also. But it's the customers that really make it just really worthwhile. It's definitely what I feel I was called to do. Oh, I think you were. Yeah, you're the backbone of America.

Small business people like you, that's what makes this entire place run. It is not large corporate goobs, and it's not the government. It's people like you that make this country great. The free enterprise system causes people like you to shine, and people like the former owners that were generous to you to shine. Yeah, absolutely. That's incredible. Just handed over a business.

Yeah, pretty cool. That's awesome. Very, very cool stuff. Hey, Patricia, thank you for sharing that. Merry Christmas to you. We appreciate you hanging out with us today. This is The Ramsey Show. Rachel Cruz, Ramsey personality, number one bestselling author.

My daughter is my co-host today. This is our annual giving show, the show where we talk about the power of generosity. If you've got a great story that's inspiring on where you've given or received, we would love to hear it. And you can call us at 888-825-5225. Speaking of giving, this show's free for you on podcast, on YouTube. It's free for you on 680 radio stations all across america tens of millions of you join us every week thank you we appreciate that we are grateful for you but it's time for you to give back you need to go and leave a rating a five-star rating

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We ought to get more of this kind of thing out there in this world today. So open phones at 888-825-5225. All of our callers today will be getting the Live and Give box which has in it the total money makeover book the baby steps millionaires book and a one-year membership to financial peace university this allows you to break this up and give it away a book a book a book a class however you want to do it or use the whole thing yourself the live and give By the way, if you want to buy it, it's only $99 at Ramsey Solutions, and that's about $50, $60 under what all of those items retail for. So it's a good deal, the Live and Give box. One of our traditions on the giving show that we do is we bring on a few of our Ramsey team members,

a few of the 1,100 folks in this building who all practice generosity at different levels and have great stories. But no question about it, Nathan is with us, and Nathan's got a great generosity story. Hey, Nathan, how are you? Good, Dave. How are you doing? Good. Merry Christmas.

Same to you. Merry Christmas. A little nerve-wracking putting on that microphone, isn't it? Yeah, just a little bit. You're doing good. You're going to make it so tell tell us your story man so so my my uh mentor is a guy by the name of uh stan freeze super nice guy i worked with him for uh 10 years and and and he it's like over the years, he's just been so generous with me, but there, there was one instance that it, that it completely floored me. So about 10 years ago, I was, I was working for him and I was actually dating. she is actually now my wife Lauren over here

and she and so I wanted to propose to her and I was just casually talking to Stan about it one day saying because you know back then this was actually before Dave and so I was very stupid

with money so I didn't have the money to buy a ring for Lauren. And so I was just kind of venting to him about it one day, didn't really think anything of it. And then probably about two, three days later, he actually drags me to one of the conference rooms. He says, come here, come here, come here. So we go to one of the conference rooms, and he gives me a box, and he says, here you go.

I said, okay. So I open it up, and it's a really nice ring, and he just tells me, you marry that girl right now. Oh, my gosh. gosh whoa just like that yep yep so he gave you he gave you the engagement ring yes he did wow that's cool yeah he was um because i was just floored and i said stan did you buy this and he said oh no no no i i um i upgraded my my wife's ring, so you can have that one.

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

when she tells me we need to do you know to give somebody money or to do you know to help them out help them move i always listen to her and say okay you you know what you're doing smart man i was about to say the same thing i was like smart man oh that's amazing okay that's what i love about this show though is i'm like all the different ways that people step into people's lives right and intersect them in their stories where they're at and be able to to help right and even something like a proposal to be able to say hey go marry that girl yeah here's the ring and all that so stan stan well done is it still the ring you have your wife sitting over here yes yeah yeah that's amazing absolutely amazing there it is right there i like

it so great all right nathan how long you been with ramsey since uh january all right and tell everybody what you do here i am a a um i'm a a senior writer with the uh content team absolutely very cool well thank you brother for sharing that you did a great job and that's a wonderful giving story a wonderful story yes thanks very cool merry christmas y'all very good stuff fun fun fun that's about as good as it gets i love it hey open phones here at 888-825-5225 theresa wrote in uh from the baby steps community on facebook group if you didn't know there's an official baby steps community with uh i think it's over a million people in it now on facebook uh that's the official baby steps ramsey community i don't know it's called something like that today a family member reached out asking for help they're

truly struggling receiving food stamps but we're desperate for items you cannot buy with food stamps in less than an hour i was able to go through my stockpile and fill a giant ikea bag with every possible item they may need i I'm gifting them toilet paper, cleaning supplies, toothpaste, deodorant, napkins, air freshener, laundry soap, dryer sheets, tissue, trash bags, and about a dozen other household necessities. On my way over, I'll be picking up dog food, a gas gift card, and some gifts they can give each other for Christmas. I'm so thankful for being debt-free and that a bunch of recent overtime is allowing me to help them without it impacting my budget at all I'm finally in the season of giving and I couldn't

be more thankful for that oh I love that isn't that great and even just that a little bit of that convenience where you're like all right I'm gonna just go through my pantry and see what I have here and be able to fill up yeah fill up a bag and be able to give it away well and you can double up I mean you know a lot of people that you know they do the Costco thing and they buy like six jars of peanut butter and so they've got plenty you know so you're not gonna go without that's right that's right it works out you know it's it's uh but just to be able to do that spur of the moment and catch somebody. Katie says, for so many years, I hated December, my husband, son, and sister's birthday, plus Christmas.

I could never do what I wanted. This year, I'm taking five of us to Florida to my parents for Christmas, doing house projects for them while there. Everyone can have what they need and some of what they want for Christmas. Birthday plenty for giving but the hardest part is keeping the list straight check the bank a few minutes ago because it felt too spendy and i had only spent five percent of what was allotted that's weird but good weird keep going it. Yeah, there you go. Well, you know what? It takes the stress off of the holidays. One of the biggest elements of stress is the financial threat of a hangover, a financial hangover that lasts till May when you've got your money under control.

In the name of generosity, right? Yeah, all in the name of generosity. I hated December, she says. Yeah, yeah i get it i completely get that this is the annual giving show here on the ramsey show well it's our annual giving show and all day we've gotten to hear some incredible stories of outrageous generosity this stuff that gets us fired up. It never gets old. Guys, if you've learned anything from the stories we're hearing today, I hope you've learned that giving is the most fun you can have with money, and you'll never have more fun than helping someone else change their life. And one way you can do that is the Live and Give box.

Everyone today has been getting the Live and Give box that calls in with a giving story. This is the box we gave everyone, and today we're offering it. I thought it was $99. This is even more, $79.99. That's $20 off a normal. That's like half price for these items. It's an entire year of Financial Peace University, a copy of the Total Money Makeover, and a copy of Baby total money makeover and a copy of baby steps millionaires if there's someone in your life who needs this and there is

then you give it to them you're going to show them hope you're going to show them freedom they might be the ones calling in on the next giving show because you change their life so get the live and give box at ramsey solutions..com. Super sale on this thing. $79.99 today. You'll get it in time for Christmas if you call in today or click on the website today and get it. Nobody calls in anymore. And again, that's RamseySolutions.com slash box. You know, we used to have people call customer care and order stuff.

I bet there's still a few that do. There probably is. But majority go on the internets. I mean, it's just kind of a foreign thing to do. I said plural. That's what John Delaney always says. The internets. The internets.

Like there's two of them. I know. It feels like there's a lot. I don't know. There's a lot of them. All right. Andrea is with us in San Diego. Andrea, happy Christmas to you merry christmas

merry christmas dave and rachel thanks for having me on the show absolutely tell us your giving story please i have a receiving generosity story my husband and i got married last year november in 2021 and we went through Financial Peace University together and we're on Baby Steps 3B. And he is active duty military and is deployed this year. So last month on our one year wedding anniversary, since he's gone, I invited one of my best girlfriends to go out to dinner with me. I said, come to dinner with me. This is, you know, my treat. Let's just have a good meal and good conversation, you know, get whatever you want. Don't read the menu from right to left. And so we went out to dinner at a really nice restaurant, the type of restaurant where the manager is, you know, roaming around, talking to people and making sure

everything's satisfactory. So the manager comes over to our table and he asks, you know, if we're visiting from out of town, because it was a pretty touristy area. And we said, no, we live here. And so he said, oh, you know, what's the occasion then? And I said, well, it's my wedding anniversary, but I'm just here with my friend because my husband is away for work. And, had a pretty good guess. He said, Oh, is your husband in the military? And I said, yeah, um, it's a big military community here. And he said, Oh, you know, I'm sorry that, um, you guys are apart, but you know, hopefully we can, um, make your meal enjoyable. And he asked me what, what year wedding anniversary it was.

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

the table behind us overheard me telling the manager that my husband was deployed and it was my first wedding anniversary and they had paid for our entire meal. I love it. As they should have. Well played. That's amazing. I thought you were going to say it was the manager that just like, you know, picked it up and just said we got it. But it was another customer there that did that. Oh, that's amazing. Yeah. I kind of thought when the manager was asking like, oh, which dessert did you like? I thought that maybe they were going to comp the dessert. Right. And then my friend and I were just so shocked. And luckily the couple was still there. They were like finishing up. And so I was able to turn around and I just said, thank you so much for, you know, your generosity. And they, they said, no, thank you. Thank your husband for his service. And, um, yeah, we,

I didn't really get to talk with them much, but I asked, you know, if they were visiting or local and they said that they were visiting on vacation and they were flying home the next day and that was it and yeah just like the spontaneity and like the impact like I feel like that is just has such a bigger impact on me than it did them and it's like that makes my first anniversary like so memorable absolutely how long you've been married now uh well last month was our one year anniversary this just happened this just happened wow okay i love that and i love the picking up the bill at restaurants dave you're really good at that like if you see someone you know but i think because i've been the recipient of that not to that extent um andrea like yeah your one year

anniversary with your husband deployed i mean like just over the top. But anytime someone does anything, you think, oh my gosh. It's so shocking to be on the receiving end, and especially with you in all those circumstances. That literally makes you smile for weeks and weeks just thinking about that. Yeah. Very cool. Absolutely. Very cool. Hey, and do tell your husband.

We appreciate him too we love you guys we appreciate what you do for america and um all the men and women like him and like you and the sacrifice that you do for him um being uh at work in quotes and if it's out of san diego then that could mean a whole lot of things yeah that's right so um yeah wow thank you thank you very very much open phones at 888-825-5225 i had the honor of doing some things with seal teams and um of course they're based out of san diego and uh when they're at work uh that means they're downrange. Yeah, that's when it's getting real.

So somebody is, some bad guy somewhere is in trouble. That's what that means. So it's pretty serious. And these men and women, their level of sacrifice, their level of honor, their level of training is otherworldly. It's pretty amazing so anytime you've got the opportunity to bless someone in uniform uh please do it i don't care if it's a police uniform a firefighter's uniform or a set of scrubs sitting there or certainly a military uniform you just reach over and do that every single time and um you know i watched a guy the other day somebody beat me to it i was in a nice restaurant and this guy walked in with a

uh a vietnam veterans hat on just a ball cap just a ball cap and um he was uh elderly i mean this guy was he was uh i had served early in Vietnam, probably. But, I mean, it wasn't 30 seconds before people started lining up to buy that table's food. Wow. I mean, it didn't take but a second. Because you could just look at that guy and go, that's a guy that needs to be honored. Yeah, absolutely. And pretty cool stuff.

There's something that happens, Rachel. You're right. When somebody buys your dinner like that, regardless of whether you're in a position of honor like that or not you just maybe a position of need whatever it is but there's something about food and that that transaction that makes the receiving person feel very special yes absolutely absolutely I know I hate to even say this story because it's nothing compared to the call we just had but when we we had been married about three months had moved to Nashville I guess it's been about four months and we were starting off our jobs Winston and I I mean in our early 20s just doing it we had our budget and we couldn't really go out to eat like you know we were in the Franklin area and living in outside of Nashville and we we kind of were like okay we

can go out to dinner like twice a week it's kind of like our rhythm and we we kind of were like okay we can go out to dinner like twice a week it's kind of like our rhythm and so we went out on a big date night to to puckets downtown franklin yeah uh one night and some friends that we knew family friends they're a little bit older uh than us and again we had just been married about four four or five months and i remember we got waters because we didn't want to pay for a drink like i mean we were like in that that season of life and they paid for our meal and i felt like i won the lottery i was like it's not coming out of our budget like oh my gosh but yeah there's just it takes you off guard yeah there's something there's something makes you feel special i know it's a pretty cool but you

do that great you always are paying for people's meals at restaurant and i just love that i i think it's just a it's a beautiful it's a beautiful thing fun stuff think it's just a beautiful thing. Fun stuff. It's great. It's our annual giving show here on The Ramsey Show. Man, I love generous people. They make us smile. They make our eyes leak. This is The Ramsey Show.