Transcript of The Annual Giving Show: A Celebration of Radical Generosity

Brought to you by the Every Dollar app. Start budgeting for free today. Normal is broken, common sense is weird. So we're here to help you transform your life. From the Ramsey Network and the Fairwinds Credit Union Studio, this is The Ramsey Show. George Campbell Ramsey, personality number one best-selling author is my co-host today. The Bible says that God loves a cheerful giver. Generosity is possibly one of the most important financial principles that you can bring into your life. When you give steadily, regularly, as a rhythm of your life, it changes you. It changes the attitude of your heart, the positioning of your heart. And you move along the spectrum from selfish to self Selfless. Someone that has been giving for a long time and giving a lot for a long time is some of the most selfless, generous people, we call them. And they're the ones that the door for you at the grocery store. They're the ones that help you pick up the cans of soup that are rolling around in the parking lot because the cheap plastic bag broke. Generous people are generous people.

They're more attractive. We all want to hang out with those kinds of people.

They do. They tend to prosper for that reason because they're more attractive. I mean, if you think about it, who would you rather do business with? Let's say your person that fixes your car, someone that has a heart of generosity and the car in the bay next to you is a 32-year-old lady who's lost her husband in the military, and he's donating the repair on her car, and She's sitting in the lobby with you telling you that this guy is taking care of her. Would you rather to have your car fixed there or the guy who is going to squeeze every dime out of every body? We know the difference. You don't even have to know the difference to know the difference. How many of you have met with someone or you just had a conversation with someone and you finish the conversation and you go, I think I need a shower.

You feel gross after.

This is a taker. This is not a giver. This is a parasite. This is not someone that adds value. Gosh, don't we all want to be that? We're inspired by it, and we teach people to live like no one else so that later they can live and-Give. Like no one else. This is our annual favorite show for George and me to get to We do it as one of our last broadcast of the year. Every year, we're heading up into Christmas, where we celebrate God giving his only begotten son for our sins. Those of us that are Christians, that's what we believe, and that's what we know to be true. He gave his only begotten son. God is a giver, and we're made in his image. In our very spiritual DNA, we are designed to be givers. When you're not giving, you're not functioning in your design. When you start giving, you're more passionate, you're more creative. Opportunities come your way because you're more attractive. Your marriage is better.

You're more empathetic.

You're a better dad and a better mom when you give rather than take all the time. The term that everybody throws around that's the opposite of giver is narcissist, and it's way overused. Everybody is accused of being-Label anything you don't like, anyone. Anytime you don't like somebody now, you have to call them a narcissist. That's a rule now on social media, but they're not. You just got your little feelings hurt. But still, that's the opposite, and as Rael said, very self-centered, self-oriented. So today, we're going to take calls and emails and stories throughout the entire show all about giving. So if you have given something and you have a story that will inspire the rest of us to be better givers, bigger givers, more often givers, because we're all in agreement right now, the giving is the best thing you can do with money. It's the most fun you'll ever have with money. The most fun I've ever had with money is when we did a gift in person and you make someone cry because it blows their freaking mind. That's the most fun you'll ever have. I'm known for making people cry, but not for that.

You're going to cry in a good way today.

The good Dave is here, and If you make Dave cry, I guess we'll give you a book. Kind Dave is here. I cried at an Applebee's commercial. What are you talking about, man? I cry all the time. We need to hear from you. We want to hear your giving stories or your receiving stories. Inspire us to generosity today. The phone number is 828-825-5225. I'll try to get it. I'm going to do it. All right. Paredo is with us. Hey, Paredo, What's up? Merry Christmas, Dave. What an honor. It's an honor to be with you. Tell us your giving story.

Sure. A few years back, I was actually the recipient of outrageous generosity, and it's really changed my life. I was a single mom without two nickels to rub together. A lot of times by the end of the month, we were really struggling to get food on the table. A friend told me about a food plant pantry that was out of a local church, so I went to get some food. In line, I had to fill a form with income information to confirm eligibility. When a church volunteer reviewed the details with me, he revealed that my income was actually above the threshold to where they could offer me assistance. I was literally making too much to be that broke. The really beautiful thing is he took the time to actually talk about it with me. He asked me why I was coming for assistance when my income was so high, and I explained him that my mortgage payment was about half of my income. He did say that I could wait around to see if there's any extra food at the end or what they could scrounge up for me around the church, but I refused.

With tears in my eyes, I told him that I didn't want to take food away from the people who need it more than I do, that I was fine because I had a bag of oranges in the car, a half a bag of oranges that I was going to take back to the grocery store to get us through the rest of the month. He paused and he said that he'd like to help me out and ask me to drive around and meet him in the parking lot. So I did as he was getting something out of his car. When I parked, he came over to my window and shoved four crisp $50 bills in my hands, and I just lost it. We cried and prayed together. With this gesture, he actually doubled my grocery budget for the entire month. And you know what, Dave? It was really the catalyst that I needed for my life. I reevaluated my finances and my living situation, and over the next two years, I got out of debt and doubled my income. And to this day, I just remember Mike was his name and just his outrageous generosity and the Holy spirit flowing through as he offered me help without any hesitation or judgment.

Wow.

That's powerful. It really is. You can't help but look for opportunities to do that now that you're on your feet, right?

No, absolutely. I'm glad you said that because Every year, I like to pay forward his generosity and I'll go and tip some hardworking waitress $200 on Christmas, all in 50s. There's something about a $50 bill.

Amen. There's something more about four of them.

Yes, absolutely.

That's powerful. Thank you for sharing that. That's good. That's exactly what we need today.

I already got the grin on my face. God's going to stick there for a while.

Going to be stuck there. God spirit moving through Mike and said, Well, they can't go by the rules. I'm not going to violate the rules, but I am going to go make sure that this single mom gets something more than a bag of oranges.

Do for one what you wish you could do for many. Scale the unscalable.

I love it. Very well done. Well Well played, Mike, wherever you are.

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It's our annual Giving Show. No one stops and talks about it very much, but on a given year, for instance, the year 2025, Americans are by far, no one's even close, per capita and in total, the most generous nation on the planet. Now, it's in vogue to be hating on America, If you're in Europe and you think you're cool or whatever bull crap that is. But the truth is, we're way more generous than you. That's the truth. That's the actual data. Last year, Americans gave over $600 billion to charities and ministries all over the world, from hungry kids to St. Jude hospitals to anything you can think of, where someone's hurting and someone needs some help. American from Americans' pockets, not government programs, individuals privately giving, give more annually than the entire gross domestic product of a lot of countries. That's what we produce here. That's interesting if you think about it, because we are based on a Judeo-Christian ethic, whether you all like it or not. That's the truth. Part of the Judeo-Christian ethic, the Jewish religion, the Christian religion, is built into both of those as a steady flow of generosity, a steady flow of caring for widows and orphans, a steady flow of having a heart for the broken.

It's pretty amazing what we do. No one really talks about it, but it's still there, even in spite of we might not even agree on why it's there, but it's still there and the generosity is still flowing.

Wow.

Was that one year?

That's one year. Wow.

That's pretty impressive. I think even per person.

It's according to the experts at Google. But yeah.

We trust them.

Yeah,. The intelligence is artificial, so be careful. Here's the other thing. That's what's recorded. If it's 600 billion recorded, then we know it's a drill.

If you gave me $10,000 right now, they'd have no way to track it. I think we should test that theory.

Doesn't show up. If you have a 501(C)(3), you file what's called a 990 with the IRS. You file a tax return saying what you have received from others, and that would be one of the places you'd gather this information. But an individual helping another individual or people doing things in cash, no one ever knows that. That only comes under the lens of God's spirit. He sees it, but no one else does. No one else knows it happen. It's our annual Giving Show. John is in Canada. John, tell us your giving story.

You bet. Thanks for having me. Sure. I was on the receiving end So brief summary. I did something very dumb and invested in in something which turned out to be a very elaborate, very well done investment scam. I I always thought people who felt for these things were silly, but I was the silly one in this case. So ultimately, all told, we lost a million dollars. Oh. Yeah. And that's Canadian, so it's like 40 grand American.

So Anyway. That's funny.

John's got jokes. But it was a big problem. So we had to sell our home, which was a big issue. We had about $700,000 of equity in our home, but we still owed about $300,000. So we had to move to a rental, and I thought I would die in that home and be buried in the backyard. That's what I had hoped for, and- It's gone. That was not to be. One day, my aunt comes over, and she's a single lady, godly woman. I never knew what her financial state was because she's not advertising it and whatever. But I think she saved her money through her life. Anyway, super conservative. And she shows her love by acts of service. So she was like, I want to come over, bring a meal for you guys because we have young twin boys that we had adopted through this process or at the beginning of the process. And at dinner one day, she just says, Hey, how bad are things financially? I know something's happened. That's why you sold your home. But how bad is it? And I told her. And I said, I don't know how I'm going to get through Thursday.

And it's Tuesday because I borrowed it. And there was these massive business loans that were $15,000 a month with the payment on them. And that was going to happen for about six more months. So she said, well, I want to help. And I said, really? I was not expecting this at all. Never received anything. And she said, yeah, how many months do you think you need? And I'm like, I don't know. Maybe three would be amazing, right? And she said, Okay, I'm going to write you a check for $5,000 for three months. Every month, five grand. And she ended up changing that to four months. So she ended up giving us a total of $20,000. This was at the absolute lowest point where I was very, very seriously considering bankruptcy. And from her generosity and the Grace of God, we were able to just scrape and claw our way day by day through this mess. Anyway, now we're in a much better place, and we will be debt free sometime in the next six or seven months. Way to go. She was huge. She was unbelievable. Just this silent, generous, kind-hearted lady, never judged what was- You had enough shame without anybody shaming you, right?

Correct. That's where I was. I remember that. I looked in the mirror and I saw stupid tattooed on my forehead. You don't need anybody to pile on to that, right? She just wrote you a check and smiled and brought a casserole. Yeah, I mean, my gosh.

Yeah, and she's done that many times. Keeps bringing over food, keeps doing things. She's showing up for every one of my daughter's volleyball games. She's just there. She's just a presence. Her name is Louise. Louise, and she would hate me saying that because she's very much like, Keep it quiet. But anyway, whatever.

Everybody needs to be more like Louise. That's the moral of the story. John, good story. Thank you for sharing that.

I love that. It's a good reminder that a lot of times that generosity is invisible, and it's from the people who are the quietest. It's not the loud, showy people.

They generally have nothing. That's why they're loud and showy. But yeah. That's how it works. Zoe's Omaha, Nebraska. Merry Christmas, Zoe. Tell us your giving story.

Merry Christmas. Huge fan. Been listening to you since I was 16.

Wow. Thank you. How 17, treating you?

I'm 27 now, actually. No, my story, I was 19, and I had a job way out of my league, but I tried it and I got it. Part of my job was to interact with the elderly people, and For Christmas, I picked people who didn't have family around. In my company, bought hats, mittons, puzzles for those people who didn't have family around to celebrate Christmas with. Moral of the story, I was dropping off one of my gifts to one of my people, and it was actually a younger person, probably '60s. They had kids at home. I walked into their home. I could see daylight through their house. The pair of gloves and hat and other gifts that I gave them I knew wasn't enough. They were so grateful just for that, but I felt called to go and get them more. I went and spent my own money, around $500 on snow pants and snow boots and warm stuff and some Christmas toys for the kids and toothbrushes and stuff like that. While I was at the I ran into two people who I told what I was doing. They also gave me $100 each, so that was $700.

I got stuff for them. I brought it back to them. We all had tears in our eyes.

You were 19 years old.

I was 19, and $500 was a lot of money for me.

It's a lot of money, yeah.

But I just felt like it was right. The feeling that I felt giving it to them, I think, felt better than how they felt, but it felt so amazing, and it's like something I will cherish forever.

Amen. Well done, Zoe. Proud of you.

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Why not be both? Why not? Unhinged generosity is That's a fun category.

Why not? This stranger just had to be at 20 just because somebody song Happy Birthday. Then you find out they were singing Happy Birthday just to get the free cake, and it was really their birthday. But anyway.

And free $5 bill along with it. Not a bad deal. I love it.

Angela is in Wichita, Kansas. Hey, Angela. Merry Christmas.

Merry Christmas, Dave.

What's up?

Not too much. I'm blessed and want to share a story with you. It's something crazy I did.

Okay, do it.

When I was a kid in the '90s, my mom saw Mazda Miata's, and she loved the Mazda Miata. It's a little two-seater convertible. Yeah, I remember. But she never would buy anything like that because it wasn't practical and they didn't have money for things like that. But when I was seven, I promised her that I would buy her one someday. And so fast forward 20 years, and a few years ago, I saw one for sale, and we had just finished harvesting, and so we had a little bit of extra money, and I bought it for her with my husband. And we left the For Sale tag in the window, but we changed the phone number. And so a few days later, we met up with my mom, and we parked it in the parking lot down a few stalls from us. When she pulled up, she saw that it was for sale, and she said, I might be able to buy that Miata. When she called, we told her, It's yours, mom. She was super excited because she had just heard the song, How Do Miracles just happened like that on the radio. Then she got her dream car.

It was a blessing to her.

I like the way you gave the gift as much as the gift. That's pretty funny. So creative. Very creative. It was a lot of fun. It's out of a movie. I mean, you had to know her well I have to know she would act on that, right? Instead of just seeing the sign and going, Well, I'll never call. Then you'd be screwed. You have to figure out some other way to do it. But you knew she'd call that number. That's great.

Oh, yeah. That's so cool.

That's so cool. How old was she when she got it?

She's 74 now. Well, she'll be 74. So 72, probably.

She's still driving it?

She is. She loves that car. I won't say how fast she goes in it, but that's scary. But she loves to drive that around. She still calls it Gigi for God's gift, and she remembers the day she got it and everything. She'll remember that anniversary every year, probably for the rest of her life.

Wow, that's very fun.

That's a great car nickname, too.

Yeah, that's great. Well done, Angela. Well played. That's how you do it, the creative methodology. We did a video, and I'm trying to think if it's posted on YouTube on our massive YouTube channel that has eight bazillion videos on it. But a friend of mine, we probably did this video. Our team did the video with him. A friend of mine found, when he was a kid, his dad sold a antique car that he had had to a friend who collected cars because he needed money. His dad was a pastor, and they didn't have the money to keep the car. So he got rid of the car, feed the kids. And 25 years later, that guy that was the collector still had the car. And my friend went and bought it from him and gave it to his dad. And you talk about eyes leaking everywhere. It was pretty cool. And the guy gave him a good deal because he figured out what he was doing. So he liked the fact that It was a generosity surprise. Yeah, so he made a better deal on it. But he still- Twenty-five years later. I'm trying to remember the model of the car, but it's like a 1930s, 1940s vehicle.

It had been restored and everything, and it was a cool street rod type thing. Anyway, this collector still had the car. He was in the same town that they all grew up in, and he found him and found out he still had it and bought it and gave it back to his dad. It was a pretty cool video. That's so cool. That fits almost with a Gigi story right there with Angela. Well done, Angela. That's well played. Savannah is in Florida. Hey, Savannah, Merry Christmas. What's your giving story?

Merry Christmas, Dave and George. Thank you for having me.

Sure.

My husband and I have been on Baby Steps 4 through for several years, and we listen to your show every day. We've been inspired by your encouragement to be more generous, and we'd heard your suggestions to provide necessities like groceries and gas and tires for the single mom. We were completely sold on the idea, but just weren't sure where to find these neighbors in need. So fast forward to summer of 2022, and we learn about a website called careportal. Org. This is a national care sharing technology that connects a family in crisis with a local church through the professional support of an agency worker. The agency worker vets the needs of the family and then enters the request on care portal for someone like me or any of your listeners to respond to. The site allows you to filter by state and county so that you can keep your support local to your own community. Yeah, cool. The goal is to keep the biological family together and prevent the kids from entering foster care because there's a clear correlation between those kids and an increased risk for incarceration and homelessness and becoming a trafficking victim as an adult.

Sure.

Absolutely.

The personal story I wanted to share is that the very first request we responded to was for a 16-year-old girl whose mother had just died unexpectedly, and her mom was her only parent. Now on the worst day of her life, she has to move from Indiana down to Florida to live with her aunt. She has no community around her in her time of immense grief, and her aunt did not have the ability to provide a bed for her. She's sleeping on a rented air mattress with a hole in it. As God would have it, our son had just been born several months before, and our guest room turned nursery, had a full set of furniture with nowhere to go until now. A volunteer from a local church picked up the bed from my house and delivered it and assembled it for her. This story really spoke to me because I lost my dad at that same age of 16.

Oh, wow.

I can just instantly take myself back to that first morning.

Well, that's how you know this is a God assignment. This is not random. No, not at all. This is straight up. Yeah, that's cool.

Yeah. I remember the comfort that my bed provided me in those sad times, and I just pray that our gift did the same for this young lady. After After that, we were hooked. Three and a half years later, we've responded to dozens of requests for all kinds of things: diapers and wipes, sheets and pillows, car seats, groceries, and even washers and dryers.

You sound like you're having fun.

We are. You are very right. It's the most fun we've ever had with money.

Yeah, proud of you. That's cool. That is very cool. I'm proud of you. It starts with the God assignment that lines up with your personal story. That's so neat.

That was fun. Let's do that again. Then it becomes a rhythm in your life in your budget to go, Hey, we're going to set money aside just to cover needs like this.

Yeah, it does not get old either. It does not get old. Savannah, way to go. Well done. Well done. Thank you so much. How long ago was the bad deal? Three and a half years? Three and a half years, yes. Okay. Then you've just dozens and dozens of times since then, you see the individual request come through. What was the name of that? Correct. What's the name of that portal again? I don't know anything about it, but we'll put it out there again.

Careportal. Org.

Okay, cool. Absolutely. I can't argue with that. That's good stuff.

It looks like a real dialed in GoFundMe because sometimes you're like, I don't know if this is real. I don't know the people behind this, and this seems like they've done all the vetting for you to provide, Hey, there's an exact need here that we know is legit. Do you want to help?

That's cool. I'm not really mad about it, but I don't put any money in GoFundMe.

Not mad at all. Unless it's someone I know.

If I know them, I'm just going to give them the money. I don't run it through GoFundMe.

That helps, too. Avoid all the fees.

If I know what's going on, then I really know what's going on. I don't need GoFundMe. That's a cool service. Way to go, Savannah.

Way to go. I love it. I like that it becomes almost addictive. You go, Where's the next time I can get?

I'll tell you who uses GoFundMe well is Jimmy Darts. Oh, yeah. He does a great job of using GoFundMe. He does a great job. You want to see some generosity stuff? Look that guy up.

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And today we're switching it up with a giving story from Van in Nebraska. Said, I drive her DoorDash as a side hustle, and some deliveries require us to collect the cash in person. Recently, I had a pizza order I delivered to a subsidized apartment complex to a single mom. When she opened the door to the apartment, she had six young kids running around. Her apartment had no furniture, just a mattress in the middle of the room. When she gave me the $40 in cash for her order, I gave the $40 back to her and gave her $60 in cash out of my pocket and told her, Merry Christmas. Earlier that day, I had just watched an interview with Jimmy Darts on The Ramsey Show, which inspired me to give that lady her money back along with a little extra. Now, that's cool.

That's fun.

So he refunded her to the amount of $60 plus the $40 she paid.

She got $100 in her pocket and a pizza. Wow. Yeah. Very cool. Jimmy will like that.

Oh, yeah. We'll send him this clip. He'll be inspired by that.

If you want to learn about generosity and just be following Jimmy on his YouTube show, and he's got a new book out as well about it. It's a good recommendation. He's a friend of ours and proud of that young man and how he's inspired generosity. It's his full-time gig. It's all he does, and he's really good at it. So check him out. Hey, way to go. That's up. Paying it forward and stuff happening because He's out there moving around. He didn't even know what happened. Had nothing to do with him directly. Just him on here talking about it.

Yeah.

So way to go.

Never know who you can inspire with your own generosity story.

Tim is in Syracuse, New York. Hey, Tim. Merry Christmas. What's your giving story?

Merry Christmas to both of you.

You, too. Yes. I was picking my son up at his school about a year ago, late October, and I parked in a spot next to the faculty lot.

I noticed a minivan, and been there It parked there virtually every day that I picked them up for weeks. This one particular time, I just looked over the car, I was bored, and I noticed the tires were virtually bald. I looked inside just to examine it. I didn't know which I'm sure it was or faculty member. I saw two baby seats as well.

I go home, talk to my wife because I was thinking of buying four brand new tires for this individual.

It would have been about 500 bucks, which is about 100 over our giving budget in every dollar. So my wife immediately agreed. We called up the principal, arranged for a exchange.

So I give him the cash and told him to please give it to the individual that owned the light blue, silver minivan.

Did so. Two weeks later, I come back and there were four brand new tires on the vehicle, thankfully. I wanted that to be anonymous, and it was certainly anonymous. To add an addendum, I do know that I received... My wife reminded me I received a bonus January of the following year. So three months later, I received a 750 $50 bonus from work.

Minus tax is approximately $500.

So I was blessed to give that young teacher with two young children four new snow tires. And by the way, we got blasted with snow last year. It a record snowfall, so she certainly needed it.

Well, I like that God goes ahead and gives you a Holy spirit wink with giving you the money right back. I like that. It's awesome.

He goes, Let's do that again.

It's like, Okay, I got to go. Let's try this again. See how this works. Yeah, I like it. I'm going again for that. Yeah. Very cool. That's really cool. Good for you. You do know who the teacher is, though, right?

Yes, I found out later on. It wasn't my son's teacher, but a young A single teacher, nonetheless, and definitely in need of that gift.

Yeah. Way to go, man. That's awesome. All you got to do is keep your antennas up and stuff will step right in front of you and wave at you and go, Hello. Then you go, Oh, Well, that must be my assignment. That's how that works. It's not accidental and it's not coincidental. There's no such thing. Way to go, Tim. Proud of you. Good work. Dennis is in Columbus, Ohio. Dennis, tell us your giving story. Merry Christmas.

Hey, Merry Christmas to you guys. Hey, so we've been out of Baby Step 7 since 2017. And initially, we had somebody going through some issues at one of the children's hospitals here in town. And for Christmas, we decided to donate $1,000 worth of gifts to springboard our Baby Step 7 journey. And ever since we got that bug, every holiday, we would find a local family to ultimately adopt. And then one time, my wife found a church that was helping with foster kids. So we've done that for the last three years. And every year, we've upped it. We started off with five kids three years ago. We did 10 kids last year. And this year, and this year we've done 15 kids. Wow.

Ultimately, through the foster program, probably spending upwards of $2,000 to $3,000 on behalf of these kids.

And the best part about it is it's no more fun going through a toy store shopping for these kids. We probably spend four to five times more on these kids than we do our own nieces and nephews, which is ironic, but it's a blast to be able to do it for them.

Well, as it should be. That's awesome, man. Well done. Yeah. I mean, these kids want for nothing in our family, and we're happy to provide, obviously, wonderful Christmas for them.

But these other kids, we make sure to get everything on their list. It is awesome to go to the register with multiple buggies full of stuff and be able to drop this off at the wonderful church here in Columbus.

Man, that's well done. Good for you guys. Proud of you. Good work, good work, good work. Yeah, our Ramsey Family Foundation works with our team. Our team gets, after they've been with us a year, they get an extra week off of time off to do ministry work. They can take it by the day or by the week, however they want to take it. Our family foundation arranges things where they can go help some ministry somewhere if they want to use their time that way. Just the other day, we had a whole bunch of our team members in the parking lot doing shopping for kids' toys and cars lined up with trunks up. The people would come back, had bought the ones, and they put them in the trunks and people go deliver them. People were using their ministry time. We were funding the kids' toys and all that, and they were in and out of here, in and out of here. It looked like a little flea market thing going on down there in the parking lot, but it was pretty cool.

I love watching them loaded into the giant trailer. It was just all the gifts from all the team members getting loaded up to go give to the kids. That's special to see. Yeah.

This year, it was going into individual cars, but one year, there was a flood in the area, and we were going to that county dropping it off, and we had a big trailer. That was fun. Yeah, the trailer just kept getting stacked and stacked and stacked and stacked. Then we're afraid we're not going to be able to get it all in that trailer because people just keep bringing stuff. It's contagious.

It's contagious. You almost want to up what happened last year. You're like, Hey, let's see if we can do 15 this year. Let's do 20 next year.

I like it. Amy's in Dallas, Texas. Hey, Amy, how are you?

I'm doing better than I deserve, Mr. Ramsey.

I hear you. Tell us your giving story.

All right. We've always We strive to teach our children the true spirit of Christmas, remembering that we are undeserving of our many blessings and that everything we have is truly not ours, but rather a responsibility entrusted to us by God to manage wisely. This beautiful mission began with my daughter back in October. We were just driving somewhere, honestly, don't even remember where. She just said, Mommy, aren't we supposed to always try to be like Jesus and do the things he would do? Of course we are. We are. We are, we are, we are, she replied. Then she just said, I have a good idea for Christmas this year. Naturally, I'm like, Oh, yeah. What is it? Then she shared something that honestly nearly brought me to tears. I might start right now, but well, Jesus teaches us to give first, then save, then spend. Maybe partially you two, Mr. Ramsey, but in that order.

Maybe that's where I got. So we're going to give first.

Yeah. Christmas is the perfect time to do that. We can help Santa by delivering gifts to families who don't get as much at Christmas time. You and Daddy can wear Santa hats, and me and her younger brother can be elves. Of course, tears are coming down.

This is fabulous.

Just to see the pure heart and tenor spirit in a nine-year-old.

How much did you do? How much? How many dollars you put out?

We gave about $6,000 worth of gift. I love it. Yeah. And so he just said, Can you do that for me? And of course, I'm like, Absolutely, we can. Yes, let's do it. I actually live in the Dallas area, but my hometown is Middleville, Michigan, which is a small city about 30 minutes south of Grand Rapids, Michigan. Unfortunately, we have four close friends there who connected me with some contacts, helped us identify and adopt four families to bless this Christmas.

That's so perfect.

Those elves are working hard.

Well done.

Sometimes kids are the best example of pure generosity.

They don't have... That's cool. Well done.

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Welcome back to The Ramsey Show in the Fairwinds Credit Union Studio. This is our annual Giving Show, where we take calls from you and you tell a giving or a receiving story to inspire us to be better and bigger givers, because the most fun you'll ever have with money is to learn to give it. You will enjoy yourself a lot more in this life if you learn to do that. George Campbell, Ramsey personality, number one best-selling author, is my co-host today. Katherine in Texas says, After listening to your show, I've become more acutely aware of the people who need to take short term jobs to make ends meet. You often suggest DoorDash or Delivering pizzas. Or when I'm out and about and I see someone working by picking up or making a delivery, I quietly slide whatever bills I may have in my wallet into their hand and say, just in case one of the deliveries forgets to tip you. I love that. By the way, we haven't covered this in a while, but we probably make it. It's a perfect time to do it is if you When you are having someone deliver food or something to your house, DoorDash or whatever, certainly pizza, that thing, I want you to ask the person how they're doing.

If they say, Better than I deserve, that means they're working that job to get out of debt, and you have to double their tip.

That's the rule. We didn't make it up.

It's a federal law.

It's constitutional.

It's federal law. It's a constitutional amendment. It occurred. Just double their tip if they say, Better than I deserve because you're trying to help them get out of debt. They're out there bringing you your poor little hungry, malnourished person. They brought you some food. I don't know, you probably wouldn't have made it if they didn't come by, you're down to your last calorie, and then they come in and they bless you. You say, How are you doing? Better than I deserve is code for, I'm working this job to get out of debt, and it's a signal for you to double their tip.

It's a cry for help. Give me more tips so I can get out of that faster, please.

Now, here's what's going to happen. Okay. Word is going to spread among delivery drivers that have no idea about Ramsey.

You say this, you get a bigger tip.

You just have to use this hack, this code. So always say this phrase. They're like, What? Say it. Trust me, say it. It'll get around. It'll get around. That's okay. That's fine. Still, they're out there earning some extra money, and still, I'm fine with it.

They're still hustling.

If the Ramsey hack for tipping drivers gets out there, worse things could have happened. We could have inspired worse movements, George. It could have happened. Tell us your giving story, 828-825-5225. Sue is in New York City. Hi, Sue. Merry Christmas. Tell us your giving story.

Merry Christmas. A few years ago, I had gotten the opportunity to donate a kidney to a stranger. Wow.

Wait a minute. This This is not an opportunity that I've run into. How do you run into this opportunity?

I have to go back. My parents have modeled amazing generosity and love to people. That went into my portfolio. Then they also gifted me with amazing DNA. When my sister-in-law's sister had needed a kidney, I had started to test for her quietly, but I didn't match her. Her hospital said, Thanks for trying, but she has matches. It ended. I was a little disappointed because in my mind, I had already done it. When I kept my eyes open, kept praying, and when another story came across my Facebook feed of a retired police officer from my hometown, I thought, Hmm, this is interesting. I called his hospital and I said, Listen, I know I don't blood match him, but is there a way I can help this guy? And they said, Actually, we participate in a voucher program where you can donate to a stranger, and then he gets a voucher for the next living kidney that matches him. I said, Hey, let's go for it. I started testing. I didn't tell anybody because I wanted to make sure I was going to pass. And so started testing and passed, obviously. And then once I passed all the tests, they said, Can we tell him?

I thought, I was uncomfortable. I didn't want him to feel beholden to me for anything, but I said, Sure. He has been nothing but gracious. But the amazing part of all of it was I didn't know he was attending my church. It's just so crazy. His daughter worked at my husband's school. The way our lives intertwined, it was just very, very strange. I didn't know him before this, but I get to watch his journey. He did get his kidney six months after I donated mine to someone I don't know who got that. I get to see him living his best life. It's amazing. Wow.

That's incredible. That's pretty generous. Okay, so what's the recovery time for you?

It It was two days in the hospital, about 10 days, and I'm just going to say it was discomfort. I've always worked out hard and stuff, so it just felt like I had probably did too hard at the gym. I was used to that discomfort, so I don't feel like it was pain. So maybe 10 days of that. Then by day 10, we were down at the boardwalk walking at the beach. By six weeks, I'm a cyclist, so I was back on my bike. Then actually five months after that, my friend and I decided to a 100-mile bike ride. It really hasn't changed my life at all. I just want to inspire people. I mean, you can do crazy things. It's amazing.

That's very cool. Very cool. That's legit. That's very inspiring. Sue, that's something else. Well, like you said, it's DNA. It's the generosity your parents planted in you.

There's layers of sacrificial generosity. That's up there.

An organ, that's a different one.

With that recovery time, all to be generous, While still living. I didn't know about this Pay It Forward kidney voucher program. That's fascinating.

Never heard of that before.

Pretty cool.

Yeah, wild. Lynn's in Sacramento. Hey, Lynn, tell us your giving story. We can't hear you. You better start again because all I heard was you dropping the phone. Are you there? Three, two, one. You're on hold till we get you straightened out, kiddo. Stephanie's in Chicago. Tell us your giving story, Stephanie. Merry Christmas.

Merry Christmas, Dave. Well, first of all, this is a real gift to me because I get to talk about my son. My giving story begins with God, as all the best stories do. My husband and I are blessed with three beautiful daughters. And in 2024, we prayed on whether or not we should have a fourth child, and felt like God answered our prayer, and we became pregnant with a son. He was diagnosed with trisomy 18 early in my pregnancy. That was a very difficult walk. I'll tell you, God was paving the way for us because we found a really amazing church before all this happened, and those people just surrounded us with prayer through everything. We received a miracle when my son was born alive at full term, and he lived one week before he died. I don't need to say this, the most difficult thing a parent can experience. Absolutely. But the generosity that flutter in around us just took my breath away. My husband's boss and coworkers showed up with cash and DoorDash gift cards, and the small groups we belong to at church sent money and gift cards just so we wouldn't have to think about meals because it wasn't the money we needed.

It was just the peace and the comfort.

The gap, the margin.

His work also submitted a claim for life insurance that we didn't even remember we would have. We were able to donate a percentage of that to the NICU that took care of him at Lory Children's Hospital, to try and support other families that are going through the worst days of their lives.

Amen. Wow. That's a tough one. But people step up when they see their friends hurting. They step up and they're generous. Nobody talks about this enough. You're out there, boys and girls. I know you're out there. We talk about you and to you all the time.

George Campbell-Rams, the person Reality is my co-host today. We're taking calls from people who gave or received something to inspire more generosity, outrageous generosity. If you live like no one else, later you can live and give like no one else. It's not unusual for someone to do their debt-free scream on the debt-free stage. We asked them, Why? What was your why? What was it that drove you to do this? They said, We wanted to be in a position to give more. Giving has always been fun for us, and we want to do more of it. We hear all the time on the debt-free stage. Kevin's in Springfield, Missouri. Hey, Kevin, Merry Christmas. Tell us your giving story.

Hey, Merry Christmas, guys. A real long story short. We're watching a young boy overnight. A girl that we're watching him for, works overnight and has nowhere to take him. My company I work for called Keep Supply. The director of sales heard about the story, and my company He had decided to give her a whole entire Christmas and her son and give her a bunch of cash, and it's unbelievable.

Wow. That's cool. Does she know this yet?

Yeah. So far, we've furnished her whole entire house with donations from people I work with because she had nothing. She knows that part. She doesn't know about Christmas for her and her son yet, but I'm sure she will have to think after today.

It's the gift that keeps on given. She shows up from work every time. There's more stuff. That's awesome. Yeah. How did you get everyone involved at work? Was it once word spread? Everyone was like, I want in.

Yeah. My wife works for Life Church, and so she just gave her life to Christ a few weeks ago. I told the story to our director of sales, and we're also a smart dollar company, by the way, Dave.

Thank you.

I told the story to our director of sales, and he said, I have an idea. And he came back, and I know, we have a team called People and Culture, and they decided to do everything. So washer and dryer, brand new washer and dryer, $500 gift card, $100 gift card from Aldi, just crazy stuff.

Man, That's off the chain. Wow. Very cool, Kevin. Well done. You get to be right at the epicenter of the whole thing, right?

Absolutely. It's so fun.

Yeah, very cool. We'll see some big smiles. That lady, there's No telling where she'll be in 20 years because somebody gave her a boost, right?

Absolutely. Yeah, sure.

She's a warrior princess fighting, working nights just to keep her head above water, right?

Yes, sir. Yeah.

Man, you're a good man, Kevin. Your company is good people. Well done. That's how it's done. When we the people take care of we the people, it's an amazingly efficient process as opposed to extracting taxes from someone, and 2% of it actually ends up going to help someone, and 82% is lost somewhere down a toilet in Washington. What would happen if we the people took care of we the people completely, and you made Washington irrelevant?

That'd be pretty cool.

That would be like Awesome. Some of those people could get a different job.

That's true. Think about how many St. Jude's you could build. It's pretty wild.

It's crazy what you could do. Vanessa Vanessa's in Toronto. Hi, Vanessa. Merry Christmas. Tell us your giving story.

Hi, Dave. Merry Christmas. Thanks for taking my call. Sure. I have a story about receiving money for school and then paying it forward, giving money for school as well. So when I was young, my grandparents' birthday Christmas money would give to my parents for school. They saved it over the years and invested it for me. And then when I was 15, my grandma passed away in 2001, so she didn't quite see me go to school. But two years later, I did go to university. So the money they had given me, along with $1,000 that I received from a family friend, were both a huge blessing. They helped me to pay for my first year of tuition, which was amazing.

Very cool.

Yeah. So then after university, got married, bought a house, started a family. Fast forward to 2017, and we found the Ramsey Plan. We read the total money makeover and started paying off debt. We had just a couple of car loans to pay off, but we were working on that. At the end of that year, my mom passed away unexpectedly. Oh, my. Yeah. So it was a hard time, but we had some generous family who, instead of donations, gave us money to put into my kids' education funds because my mom was big on education for her grandkids. So we received some generous money there to put in my Kids Education Funds. And it will grow because they were five and under at the time. So it will grow over the years and be quite a bit for them when they go to school. So in 2018, we had our debt free except the mortgage milestone, and then so because we were debt free, we were able to be more generous. So I really wanted to pay it forward to other family to help them go to school. So I decided to just do an informal scholarship for family members.

My My grandma's name was Rose, my mom's middle name was Rose, my middle name is Rose, and my daughter's middle name is Rose.

Got a feeling this is the Rose scholarship.

The Rose scholarship, yes, in honor of the four generations. In 2021, when my niece on my husband's side went to college, we were able to give her the first Rose scholarship of $1,000.

Oh, very nice.

Yeah. So when we presented it to her, we wrote a little letter with the meaning behind it. Her mom read it out loud at her graduation party, and as she was reading it, a butterfly appeared and was flying around while she was reading it out loud. So it was a really beautiful moment that signaled our loved ones were with us during that time. So it was really beautiful. Then, yeah, we plan on doing it in the future with more nieces and nephews, and then maybe down the road outside the family, too, just to keep paying that forward for education.

Amen. Well done. Very well played. I like it. I like it. It's often how we learn to... We often give in a place where someone has helped us in the past. To flip it over and... Larry Krabs says, A wounded healer. Sometimes the very wound that you got is a place you can bring healing to someone else. The very time that you received something is the very time, the very way you turn and able to give something in that same area. Sometimes that's just an assignment, just a God assignment, and sometimes it's just a place in your heart, and probably the same thing.

That's a cool to think about is where are those wounds for you, where you can help someone else heal in your life? Because that's where it's going to be most impactful.

When did somebody do something for you that made a big difference and so forth? It's amazing to me that if you look around, like on Craigslist or at a garage sale or something, the car you can find for $3,000 to $5,000. If you give a car to someone, say a single mom that doesn't have a car, and enable her to get a job, enable her to get her dignity, enable her to get moving again, it changes her life. If that $5,000 car does that for one, that means it's only $50,000 to do it for 10. That's all it is.

The ripple effect of that is mind-blowing.

It's incredible.

Lots of churches now have started. Larry Burkett started this many, many years ago. He's passed on. He's in heaven. But I'm sure he's pleased from his perspective, the number of churches that have followed through on what he talked them into doing. They have a car ministry, and people donate their cars. By the way, if you donate a car, you can take a tax deduction for the market value of the car. If you got a car that needs a little bit of work and the church has a ministry, they'll fix it up for somebody and give it to somebody, but you can donate it at full price. It's pretty cool. If you got a... Maybe you bought a car this year, and if your church has a car program or you know of a church that has a car program, that's a good way to do it. When you are donating something of any kind, a piece of real estate, a stock, a car, anything like that, what you paid for it does not matter in terms of the write-off. If you're donating it to a qualified 501(C)(3), where you can take a write-off, a Ministry, a charity, whatever, then you get to write off full market value.

I was talking to a guy the other day that he had Exxon stock that he had paid nothing for, but he probably had... His basis in it was probably less than $50,000. It was worth a million dollars. Wow. If he sold it, he's got gains on every bit of that. But by donating it, he gets to write off a million dollars. And so he donated it.

And be generous in the process. That's a win-win.

Yeah. You get market value write off on whatever it is you donate. It's pretty cool. There's no better time to start protecting your home than right now. This month only, my listeners can take 50% off any new Simply Safe home security system during their last chance Black Friday sale. Do not miss this deal. I've recommended Simply Safe for over 10 years, and it's simply the best security system you can get for your home. That's because Simply Safe helps stop crimes before they start. Their AI cameras detect threats early, and then live agents stop them by speaking directly to intruders, letting them know they're being watched and that the police will be dispatched. Simply Safe stands behind their security with an anti-theft guarantee and no long-term contracts. That's why Simply Safe was named the best home security of 2025 by US news and World Report. So don't miss SimplySafe's biggest sale. Head to simplisafedirect. Com and claim 50% off today. That's simplisafedirect. Com. There's no safe like SimplySafe. On the debt-free stage in the Ramsey Solutions lobby on our annual giving show, one of our own team members, Nicole O'Hern, Product Manager with Ramsey Plus team, which means she works on every dollar, among other things these days, her husband, Perry.

You've been with us how long, Nicole? Two years. Two years on the Ramsey team? Yes. All right. We hear a rumor that you have a great giving story.

Yeah. Actually, two years, right before I started, we were on the stage and we did our debt-free scream. Then a couple of months being on the team, one of our staff meetings, I heard a story of a coworker giving away a car. I had said to Perry, I'd be like, That would be really cool to do that one day. Fast forward, we found out I was pregnant. We know the story, just because you're having a baby doesn't mean you need to get a new car. But we found out we were pregnant with twins. Oh. We had one already, and we tried a bunch of different variations of car seats. How could we fit three car seats in the back row of our car? We just couldn't figure out a way to make that work. We were like, Okay, we got to upgrade cars. We need a car that can fit all the kids. We started looking for cars. We had our beta car. We were like, We could sell it. It had 200,000 miles on it. We could sell it for a thousand, $2,000. Then I heard one of our coworkers, his daughter was looking for a car.

It was her first car, and she had a small budget. I heard the stories of some of the cars that they were coming across. I said to Perry, I was like, Why don't we give our car to his daughter. We were like, it was an easy decision. I don't think there was much discussion. It was just timing of when we want to get the new car and all that jazz. Once we decided we wanted to do it and when we could do it, Perry came up with a great idea of how we wanted to gift it to her.

Basically, what we did was we had him have a dad-daughter meeting talking outside about budget and college and everything like that. We parked around the corner. I had bought a keychain with her name on it. The plan was we were going to be walking with our kids around the corner, and then essentially, I acted like I found a pair of keys in front of their house. I just said, Oh, excuse me, did you guys drop some keys? She looked at her dad and she came out. No. I go, Are you sure there's a name? I don't know whose name this is. Then she looked and looked at her dad and was like, What's happening right now? Then we got to break it to her that that was her car and we were giving it to her. That's so fun. That's great. What car is this? It was a Hyundai Santa Fe. That's a great teenager car. Yeah, it's still working. It's still driving. She's had some good road trips in it, so we're happy. Yeah, good. That is so cool. Well played, you all.

It felt just so great to be able to be in a place that we were able to just give it and not have like, yeah, does that money, would that money be great? Sure. We have twins. There's a lot of expenses, but It was so much more worth it to be able to give that and be in a place in our life now, thanks to getting out of debt, that it was an easy decision. So that's great.

Amen. Well, it's fun that in this environment at Ramsey, that stuff happens all the time. You've got that in front of you to prompt you and go, Oh, we could do that, instead of where it's never going on. There's stuff like that happens around here every day, and it's just this place is very weird.

Weird as normal around here.

We're in a good way. But yeah, that's fun. Way to go, you all.

What did you guys get?

What car did you buy for the twins? Well, she wanted a minivan, and I fought it really hard. I did everything I can to boycott that. You got three kids, dude. You're in the minivan zone. I somehow won, and we got a really good deal on a Volkswagen Atlas.

Yeah, beautiful car.

It has the two rows. I've explained to him it would be so much easier if we had a a minivan to get to that back row.

He'll give in eventually. Eventually, we all succumb to the minivan. That's so fun.

It's just a phase. You don't have to live there forever. It's just a phase of minivan phase, and then you can move on to other stuff. Very good. Congratulations, you all. Well done. Hey, thanks for telling us that story. That's absolutely very, very well done.

It's close to home in these walls.

Good stuff. The number of times... The first time we ever gave a car, it was a A disaster. We did it at the Christmas party. The lady has now passed away. Her name was Joy, and she'd gone through a nasty mess of life, a nasty divorce, and she was broke. I'm like, We're going to give her this car. I bought this car, and it wasn't super, like $8,000 or $10,000. At the Ramsey Christmas party, we always do some bizarre giving and stuff. We bring the thing inside the building where we were doing the Christmas party. They said, You can do that, but you have to unhook the battery because they're afraid it's going to blow up or something in the building. We unhoked the battery. When we hooked the battery back up, gave it to her, and it wouldn't start. Oh, boy. So all the guys end up pushing this car outside, and we get the jumper cables out of my truck and jump off. It took the edge off the gift. It's like, Okay, this is being such a piece of crap. It won't start. We just I gave it to you. Good luck with that.

Are all the team members now watching this? Oh, yeah. It's like,. We got a car. We got a car. It won't start. It was so anticlimate. It was so awful. Yours was It was a lot better. Yeah. Theirs was a lot better. Walk around the corner and give them the keys. That's just perfect. You should have just said, battery's not included. You got to get your. Yeah. No, I was just mortified. Oh, gosh. I have all these plans. The way you see this in your head, it's going to be glorious. It's epic. It won't start. Oh, my God. Oh, man. It was awful.

It was horrible.

Lynn is in Sacramento. Merry Christmas, Lynn. Tell us your giving story.

Well, first of all, thank you very much for reinforcing the generosity piece. I really have taken it to heart. Go ahead. I really believe in being generous with words of gratitude and praise with people. So this past Thanksgiving, when I was doing my Thanksgiving cards, I decided to think of someone that I know who has a hard job and is really dedicated to it. And not only that, this person smiles and waves and is cheerful. And I don't really know this person Personally, I'm just slightly acquainted with him, and he is our trash collector. And because we live in a wooded area, there are times when the bears get into our neighbor's trash and he gets out of his truck to- Get more zone duty for being a trash collector. Yeah. Some of these neighbors have not gotten into the program about how to alleviate this issue. But anyway, he just doesn't. He doesn't complain. He smiles, and I've asked to help, and he kindly dismisses me, and he just goes without a task, without a complaint. One morning before Thanksgiving, he arrived at the bottom of our driveway, and I greeted him. Through the window of his truck, I handed him a Thanksgiving card.

But anyhow, I told him, Yeah, go ahead, open it. And he opened it, he read it, and he saw the $10 or $20 I put in. And then, surprise, he got down Out of his truck, and he's in his 50s, he gave me a big hug, and with tears in his eyes, he told me that no one had ever thanked him like that in his 20 plus years of service. I just thought, Well, It really goes to show how a thank you in a small gesture for someone who does a seemingly minor job day in and day out.

It's not minor if it doesn't get done.

Exactly. I just think of all these folks who do a lot of the dirty work, and they need to be remembered and recognized and thanked at any time of the year. Anyway, in my email, I had also added that. There's a message that I play in my head from time to time, and it's from Abraham Lincoln, and he said, Whatever you are, be a good one. That certainly applied to our beloved trash collector.

Very cool. Well done, Lynn. Score. I got to say, my wife, she never misses the postman this time of year and never misses the trash collector.

She's watching.

Yeah, she takes good care of them. They know they're liked, and Lynn's the same way. Way to go, Lynn. It's a good reminder, folks. Good reminder. Yeah, that's good. Very good. Our annual Giving Show here on the Ramsey Show.

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All of that if you pre-order right now at ramsey solutions. Com/store. What no one tells you about money. Abby is in Atlanta. Abby, tell us your giving story. Merry Christmas.

Merry Christmas, Dave. My giving story really started almost Almost 11 years ago, believe it or not. I had a little girl. Me and my husband have been very blessed with two children, but unfortunately, we had some major complications. When our little girl was born, she was born at 25 weeks gestation, and she weighed one pound and eleven ounces. We were in the NICU for over a hundred and ten odd days, but she thrived and did amazing. I really had no complications, except she was born early and she had to hang out in the NICU for some time. So whenever we consulted with our doctors about four years later to try to add to our family, they thought, yes, that was a fluke. That won't happen again. Four years after that, our little boy came along, but he was born even earlier at 23 weeks gestation, weighing one pound and eight ounces. But this time, he was born with a grade 4 brain bleed, which typically leads some major complications as far as the inability to walk or talk. While we were going through that, just during his time in the hospital, one month, we just had more months and we had money.

We could have asked a family member to help us, but instead, we just decided to pray, and we just said, God, please provide for us for this month. We were able to cover all of our bills, but we had just one bill that was left. We had prayed about it. A few days go by, and our father-in-law actually visit a local auto parts store here in our hometown. The man doesn't know us directly, but he knows our story. So he asked how we're doing. He pulls out $200 to give to our father-in-law. Our father-in-law, of course, gives us that money and then shares with us. He wanted to just to bless us in our story. But I think the key here is that we were blessed through a man who was obedient to God. That's really what I want to focus on as far as this story, that our bills were covered because someone decided to show some gratitude and be giving. While that is the highlight and the peak of the story, to wrap the story up, even though our little boy had a grade 4 brain bleed, he's a walking and talking miracle today.

We have both of our Children have no signs of prematurity or Niki stay, and they are both thriving and living perfectly normal lives and enjoy listening to the Ramsey show.

Praise God. That's awesome. What a miracle. That's amazing. Absolutely. Good, good, good. Wow. Absolutely. Right when you're at the peak of stress and someone steps in and says, Well, we'll cover a little bit of it for you, they don't understand that it's like everything.

Absolutely. It's life changing, and we were just able to, again, see that God will provide for you.

Amen. Another faith builder, if you will. Absolutely. Good story. Well shared, Abby. Well done. I'm so glad the kids are great. That's a great part of the story as well. Robin's with us in Vermont. Merry Christmas, Robin.

Merry Christmas to you.

Tell us your giving story.

Sure. We've been on the able to generous side and also been recipients of generosity. So we've been able to give away two cars. So in both cases, we were at a situation where we had two cars, but we didn't need the second car. So in the first one, we were seminary students. And there was a family from Kazakhstan that had come to the seminary in the States, and they only had a bicycle to run all their errands. And so we were like, That can't happen. So we were able to give them one of our cars. And Then a few years later, we were in another situation where we had two cars and we didn't need two cars. There was another family. They had just had their third child and needed a larger vehicle. We were able to give them our van so that they could get started off great on that. But what I'd really like to focus on is where we were recipients. When we moved, we were moving to the mission field in Vermont and realized how much more expensive it is to live here than it is in Alabama, where we're from.

We couldn't do Christmas for our family that year. A Sunday school class in a church in Birmingham, Alabama adopted us as their project, and they just overwhelmed us with their generosity with these amazing Christmas gifts that year. We are just so thankful, and to this day, still remember it, and that was almost 20 years ago.

Amen. Amen. That's cool. It's very cool. It's something we're Back on the car thing, there's something weird about giving away cars. I've done it several times. You have to wait $3,000 or $4,000 is one thing. You have to pay $3,000, $4,000 car. It just seems like a big thing because it's a big thing. The thing is big, physically. You're just like, it's a different feeling. It's a different feeling for the recipient, for the giver, for everyone involved, and pretty cool stuff. That's neat that you were able to do that and then turn around and the Sunday school class takes care of you. You ended up after the... Are you still missionaries?

Yeah, not technically anymore. We're still up here in Vermont. Yeah, that's what I meant. We ended up taking an established church after planting two churches. Now We're just in the regular.

Okay. All right. Your husband's a pastor? He is, yes. Okay. Very cool. Very cool. Well, it's easy to spread the word then with that and let people know about generosity and you did a good job sharing it today. Congratulations. Very well done.

Very well done. I love that.

I feel like there's two parts to these stories. One is you have to have the ability to see the opportunity, to look up and out, and you need to do that from a place of strength, because when you're stressed out about your own money problems, you're forced to look inward. You got to see the opportunity and then have the means to do something about it.

That's part two. When you're worried about your own food, it's hard to worry about somebody else's. Technically, you really shouldn't, by the way. You should take care of your own house household first. That's a biblical standard. So feed your kids and don't let your kids be hungry while you're feeding somebody else's kids. That's weird. That's backwards. It's not what the Bible calls for. But work, live, give like no one else. And put yourself in a position, as we say, when you get to baby step seven, where you're 100% debt-free, house and everything, then you can be just outrageously generous. And by then, what feels like a little bit of money to you will be a lot of money to somebody else, or a little bit of help to someone else, be a lot of help to someone else. It feels different because the ratios are different in your life.

I love that these stories. It ranges from $40 to $4,000, and it was never the amount. That's it.

I want to encourage people.

It's an awareness.

Yeah, I want to encourage people. If you think, Well, I don't have $4,000 to give. I only have $40. Hey, give a little until you can give a lot. You don't know how it's going to affect the other person.

If you're walking a store, you're standing pumping gas, you're doing whatever, and a thought comes to you that that person over there needs help, that was not a thought. That was God's voice saying, Go help them. So be aware, be looking up, keep a little extra cash in your pocket, be thinking about this stuff. Generosity is everywhere. Opportunities are everywhere.

So be ready when it comes.

You already know the power of generosity and the best gifts make an impact now and eternally. That's what preborn does, and you can trust them to do it well. They don't just offer free ultrasounds. They We support pregnancy clinics across the country with ultrasound machines, training, grants, and evangelism tools. They're faithful with each dollar so moms in crisis can see the life in their wombs. Here's the truth that brings eternal life. Because here's the thing, when a mom sees her baby on that ultrasound screen, she chooses life 80% of the time, and your gift of just $28 covers the cost of one ultrasound. Or if you're able, you can purchase an ultrasound machine through pre-born and have it placed in one of their clinics so women will choose life for years. Your donation brings hope and truth when mothers feel alone and fear is loud. So I'm asking you to give to preborn today, even just $28 to provide one ultrasound. Go to preborn. Com/ramsey or call 855-601-2229 because every baby saved is more than a life preserved. It's a life changed. That's preborn. Com/ramsey. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show in the Fairwinds Credit Union Studio.

It's our annual Giving Show. George Campbell, Ramsey personality, number one best-selling author, is my co-host today. We're taking calls from you where you tell us your giving stories to inspire generosity. We would love to hear from you. So many years ago, we started doing this show. I've been on the air for 35 years, so we started doing a giving show at the Christmas time. Blake Thompson, in those days, was our producer. Blake's been working at Ramsey for 30 years. He was the producer in those days. He was from Kansas City originally, he grew up in Kansas City. So he brought up, he goes, You need to know about this guy named Secret Santa. There was a guy between the years 1979 and 2006 that would dress up, and nobody could figure out who he was. He dressed up as Santa Claus. He would go to an area where there had been a tragedy, New Orleans after Katrina or something like that. Maybe he went to Columbine after the school shooting there in the infamous school shooting and so forth. He went around as Santa Claus and handed out $1,000 to somebody, and then to somebody else.

He'd give out $10, $20, $30, $1,000 walking around, $500 or $1,000 at a time. He'd just walk into a store, look at somebody and go, This person needs some help, and Jesus loves you, and gives them some money. Well, it got to be where people knew what he was doing, so he had to get his buddies from Kansas City to come as they were on the police force and escort him so that he- No one tackled them, try to get money. Get 30,000 bucks out of the guy, whatever. But he ended up giving away over $2 million as Secret Santa over the years '79 through '06. The Kansas City Star kept trying to figure it out. Finally, he came out and told us who he was because he was dying of cancer. Oh, wow. He passed away in '08. But before that, we got to meet Larry Stewart, and Blake got in touch with We had Larry come on the air and tell the whole story on Secret Santa. There's a secret santa, I think, dot com or whatever. He wanted to franchise it. He wanted a movement. He wanted everybody to go get a Santa costume and give away $10,000 all over America.

He wanted to give away 20 million where he only gave away 2 million. It all started... He was a beautiful man, just a neat guy. But it all started, he was in Alabama and he was broke and he was homeless and he was hungry. He went into a old-fashioned diner and went up to the bar, the diner with the round stools thing, sat at the diner, ordered food, ate the food, and then acted like he forgot his wallet. He was just basically... He wasn't dining and dashing, but he was just telling the guy that ran the thing. He said, I'm so sorry, I forgot my wallet. The guy running the diner to save Larry's dignity reached down under the stool and said, Hey, I think you dropped this, and had it him 20 bucks. He let him keep his dignity, and he gave him the meal, in other words. Larry never forgot that. He said, If I ever make any money, I'm going to do stuff like that my whole life. We had him on there and he was telling all these stories. It was fabulous. He was in the cable TV business and became very wealthy, obviously.

He always remembered that time that guy reached under the stool and magically found a $20 bill that wasn't there a few minutes ago, right? To take care of him. He dressed up as Secret Santa and gave away over $2 million, a thousand and $500 at a time.

That is wild. What a cool story. This is before the advent of social media.

Yeah, and he kept it.

He's like the original Jimmy Darts.

Nobody knew who he was. Kansas City Star tried to follow him around. They tried to figure out where he was going. He went to New York City after the Twin Towers came down with the terrorists and all that, right? He's walking around in New York City and giving away money, and people were like, Who is this guy?

When you stand out in a crowd, people want to know who is this guy.

I mean, well, you're Santa, and you're giving away $1,000 pops. People want to know. They never could figure it out until he decided he was going to come out and tell who he was. Then they did this blast. Everybody started doing stories on him then, and we got in touch with him. He came on. He came on here, I think he came on here two or three times before he passed away. He lived a while with his cancer, but he was pretty incredible. Pretty incredible. Look him up. Larry Stuart in Kansas City, Secret Santa. By the way, you all could go do that. Yeah, somebody, a lady called in a while ago. Her kid wanted to be the elf and her Mr. And Mrs. Claus, right? They did it. Kind of did it. They weren't too secretive. They weren't real secretive. They weren't completely dressed up with the full- It's up to you if you want to be in full costume or not.

I know Dave prefers to be in costume most of the time.

Oh, absolutely. Yeah, definitely. I'm big on costumes, George. But the one in the world. But the thing is, you could do this. You could just... You could been on a little Santa.

I'll be your elf. That's all I'm saying. If you want to be Santa, I'll volunteer to be the elf. It's your call. Or we can just be in plain clothing and give money away. That's fine, too.

George, you're just messing up this whole thing.

Well, it reminds me, last year, I went to Waffle House, and I got to give $10,000 away at two different Waffle Houses, and that was about the most fun I had. So thank you for the gift of that. We got with the Ramsey team, and they said, Let's do this.

We got the video, got the crew out, and snuck You gave away... How many different people got the $10,000?

Well, eventually, we gave it to a certain employee at Waffle House. We knew that there was a story there, and it was-The whole $10,000 for one person? Well, we gave her, I think, $2,000 just to her. We covered everybody's meal inside of the Waffle House, which was $47. It's amazing. Waffle House is like a time capsule. Then we just gave it to a few different employees, and it was a really special time.

Now, we got that. That's probably sitting on YouTube, isn't it?

Oh, yeah. That's on our Ramsey show, Highlight YouTube channel. Just search Waffle House on there. It's in your neck of the woods in Antioch, where you grew up.

Okay. That's a good Waffle House. Solid. No, there's no bad ones.

I was tempted to eat, but we were on the clock, so I thought, All right, we'll get out of here.

There's no bad ones. There's no bad ones. Another fun one we did around here was we figured out, because we weren't getting people out of debt, that the people that when a debt goes bad and it's in collections, they will sell that debt for somewhere around 3 to 5 cents on the dollar. So 50 bucks will buy a $1,000 debt, in other words. And debt buyers buy that, and then they go try to collect it and make that 97 cent- Make a profit off. 97 cent swing on the ones they can collect. And the reasons they can't collect, they can't collect. They can't collect. We got in touch with one of the brokers of the debt buying stuff three or four years ago, I guess. I don't remember what your 22, 23, somewhere in there. And I told him that we wanted to buy it to forgive it. We were going to just forgive the debt. He got all excited and helped us. We were able to buy $10 million worth of debt for $259, two and a half cents on the dollar. For $250,000, we got $10 million worth of debt, 8,000 accounts. We have a thousand people.

We gave each of our thousand people 10 people to call and tell that their debt had been forgiven in Jesus' name. That was our team's Christmas present.

I made a few of those calls.

It was a lot of fun. People didn't even believe you. They're like, What? This is some Send me an email. I want proof. That was the best part.

Well, we had to make a website to send them to to say, No, this is legitimate. Go to this website. We will prove it.

When you get down, you've been kicked, and you've had those collectors calling you. It's hard to not be sent. It's been seven years. Yeah, but it's like your medical debt, your car repo debt, your credit card debt that you hadn't paid in six years or whatever, it's forgiven. Zero. You don't know a thing in Jesus' name. Man, the stories were great. The people working here love making their eight phone calls each. That's for sure. It was a lot of fun. You can do all kinds of fun stuff once you get this thing moving. Generosity is a big deal, boys and girls. Buying and selling a home is a big deal, and you want an expert in your corner fighting for you to get the right deal at the right price. That's why we only recommend Ramsey Trusted Real Estate Agents. They're handpicked pros who know their stuff, listen to your needs, and have your back from the first call all the way to closing day. To find a Ramsey Trusted agent near you, visit ramsey ramseysolutions. Com/agent, ramseysolutions. Com/agent. It's our annual Giving Show. Thanks for hanging out with us and telling your giving stories.

Rose is in Colorado Springs. Merry Christmas, Rose. Tell us your giving story.

Thank you for taking my call and let me tell my story, Dave. Sure. Last year, two days after my husband and I decided to divorce, I fell at work and I tore my ACL and a bunch of other ligaments in my knee. I needed a massive surgery, and this was one week before Thanksgiving. I was set to have my surgery the day after Christmas. And four days before Christmas, my ex-husband emptied my house of furniture, basically took everything except for the the dining room table of the bed and the Christmas tree. One of my friends decided to take me away for a night. And while we were gone, another friend of mine refurnished my entire house for me. I came home and I had couches and chairs and a recliner for my knee surgery, rugs, throw blankets, everything. She completely redid my whole house so that when I came home from surgery, I came home to furniture.

Well, you pick better friends than husbands. Well done.

Absolutely.

Oh, wow. That was a happy ending to a sad story.

Wow, man.

How are you doing today?

I got my first night away, and then I got a new house. It was awesome. I'm doing really good. My knee's healed up and life's going on.

Good for you. As it always does.

Good for you. This will be a merrier Christmas, hopefully.

You'll have the opportunity to that for someone someday, won't you?

I will, and I'm looking forward to it.

Amen. Great story. I like it. That's cool. Friends got your back when you're down. You got your knee busted and the husband takes off. This is like a country song, right? Yeah. But your friends got your back.

Apparently a key to the house. That's the other thing they needed. They got in there somehow. It's impressive.

For real. Very cool. Lydia is in Pittsburgh. Merry Christmas, Lydia. Tell us your giving Tell us your story, please.

Merry Christmas. This all started about two months ago for us. My one-year-old daughter was having respiratory issues, so we took her to her pediatrician. From there, we went to the ER. Then from there, she got a helicopter ride because they saw a tumor in her chest. Once they did further scans, they saw the tumor was basically taking up half of her chest. It was almost completely compressing her one lung and pushing her heart to the wrong side of her body. By the end of the day, we had met with every doctor, and there was a plan for surgery to remove the tumor the next day.

Wow.

The next day, she ended up having surgery. How old was she? Well, she had surgery the day before her birthday. Her It was her first birthday.

Oh, my goodness. It's a baby. Okay.

Oh, my God. Yeah. Tiny little thing. She weighed 16 pounds. That was all. The next day, she had surgery, and thank God, everything went as well as it possibly could have. The tumor ended up weighing a pound of those 16 pounds. We were told it had about a Coke can of fluid in it, but they were able to remove it all with no issues. And about a week later, we found out the tumor was completely benign, which was the biggest blessing.

Amen.

So the next day, we celebrate her first birthday in the hospital, and now she's doing better than ever, except for a little bit of fear around doctors. But during that time, there were hundreds of thousands of people praying for her. Her nurse It was made her birthday very special, and it was really inspiring to see the community that came around us. While we were in the hospital, our old pastor actually came to visit with his wife to pray for her. After talking to them for a bit, we actually learned they had a hectic year themselves. They had been in the hospital with one of their kids almost every month. Their house needed numerous repairs, and not the cheap ones. They weren't sure how their bills were going to be paid that month. We set aside money for giving each month. We had some saved up, and my husband felt we should give them $1,500, so we did. This stressed me out a little bit, just with the unknown of our own medical bills. We're also having our second child in about three weeks, so we got that coming up. But we had no doubt it was the right thing to do.

Felt like one of those God nudges and just trust me in this. We did it anyway. God is really faithful, and he didn't even let a week go by before we were blessed with that money in return. We had many people bless our family, and most of them we didn't even know personally or had many of their own struggles. I've always loved giving, but I've never been in a situation where the blessing came back to us so quickly, especially in our time of need. But God's grace and provision has amazed us, and that's never been more clear than the past two months of our life.

Amen. Amen. You all had your boat full, that's for sure.

Oh, my gosh. Yeah, just a little bit.

What special people you are. You're in the middle of a A huge crisis with a little baby, and yet you can lift your eyes up and look over and see someone else's need.

That's pretty cool. Well, I can put that on my husband. He's the one who caught on to it. I was a little preoccupied, but- Yeah, amen.

But it was awesome. You're both people of high character and integrity and generosity. That's a beautiful trait. Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Well done, Lydia. Well done. Good story and good, obviously, powerful gift. So very, very well done. Kelsey in Georgia says, Recently, our daughter came home and said she noticed a boy in her class couldn't eat lunch because his lunch account wasn't paid. Each day, my daughter or one of her friends would get an extra tray to give him. After hearing this, we decided to contact the school and paid off his lunch debt and even added some extra funds to his account so he could eat lunch at school. There we go.

That's good. That's a good reminder. Lunch debt is a crazy thing that even exists in schools. But if you can just contact the school and say, Hey, I want to cover everyone's lunch debt. How much is on the tab? I'll cover it. That's a cool thing to do.

It wouldn't be... It's not going to be $100,000. No. That's not a bad one.

But it's a stressor for that person's life going, Oh, my gosh, I owe the school money so my kid can eat. That's just wild.

I've watched people many times find a young couple that were struggling. They're behind on their utilities and things and just go pay their electricity a year in advance. Again, 4, 5, 6,000 bucks in most cases, and you can pay the whole year out and just go, This is the whole year, and put enough on file with the utility that a year or plus or minus. But somewhere, and people's, Hey, that changes your year. It's a big deal. It moves the needle with people. There's all kinds of stuff you can do, guys, all kinds of giving that's out there that's possible and probable. We jumped on our Ramsey Facebook page. If you didn't know, there's a Baby Steps Facebook page and the Baby Steps Community Facebook group. We pulled them, said, Which type of giving feels the most meaningful to you? Financial was 13%, helping someone directly, whether it's with money or time, 72%. Just volunteering time was 11%, so that's a good response. Have you ever regifted a Christmas gift you didn't like? 100%, I would. Yeah, 87% said they had. No, it was 13%.

They were just too nice.

Yeah. I left a bottle of wine at my friend's house about a month and a half ago. On purpose? Yeah. We took wine over there to have dinner, and I left an extra bottle. It was a nice bottle. He came to my house this week for dinner and brought me my bottle. The same bottle? Yes.

Wow.

He knew it was a re-gift. He knew it was a re-gift, gift, gift, re-gift.

It's just going to keep making his rounds.

It's pretty fun, though. What motivates you most to give? A desire to help someone in need. 37% my faith or my personal values. 48% Seeing the impact, 7%. It makes me feel good, 8%. Do you tip at kiosk screens and non-sit-down restaurants or coffee shops? 64% never, 31% no. Or me, sometimes. George, 100% no.

Here's the thing. Here's the tip off that bothers me. They start being nice to me as soon as they flip the screen around. Their attitude changes.

Until then, they weren't nice.

Until then, it was just a transaction But all of a sudden it's, I like those glasses. Hey, how's your day going? I go, This is clearly a ruse to get me to give you a tip.

I'm going to spin the old iPad around here.

Because you want generosity. It's a matter of the heart. I want to be inspired to give, not forced like an obligation. That's a good example there. But I love this one. My faith or personal value. Half of people were motivated because it was a value in their life. And guess what? You get to choose the values you have. That's pretty cool.

Yeah, I If you don't like them, you can choose another one.

I would choose generosity. So try that out. Make it a value. Choose generosity. And then make it practical. Put it in the budget and say, We're going to give this month. If you're a person of faith, this should be a part of the rhythm of your life already.

Absolutely. When you're tired of feeling stuck with money, there's just one solution. To get different results, you have to do something different. No one accidentally wins with money. You have to have a game plan, and that begins with our get started assessment. Go to ramsey solutions. Com/start, answer some questions, and we'll show you what What steps to take next. Don't stay stuck. Take control of your money starting today. Go with ramsey solutions. Com/start. In the lobby of Ramsey Solutions on the debt-free stage, Will and Madison are with us. Hey, guys. How are you? Hey, great to see you guys. You, too. Merry Christmas. Where do you all live?

Merry Christmas. We cruised with you all in March, so we're so glad to see you all again.

I love it. Very fun. Where do you live?

Salemburg, North Carolina.

It's about 30 minutes outside of Fort Bragg.

Oh, yeah. Fun. Very cool. All right. How much debt have you guys How much it paid off?

Right at $336,000.

I love it. How long did this take?

Right at nine and a half years.

There you go. I like it. And your range of income during that time?

At the start, we were just under 100,000 at 98, and then at the end, we were right at 185,000.

Okay, cool. What do you all do for a living?

I'm an army veteran, and I actually just recently took a promotion to a training manager at the world's largest dialysis provider.

Oh, very cool. Thanks for your service.

I was in IT for 20 years.

I was a web developer and then a production systems engineer, but recently, I just started my own sports cards business.

I like it. Cool. All I'm guessing nine and a half years, $330,000 in North Carolina, you paid off your mortgage. It's the house. Yeah. Looking at weird people. Super weird people. Way to go, you guys. Way to go. All right, so tell us the story. How did you get connected to Ramsey and decide to pay off your home?

The connection to Ramsey started about 20 years ago, actually. My brother Elliot, he works here at Ramsey.

Okay. I wondered why half the crew was out here. That's right.

When Elliot was in the Marine Corps, he introduced our entire family to the total money makeover, and it transformed all of our lives. While I was in the army, I actually paid off my student loan, $60,000. I wanted to come and do my debt-free scream with you all then, but army life is a little hard to get time away sometimes. This is a huge bucket list thing for me to get to be here with my husband doing this together. When we met and were dating, of course, we had the typical money conversations because I needed to feel that out. When he started talking to me about how he budgets and how he lived on the dollar menu at McDonald's when that existed, and he only had this much to get through the week, I said, Oh, my gosh, do you do the Dave Ramsey plan? He said, I have no idea who that is, but I do the Bible's plan. I said, That is totally the same thing. We can continue dating.

That's amazing. No offense.

Big fan now.

I think you're Jesus Trump. I got Jesus Trump. That's what happened. I saw that. Trump card. That's great.

What a flex.

That's a definite flex.

Then nine and a half years ago, what happened?

Nine and a Half years ago, I found my dream home, and my dream man here gives me pretty much anything I want. As soon as I laid eyes on it with a porch that Scarlett O'Hara would die for.

That's beautiful.

If you're watching on YouTube and on Spotify, you can see it.

Oh, yeah, she would. It's an American Four Square, built in 1917. It is gorgeous. It needed a few things when we moved in. It's the mortgage, a ton of renovations that it needed, and also a minivan to fit those three little ones in. I lost that battle.

I know the guy earlier, he won his.

I lost mine.

Yeah, it's okay. You won overall. Yes. That's good. Wow. You got the house, but you got a plan, and you guys together immediately Immediately say, All right, how fast? So 10 years, you pay off your house.

Yeah, the goal was to get it all done by the time we were 40 years old. How old are you? We're both 39. Yeah, you did it. He is two weeks older than me. I always said I wanted to marry an older man. There you go. He's two weeks older than me, and we made that final payment on our mortgage on my 39th birthday.

I like it. You made it. Well, congratulations you two.

Thank you so much.

Very, very well done. All right, so what's the house worth today?

It It's right at like 450 grand.

Okay. We live in a very small town, so it's hard to get comps.

Yeah, but that's probably close. It's a beautiful home. And your nest egg and your retirement accounts, how much have you got in there?

With everything, it's like 250K.

Okay. All right. So you're about 800. You're bumping up towards a million dollar net worth already, and you're not even 40. Way to go, you all. That's right. Proud of you. Good work, you guys. Very good work. How does it feel to be completely debt-free?

I was telling her earlier on the way up here that it just feels like a weight off our chest. We still grind. Like I said, start my own new business this, but just able to be more present with the kids and just there at every ball game and there for everything.

Just really, like I said, just a weight off our chest.

Yeah, way to We got the kids here, too, right?

We do.

They're right here. Now, how old are they? Because I'm curious where they were along this journey.

Bring them up and introduce them. Let's learn their names and ages.

We have three kids, so that means I stopped keeping track of all of this after the first one or two. Eleven Sargent is 11, Pemberly is nine, and Royal is eight. Very cool.

And you cash flowed the three of them along with this journey. Oh, yes. Paying off the house in the van.

We absolutely did.

I see Sargent's got the straight out of Baby Step 2 shirt on, which is fantastic.

That's right. Debt free in $1,000. He helps dad with the sports card business. They do that together.

That's awesome. Way to go, you guys. What do you tell people the secret to getting out of debt is being 40 years old, 100% debt free.

I think a huge part of it is that age-old principle, Stop buying things you don't need with money you don't have to impress people you don't even like.

Amen. Well, you guys have managed to work together very well, too.

Yes.

Thank We're doing our Giving Show today. You have any comments on generosity while you've been going through this process?

We actually would love to share a story with you all. I'll intro it and I'll let him finish it. My husband has been for a long time a huge basketball fan and a basketball coach, and he coaches at a place called Falcon Christian Academy, where the players are all from Falcon Children's home, and they all come from really rough backgrounds. They don't have parents or their parents aren't fit to raise them, or their parents are in prison. That is his ministry, and that is where he gives back. I'll let him take it from here, what we've done and what we're going to do going forward.

I run a church basketball league, and we have a charity game where we raise between 1,500 to 2,500 every year. I just say, Hey, here's the money that the children's home can do with it whatever they may. The thing that started a fire in my heart about it was I live on paydays on the road. The candy bar. The candy bar, sorry.

The payday candy bar.

I just was eating one day, driving the van to an away game.

The rustling of the candy bar, just all the kids were like, What you got there?

I was like, Oh, they're like, Are you going to eat that?

I was like, No.

Apparently not.

Yeah, not anymore.

Just one of them took one payday bar, and it was almost like breaking bread, and they shared it with each other.

I went home, told her that story, and tried not to get choked up.

No, that'll get it going.

They take good care of all their needs and everything, but there's just-They don't have any luxuries. They have wants.

Actually, on the way up here, we were organizing to get a shoe drive to get all the kids.

They didn't have proper...

Not all of them have proper basketball shoes. One kid in particular is having to wear a size nine, and he's actually an 11 because I gave him a pair of my shoes and he fit them perfectly. I used to work at a shoe store a long time ago. I was like, Oh, that works. But we just do different things with Falcon Christian Academy.

Now you don't have a house payment, so you can do whatever you want. Yes. Yes. Amen. All right. Congratulations, you guys. Very proud of you all. Well done. Well done. Will and Madison, Sergeant Pemberly and Royal, right outside of Fort Bragg. 336,000 paid off in nine and a half years, making 100 to 185. House and everything. They're weird. They're debt-free. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream.

Got it. In three, two, one. We're debt-free. We're debt-free. Yeah.

I love it. It's like some kids are getting some new shoes this Christmas. Along with some payday bars.

In Jesus' name. I love it. Well done. Well done. It's one of the best times of the year, but it's also the time of year when people let their money get totally out of control. Everywhere you look, it's just buy, buy, buy. So you start swiping the credit card, and suddenly it's January, and you got a mess on your hands. Don't let happen. Tell your money where to go instead of wondering where it went. With our budgeting app, EveryDollar. Everydollar not only helps you stay on budget and in control of your spending this holiday season, it also helps you find extra margin in your budget, thousands of dollars of it. Every day will coach you to build better money habits and attack your goals faster than ever. While most people will be starting in January with a taste of regret in their mouth, You'll already be winning. Start every dollar for free by downloading the app today. Our scripture of the day, Luke 2: 7-9. And she gave birth to her first born son, and she wrapped him in clothes and laid him in a manger because there was no room for them in the end.

And there were shepherds out in the field keeping watch by night, and an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them. Billy Graham said, The very purpose of Christ coming into the world was that he might offer up his life as a sacrifice for the sins of men. He came to die. This is the heart of Christmas. They just handed me our debt-free screams for the year. This year we had 84 people do a debt-free scream in the lobby here on the debt-free stage, totaling $20,363,762. Wow. $363,762. So $20,033, $20. 3 million. That's a lot. That's just right here on the stage.

That's just the ones we actually had come stand on the stage. We know there's many more out there who became debt free this year following the principles, and I'm inspired by that.

Every dollar, we had $3. 5 3. 5 billion in dollars saved and dollars paid, money saved and debt paid. Just the people using every dollar, 3. 5 billion changing position this year. That is wild. It's hard to wrap your brain around. We actually failed. We were trying to get 4 billion, and we didn't make it. But we'll make it next year, so it's okay. I hate it when we fail like that.

Well, if everyone used every dollar and used it accurately, report the numbers, we'd be there. Oh, easy. Enter your numbers in every dollar so we can track It's really fun. Yeah, come on, people. We want to celebrate you.

It's our annual Giving Show. Brittany's in Wisconsin. Hi, Brittany. Merry Christmas. Tell us your giving story.

Hi, Dave. George. Thanks for taking my call. I'm excited to tell you this story. Sure. So earlier this year, we had some changes in our financial situation. You're breaking up.

You're breaking up. You had some changes in your financial situation, and then what?

Yeah, And then all of our side hustling was just to break even. So we were in the red for expenses to income ratio. And so at that time, cash flow in a vehicle just wasn't possible. So one of our friends who is now primo to go serve our country, he gifted us his truck. And technically, it was just for whatever we were able to sell or broken down beater for. So it was a very, very, very generous trade. It's a very nice truck. We're driving it down to Chicago this weekend, and we have no worries in the world. It's very reliable. It's got heated seats. It's awesome. Wow. Yeah, very, very thankful for that. And then shortly after that, my car completely totaled itself. It broke down. And so my father-in-law, my husband's father, he retired. And so he had his daily driver leftover, and he gifted us that as well. Now we are a two-vehicle family. Just a couple of nights ago here in Wisconsin, it was negative 15 in the morning, and I started it up. That car ripped on the first drive. We're very thankful to have two working vehicles.

Amen. Yeah, that's a big deal. I'm thankful that people are in your life that looked up and saw it and said, Hey, we can help. Yeah, it's a big deal. That's awesome. Amen. Brittany, thanks for sharing that. That's a big... That's awesome. Very, very cool.

It's amazing how a car can change your life. Get you from A to B reliably.

What a cool gift. It's come up a lot today. Sometimes we have more car stories than others, but today is a lot of car stories.

We get how life-changing that can be.

Kari is in Delaware. Hi, Kari. Merry Christmas. Tell us your giving story.

Merry Christmas, Dave and George. Thank you so much for having me. My husband and I, we have followed your plan since 2012, and we are debt free. Over the years, we've tried to model generosity for our daughters. We have three girls. A couple of weeks ago, our youngest daughter, who is 16, who's a junior in high school, started telling us about how one of the band members in her marching band, her sister, who's 20, was just recently diagnosed with cancer, and that there's an upcoming band trip to which they have every year. And the students in the leadership of the marching band were putting together, scraping money together to help with the next installment of the band payment that was due. And so I was really impressed. My husband and I are listening. I look at my husband, I'm like, I asked how much the next payment was, and she said $300. And I said, What if we just paid it and made it like a secret Santa and you guys, you could just take it in? And my daughter was happy, but not shocked. She was like, That would be so amazing. And I was like, Yeah.

So a couple of days in by, my husband came home from work. He had stopped at a local hardware store. And while he was at the register, the cashier was putting a collection bucket out for the sister who was sick. And it reminded my husband. And he came home and he told my daughter and myself, and he was telling, and my daughter said, Yeah, actually, the girl's parent had just lost their job. It was one of those things. God gracious. When the storm hits, right? I thought So it got back to all the times that I've listened to you when somebody calls in and they're stressed about your debt and then somebody's sick. And you always say to them, Focus on getting better. The debt, don't worry about that. And it rang in my head. I looked at my husband I was like, You think we should just take care of the balance of the trip? And it was only $600. I was like, Absolutely. My daughter was excited. She had actually used some of her own money and made a donation to the GoFundMe for the sister that's sick. So long story short, I emailed you guys, told you about the story.

I was really impressed by all these kids and my daughter, just the spirit of giving. And then Monday, after I emailed the show, my daughter called me from school. She had gone in to go pay the balance, and the band teacher was so impressed. And then he said, Actually, it's been taken care of with all the generosity of the kids coming up with their money. And my daughter was like, she said to me, It's already been taken care of. Can we just donate for groceries for a month? And I said, Absolutely. So they're going to do a little Christmas party tomorrow night for her friend and the marching man, and she's going to give her a still a secret Santa thing, but this way, groceries will be taken care of. So the girl can go on the trip. She has spending money, and the family will be able to not have to worry about the cost of the trip, but also groceries for a month. I said, This is the whole point of doing this is that... Because after the first time my daughter said it to us, my husband's like, This is why we're following this so that when we're not here someday, our kids can continue to be generous.

It doesn't have to be always a monetary thing. You talk about holding the door for people and just smiling and being kind. That's our goal as parents is that when we're not here anymore. Our kids will continue the legacy and just be good people.

Absolutely. They'll pay it forward. Way to go, Kari. That's beautiful. Well played. Kirt is in Venice, Italy. Wow. Merry Christmas. Tell us your giving story.

Hey, guys. Hi, guys. Dave George. I'll be real quick. Another grocery story. I'm over in Italy. My wife always wanted to be here, so here we are. We're at the grocery store. We go to checkout. There's a gentleman in front of us. You could tell he had just come from work. He was all decked out, went to pay for his groceries, didn't have any luck. His debit card didn't work. He pulled out another one, didn't work, got real nervous, asked if he could run outside real quick to find his wife. So he did. And we're all watching him, and everybody's accumulating at the checkout, and everybody's getting nervous. So my wife and I are like, We'll just pay for his groceries. Let's just take care of that. So we did. Then we took care of ours, and we ran his groceries out to him. All right. Obviously, the guy was very appreciative. Everybody in line was appreciative. Here's where it gets really good. A couple of days later, we get a call from my daughter. She's in Park City, Utah, just came out of a Walmart. She had a new used phone that she got from her father-in-law, and she went to pay for her groceries.

Two little kiddos in tow. Her Apple Pay hadn't been entered in her phone yet. This is like two days later, Dave and George. Didn't work. She didn't have her debit card on her. She didn't have enough cash. The guy in back of her insisted on paying for her groceries. We paid €22 for the gentleman's groceries. This gentleman behind my daughter, two days later, $160. My daughter was absolutely in tears. But can you believe we do it here, didn't tell a soul, two days later, My daughter has the exact same experience, and the guy behind her steps up and purchases her groceries. Like, what a great story.

I absolutely can believe that. That's so cool. I absolutely can believe that. Wow, way to go. Very cool.

Just a little God nod there.

Amen.

That's really neat.

Well, guys, remember, the greatest gift of all was Christmas when God sent his only begotten son. Yeah, he came to die for our sins. Remember that. That puts us hour the Ramsey showing 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.