It’s Our 2024 Annual Giving Show!

Speaker 1 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's the Ramsey Show, where we help people

Speaker 1 build wealth, do work that they love, and and create actual, amazing relationships.

Speaker 1 George Camill, Ramsey personality, number one best-selling author, is my co-host on this very special edition of the Ramsey Show.

Speaker 1 Today is your favorite and one of our favorite shows to do in the entire year. The entire show is dedicated to giving.

Speaker 1 We're going to take calls from people who tell us the story of having received or having given at some point in their life just to inspire generosity because we teach you to live like no one else so that later you can live and

Speaker 2 give

Speaker 2 like no one else.

Speaker 1 There we go. Look at that.

Speaker 2 I nailed the pop quiz.

Speaker 1 That was it. You nerve her.
You knew the answer, right? Real nail biter.

Speaker 1 Give you the look, and you just pick it up. That's what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 Well, I was just thinking I should have brought some tissues because usually these stories make my eyes leak.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I cry at an Applebee's commercial, so we can be predicted that I'm going to have a problem.

Speaker 1 But yeah, the stories, some of them are that way, and some of them are just, yeah, that was a good thing. It's okay.

Speaker 1 Because sometimes there's fireworks and emotion around generosity, and sometimes it's just, no, that's the right thing to do.

Speaker 3 That's simple.

Speaker 1 So today's giving show is brought to you by the folks at Convoy of Hope. They are a faith-based organization that partners with local churches and civic groups to provide relief.

Speaker 1 to people affected by disasters and hunger. For instance, they were some of the first and still on the ground in Asheville, North Carolina, when that disaster hit.
They're that type of thing.

Speaker 1 You see them show up there all the time. We've been friends with these guys a long time.

Speaker 1 You can trust them because they've got a track record of over 30 years of supplying food, water, recovery to communities around the world.

Speaker 1 So if you live and give like no one else, you can donate and support their mission at convoyofhope.org/slash Ramsey. Convoyofhope.org/slash Ramsey.
They're our sponsor for our giving show today.

Speaker 1 No irony there at all. Open phones as we take your calls about your stories.
You jump in. The phone number is 888-825-5225.
It's all giving all day

Speaker 1 or receiving, all generosity all day. Greg is with us to start the show off, Wichita, Kansas.
Hi, Greg. Merry Christmas.

Speaker 4 Merry Christmas to you guys.

Speaker 1 Absolutely, man. So tell us what your generosity story is.

Speaker 4 Yeah, yeah. I think this will be better than an Applebee's commercial.

Speaker 1 That's a low bar, man. I know.

Speaker 5 Well, you said it. So, yeah, I'm a youth pastor in Wichita, Kansas.

Speaker 4 And about seven years ago, eight years ago, I was meeting with a guy and discipling him. And

Speaker 4 just we were getting into a place where we're starting to share personal prayer requests.

Speaker 7 And one of ours for my family was

Speaker 4 we had a daughter that was a few years off from going to college. And we started saving, but we had a desire to see them.

Speaker 4 both of our kids graduate debt-free.

Speaker 4 And the plan was we would pay 50% after a scholarship, and they would pay 50% after a scholarship.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 4 beginning to go, hey, how are they going to do this? And so, just praying about our kids taking their mowing business to the next level.

Speaker 4 My son was mowing three, three yards that he could basically put a mower in the back of a minivan and go a few doors down or a neighborhood over.

Speaker 4 But we're praying about buying a truck and a trailer and a mower at some point, but the truck was definitely outside, it felt outside of our reach.

Speaker 4 Well, three, four months after we began to pray, I got contacted by my friend and he said, Hey, my wife and I would love to stop by the church today.

Speaker 4 Just have a brief meeting with you. And I was like, Hey, I'd love to do that, but I can't today.

Speaker 4 We have a meeting at the church called Perspectives, and

Speaker 4 they were like, hey, we'd love to come. It literally will take like two minutes.
And so it was like 9.30, 10 o'clock at night. They took took me to the back of the church

Speaker 4 and they said, Hey, check that out. And it was a 2013 black Ford F-150 with a trailer and a brand new John Deere 48-inch zero-turn mower on the back.

Speaker 1 Which costs more than the truck. Oh, my gosh!

Speaker 1 Wow!

Speaker 2 Wow, that is wild.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that's crazy.

Speaker 4 Blew us away. And,

Speaker 4 man God's God's generosity through them but then

Speaker 4 just the way the moving business took off we actually had somebody give us 10 yards they were moving and normally they might sell it and they said hey we just we want to give these to you to you and your kids and so they started with about 15 yards and

Speaker 4 during the next six or seven years

Speaker 4 made over $100,000

Speaker 4 and were able to graduate college debt-free, both of them.

Speaker 1 Wow. I love it.

Speaker 1 Those kids are going to turn out.

Speaker 2 Yeah, now I'm wondering, did they need college at this point? There's some budding entrepreneurs right there.

Speaker 1 They love it. That's awesome, man.

Speaker 1 Very cool.

Speaker 8 They

Speaker 4 loved college and are,

Speaker 4 you know, still growing. But yeah, they've turned out well.
And not only did they graduate college debt-free, but they just worked hard. And I just saw their generosity through this.

Speaker 1 That's amazing.

Speaker 4 Just mowing free for people and mowing for a pregnancy crisis center.

Speaker 1 So they paid it forward like crazy then.

Speaker 4 Yeah, and just it's cool to see what God has done in their life as they look back and just can't help but notice

Speaker 4 this generosity. Yeah.

Speaker 1 The fingerprints. I love it.
I got to tell you, that is the

Speaker 1 best kind.

Speaker 1 One of my favorite. It's not the best kind overall, but it's one of my favorite kinds of giving.
And when you can, you know, they gave, I don't know, $20,000, we'll call it there, okay?

Speaker 1 That turned into hard work and $100 plus $1,000.

Speaker 1 So when you can give

Speaker 1 into something and it causes, you know, something 10X or 20X or 5X to happen because of the giving, because of the generosity, that's a super cool thing.

Speaker 2 Well, and that checked off about four boxes on the Ramsey plan. And we're talking about, number one, generosity.

Speaker 2 The kids are going to college debt-free, and they started and launched this debt-free business and grew it. That's entree leadership right there.

Speaker 2 I mean, you got your start mowing lawns way back in the day, didn't you?

Speaker 1 12 years old. Yeah.

Speaker 2 Can you imagine if someone did that for you? You might have a lawn care business right now.

Speaker 2 I'm not getting into this.

Speaker 1 Dude, I cut so much grass by the time I was 19, God told me I never had to do it again. I'm just saying.
Oh, man. Oh, I hate it.
But yeah,

Speaker 1 that's still

Speaker 1 a wonderful form of giving where you

Speaker 1 allow someone

Speaker 1 to

Speaker 1 take the gift and 10x it with their work or with their whatever. There's some other way to expand the giving beyond just a one and done kind of thing.
And so that's a beautiful, beautiful picture.

Speaker 1 Yeah, you're right. I did check a lot of boxes.
One of the boxes, teach kids to work. Oh, that's right.

Speaker 2 That was another box. There was no entitlement here.

Speaker 1 The kids worked hard. They learned a lot.
They were great kids.

Speaker 2 How do you do that? That's magic.

Speaker 1 They were busting it, number one. Number two, they're in agreement that

Speaker 1 we're going to to pay for cash for college. Number three, then they're generous with their thing.

Speaker 2 These are great kids. Yeah, these kids are not going to be the Grinch when they grow up.
They're going to remember this for the rest of their life.

Speaker 1 Well, and they're never going to call the show and say, you know, I haven't been able to find a job in four months.

Speaker 1 That won't be them. They'll never make that call because they'll always be able to do something because they're not afraid of that.

Speaker 2 And you know, their kids are going to go to college debt-free. And so the ripple effect of this thing is massive.

Speaker 1 It's a generational gift, and it's a zero-turn John Deere. Who knew? I like it.
Two of Dave's favorite things. I'm telling telling you, man, that's an expensive tractor.
That was a nice gift.

Speaker 1 Nice gift. You paint green on them, they go up a lot.
That's a pretty big deal. So good stuff.
Very cool. It's the annual giving show here on The Ramsey Show.

Speaker 1 It's our annual giving show here on The Ramsey Show. George Camill, Ramsey personality, number one best-selling author of the book Breaking Free from Broke.

Speaker 1 He's my co-host today as we take your calls on your stories of generosity, either receiving or giving. And we're fired up about that.

Speaker 1 Interesting thing, the folks at Every Dollar, I just talked to our team over there.

Speaker 1 Our budgeting app is one of the largest, best-run, best budgeting apps in the world. It's called Every Dollar.
You give Every Dollar a name. You can download it for free and get control of your money.

Speaker 1 And that way Christmas won't sneak up on you next year.

Speaker 1 But one of the things we're able to do, since we obviously the app is ours, we're able to look at the app and see what's happening there.

Speaker 1 We can tell in the charity or generosity category of the budget that people using every dollar are giving around $50 million a month,

Speaker 1 $30 to $50 million a month. So that's going to be, you know, somewhere around $500 million

Speaker 1 this year. And we just started looking at this and started tracking it

Speaker 1 this year. And so as we start tracking it and start encouraging it, we're pretty sure that every dollar users will be easily giving a billion a year away.
Wow.

Speaker 1 And we don't know where it goes.

Speaker 1 We're not getting in people's business.

Speaker 1 We don't have categories for it. It's just people that they have that in their budget, in their charity line, and it's running $30 to $50 million a month right now.

Speaker 1 Americans are some of the most generous people in the world. I know we hear about all these things negative in the press or this or that and all these things out there.

Speaker 1 Everybody's got an opinion, but when you actually get into the numbers, the amount that Americans give to each other, to causes inside the country and outside the country, there's not another country on the planet that's even close or ever has been in the history of humanity.

Speaker 1 This is the most generous group of human beings that has ever walked the face of the earth right now. Now, people don't talk about that, but that's the actual data.

Speaker 1 That's the numbers that we know about generosity nationwide. And just with our app, we can tell, you know, easily 500 million just on that one thing there, easily.

Speaker 2 And I bet the people that aren't giving would like to give more.

Speaker 2 And that's the power of the budget is you've got to find the margin to be able to give, to be able to look up and see those opportunities.

Speaker 2 And so that's the best part about it. That's why we put the giving line item first in that $3 budget.

Speaker 1 You're exactly right. And, you know, live like no one else, so later, you can live.

Speaker 2 Give like no one else. There we go.

Speaker 1 Got it. We're going to get this down, George, almost like a routine here.
Grace is with us in Waco, Texas. Hi, Grace.
Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Tell us your generosity story.

Speaker 6 Hey, thank y'all for having me on.

Speaker 10 Sure.

Speaker 10 Yeah, so let's see.

Speaker 11 About eight years ago, 2016, my mom tragically passed away.

Speaker 10 I was just graduated high school.

Speaker 11 My whole community just rallied around me. They supported me.
They did fundraisers and

Speaker 11 got me a pretty big lump sum of money enough so I could buy my first car my first laptop, so I can get to college.

Speaker 10 It was just absolutely fantastic.

Speaker 11 So that in itself is absolutely amazing. Now fast forward six years from then, so two years ago,

Speaker 11 me and my, we were fiancés, or my fiancé then, we're married now.

Speaker 11 We were trying to save up for our wedding and trying to just pick up extra shifts and really didn't want to go into our marriage with any debt, especially not from our wedding.

Speaker 11 And so unfortunately though, we had racked up about a $2,000

Speaker 11 give or take a few.

Speaker 11 And randomly, one of my my mom's friends from whenever she was alive, they had she messaged me just one day randomly and just said, Hey, I there's a bank account that is for you that we set up that has the money in it.

Speaker 11 And you know, I don't know why, but they hadn't they hadn't given it to me.

Speaker 6 I think they had just forgotten or something had happened.

Speaker 11 Um, anyways, long story short, it ended up being the exact amount of money that we were in debt, um, on our on my credit card. And so it was just amazing.
People had given money and

Speaker 6 put it into an account for us.

Speaker 11 And then six years later, it was still there.

Speaker 6 And it just

Speaker 11 shows how good God's grace is and that it's never ending.

Speaker 1 Amen. Amen.
The timing on that's amazing and the amount matching up. The whole thing, that's the way the story should go right there.

Speaker 11 Yeah, God's hand. Very precise.

Speaker 1 Exactly. Exactly.
Very fun. Very fun.
And I'm sure that inspires you guys to be keeping your eyes open for generosity now that you're married and out there running around doing your own thing, right?

Speaker 10 Oh, yeah. Absolutely.

Speaker 6 Yeah.

Speaker 11 Anytime. Anytime we just,

Speaker 11 it's really not even a second thought sort of thing. It's just like, if I have this, then somebody else needs it.

Speaker 10 Absolutely.

Speaker 11 And we just had our first child about seven months ago. So

Speaker 11 even then, having a child and just seeing how giving people were for her and just for us. And it's just it's amazing how

Speaker 11 kind and generous people can be. And it does, it has moved us in ways that I don't think people will ever really know.

Speaker 6 Right.

Speaker 11 We just have to repay what we can as often as we can.

Speaker 1 There you go. I love it.
Way to go, Grace. Good job.
Thank you for sharing that. That's good.
Love that one. Christy Sue is with us in St.
Paul, Minnesota. Hi, Christy Sue.

Speaker 1 Tell us your generosity story.

Speaker 13 Merry Christmas.

Speaker 6 I don't know how you do this every day.

Speaker 13 I'm so nervous.

Speaker 1 You'll be all right. We've never lost a patient.

Speaker 12 All right. Thank you.

Speaker 13 So there's a couple of layers to this onion. So

Speaker 13 when I was growing up, my family was plagued with addiction, alcoholism, and mental illness. And my mom left when I was 10 years old.

Speaker 3 And

Speaker 13 I was with my dad then. My sister and I were with my dad until I was 13.

Speaker 13 And at that point, again, there was those layers of addiction alcoholism and mental illness and he brought us to stay with our aunt and uncle for what we thought was going to be the summer and then that ended up being about three years and then I went and I was in a couple of different homes after that and so as you can imagine

Speaker 13 I was just at the age of 17, I was just bitter and angry. And

Speaker 13 I had a teacher.

Speaker 13 I ended up in a home economics class and I had a teacher that just took me under her wing and could see that I was angry and bitter but I was still a good kid I didn't get in trouble or anything like that and she showed interest and she wanted to come to some of my sporting events and was like genuinely invested in me as a person and now as an adult understanding that she had three other kids that were around my age so she was juggling all their activities too and she still, you know, made that time for me.

Speaker 6 It was super precious.

Speaker 13 And

Speaker 13 like I said, I didn't really get into trouble, but there was one day before prom, I got pulled out of class

Speaker 13 by the principal, and he gave me an envelope that had nearly $200 in it. And he said, hey, have a good time at prom.
And I begged him. to tell me where this $200 came from and he he wouldn't do it.

Speaker 13 And to this day, I'm still very good friends with this teacher her name is Nancy and

Speaker 13 she still won't admit that she was behind that $200 but it was

Speaker 1 but she was it was Nancy

Speaker 13 yeah and you know it wasn't just that it was the seed of compassion that she planted in me and that has just really changed the trajectory of my life.

Speaker 13 I could have certainly followed the path of my parents and I didn't. I ended up going to college.
I'm in law enforcement now.

Speaker 13 And, you know, what I went through with my parents really helps me be more compassionate to the people that I deal with on a daily basis.

Speaker 3 Yeah, sure.

Speaker 13 And then,

Speaker 6 you know, her

Speaker 13 compassion touched me in such a way that I wanted to give big. So God placed it on my heart in 2021.
I donated my kidney to a stranger. Wow.
And

Speaker 13 in that, I called Nancy.

Speaker 13 My husband husband and I were kind of keeping it close to our chest because there's a lot of things that can go on with the surgery like that, it getting rescheduled or things like that.

Speaker 13 But I really felt that I needed to share that with her. And she said, so you're just donating to anybody? And I said, yeah, I didn't know anybody that needs a kidney.

Speaker 13 So I just was going to donate to whoever. And she said, I know someone that needs a kidney, and it's my best friend from seventh grade.
And so

Speaker 13 because I knew before the donation, donation, the National Kidney Registry has a program. They do like paired donations and things like that.

Speaker 13 So, I was able to give her friend who I'd never met a voucher so that she could then get a kidney. So, I donated in February of 21.
Her friend was able to get her kidney in October of 21.

Speaker 13 And then, because that was so rewarding,

Speaker 13 May of this last year,

Speaker 13 I actually donated 63% of my liver to a stranger.

Speaker 1 Oh my goodness, lady. You just keep going.
That's amazing. Wow.
Well, thank you for sharing that, Christy Sue. Merry Christmas.

Speaker 1 George Camill, Ramsey Personality, number one best-selling author, is my co-host today on our annual giving show brought to you today by the fine folks at Convoy of Hope.

Speaker 1 They partner with churches and civic organizations around the world to help in times of crisis, hunger, and a lot of other wonderful things that they bring in to support

Speaker 1 literally around the world. But where you'll see them pop up is when you see something on the news, like an Asheville, North Carolina type event.

Speaker 1 You'll see their trucks and their people on the ground. They're immediately helping.
So convoyofhope.org slash Ramsey. Be sure and check these guys out.

Speaker 1 We appreciate them sponsoring today's giving show.

Speaker 1 On the debt-free stage live right here in the lobby of Ramsey Solutions one of our own Ramsey team Meg Loney is with us and Meg welcome hey you're here for the generosity time the the generous the giving show so

Speaker 1 let's before we get into that you've been with Ramsey what about six years going on seven in March seven years okay cool and tell everybody what you do here I am a marketing operations specialist so I make things work Marketing operations specialist.

Speaker 1 You make things work.

Speaker 1 What the flip does that mean?

Speaker 14 All the back-end things that a lot of people don't want to do, I do.

Speaker 2 She's being nice, Dave. It's above our pay grade.
I know. We'll never understand that.

Speaker 1 She's a senior digital marketing analyst. So, yeah, this is Mega's smart, people.
That's what we're trying to say.

Speaker 2 She's dumbing it down for us.

Speaker 1 Yeah, she's trying to dumb it down for her CEO.

Speaker 1 I tried. Yeah, well, it didn't work.

Speaker 1 you didn't get you didn't get down low enough for me you got to get the cookies down on the bottom shelf all right tell us your generosity story

Speaker 14 so i have my four-year-old daughter tillias here with us today uh when she was five months old she was diagnosed with epilepsy um and we went through lots of medicines 10 medicines um none of them stopped the seizures she was having three four seizures a day sometimes more man that's terrorizing

Speaker 14 It was very scary.

Speaker 1 I can't breathe just hearing it.

Speaker 14 And then ultimately we went the surgical route. So they found a small piece of her brain that hadn't fully developed or developed properly.

Speaker 14 And they were like, hey, we think if we remove this part of her brain, that it will stop the seizures.

Speaker 14 And at that point, we had gotten to, she was getting rescue meds like once a week. So she was having seizures lasting longer than five minutes that required some extra medicine to stop them.

Speaker 14 So at that point we were kind of like, we gave it to God. We said, we know that we've been praying for answers and you've presented this one.

Speaker 14 So we started down the surgical route. And at that time we applied with Make a Wish Middle Tennessee,

Speaker 14 which is just an extraordinary organization. And

Speaker 14 they worked with us to find like the best wish for Tilly to have.

Speaker 14 And so then

Speaker 14 she had her surgery in October, October 18th.

Speaker 14 And then in April of 2024, we were able to go on this amazing trip to Disney World and so much more. So they covered, they picked us up in a limo.
They covered our flights. They got us a rental car.

Speaker 14 They have an amazing resort called Give Kids the World Resort, which is only for Wish families.

Speaker 1 Wow.

Speaker 14 It is like a small apartment. There were two rooms.
Tilly's room had the bathroom connected to it, and Justin and I actually had to like leave to go use the bathroom.

Speaker 1 Only the best for Tilly. Right.

Speaker 14 She had like the owner's suite.

Speaker 1 I like it.

Speaker 14 They provided meals at the resort.

Speaker 14 And they have rides and a pool. So it's everything in a resort you could want.

Speaker 14 And then they give you tickets to Disney World with the Fast Pass Pass or whatever it's called now so we got to skip the line Tilly went on her favorite ride Slinky Dog Dash three times in a row because they're like yeah just go back on it

Speaker 14 we went to Universal Studios and she had a blast and they give you a debit card so that you can buy meals at the parks you can buy souvenirs it was just

Speaker 14 bigger than we could have ever imagined, like even starting with like dreaming with them, it was bigger than we could have even imagined.

Speaker 14 And it was just an amazing way to kind of cap off that journey.

Speaker 14 So because of today, as of today, she is 14 months seizure-free.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 Praise God. Praise God.
That's amazing. Wow.

Speaker 2 She's clapping too, which I love.

Speaker 1 That says, yeah, amen. Everybody clap.

Speaker 1 So

Speaker 1 the Make-A-Wish Foundation has an incredible reputation of making these dreams come true like this. They do a great great job.

Speaker 1 Did they find out about you or do you apply or how did you make the connection on that?

Speaker 14 So I actually made the connection when I was in one of the epilepsy groups on Facebook, just a support group. And I saw someone had mentioned that their child was able to get a wish.

Speaker 14 And I was like,

Speaker 14 I thought that Make a Wish was only for children that had cancer or had a terminal illness.

Speaker 14 And then I did a little bit more research and I talked to our epileptologist and he was like, yeah, you should definitely apply.

Speaker 1 So we did. So they have an application process that they use.
Okay.

Speaker 14 Yes, they have an application process.

Speaker 1 Okay. So you did apply and then it takes a few months or whatever and they get back to you or what?

Speaker 14 It wasn't even a few months. It was maybe a week or two.

Speaker 14 They just kind of verify everything that's going on. And I know they do like to move quickly so that they can help all of the children that apply, that meet kind of the criteria.

Speaker 14 So they are super quick and they meet with you. They came to the hospital when we were in the hospital with Tilly during her first surgery because we were in there for nine days for monitoring.

Speaker 14 So they came out and they saw us there and they took us out for ice cream.

Speaker 14 They did all sorts of things even leading up to the wish.

Speaker 1 Wow. Wow.

Speaker 1 That's cool. That's cool.
I can't think of anything better to do than make sure a child gets a wish like that. That's pretty incredible.

Speaker 2 Very cool. And we love hearing how she's doing today.

Speaker 1 Yeah, absolutely. And the end of the story is a great one.

Speaker 14 Yeah, it's amazing. And she's a wish ambassador now.
So she helps to raise funds now for other kids to have their wishes granted, which we love to be able to then give back to the organization.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that's good. Good.
And you did today because you just told the world. Yeah.

Speaker 14 I would love if all the donations to Make a Wish could just take off because these kids deserve it all. They go through so much more than anyone should have to, let alone being three, four, five, six.

Speaker 1 Amen. And obviously you were part of this team here during all that time, right?

Speaker 14 I was. And the generosity from Ramsey during all of it was just amazing.
There was never a question of like, oh, you need more time off.

Speaker 1 You have another doctor's appointment.

Speaker 14 It was so much grace. And I can't imagine working anywhere else during the time that we went through that.

Speaker 14 And the team also, that nine-day stay at the hospital, the team also raised a lot of money.

Speaker 14 They gave us like a $1,000 gift card to be able to buy food so that we didn't have to eat hospital for nine days in a row.

Speaker 1 Amen.

Speaker 1 Glory. Hallelujah.
I like that. Good stuff.
Well, very cool. What a great story through a really painful and scary, terrorizing time.
I mean, when your kid is sick, it just takes your breath away.

Speaker 1 That's a whole different thing. It's one thing to get sick.
It's a whole nother thing to have a kid or a grandkid sick. And that's a process.
And then you just go through this slog

Speaker 1 of

Speaker 1 getting past it.

Speaker 1 And now we've got a tiger on our hands. That's awesome.
Oh, yeah. As it should be.

Speaker 2 She's been playing and smiling this whole time, totally ignoring mom, just being a rock star on the stage, which is how it should be.

Speaker 1 As it should be. Very cool, Meg.
Thank you very much. Yeah, bring her up.
Let everybody see her. Yeah, that's excellent.

Speaker 2 If you're watching on the Ramsey Network app or on YouTube, oh, cute, cute, cute.

Speaker 1 Love it. Great outfit for the appearance, too.
There we go.

Speaker 2 A great way from Tilly.

Speaker 1 A princess. I love it.
Very cool.

Speaker 2 And now an ambassador. What a a cool title at four years old.

Speaker 1 Yeah, George, I've never been an ambassador. Have you?

Speaker 2 No, but I'd like to be.

Speaker 1 I think we just were co-ambassadors just during the segment.

Speaker 2 That's right, just sharing Tilly's story.

Speaker 1 For a moment, we act like. I feel like I'm part of it now.
For a moment, we act like we had something to do with it. Yeah.
Very cool. Good stuff, Meg.
Thank you for sharing that.

Speaker 1 Excellent, excellent job. It's the annual giving show, the show on generosity, where we tell stories about giving that has happened to keep everybody inspired, to keep that ball rolling out there.

Speaker 1 Hey, in it forward. Hey, in it forward.
This is the Ramsey Show.

Speaker 1 Our annual giving show here on the Ramsey Show. Thank you for joining us, America.
We're glad you're here. George Camill, Ramsey personality, is my co-host today.
John is with us in Orlando.

Speaker 1 Hey, John, tell us your story about generosity and Merry Christmas to you, sir.

Speaker 7 Hey, Dave. Hey, George, Merry Christmas.
How are you guys?

Speaker 1 Better than we deserve, man.

Speaker 7 Awesome. So my story is a bit of a three-part story, but it goes all the way back when I was 13 years old.
I lived in Pennsylvania and New Jersey at the time, and I was in middle school.

Speaker 7 It was the very start of the school year. I was in art class, and the teacher from across the hall runs in and tells my teacher to turn on the TV.

Speaker 4 So he did.

Speaker 7 And it was the World Trade Center with smoke just spilling out of one of the towers.

Speaker 7 Moments later, we watched the second plane hit the second tower. And as a middle school kid, I certainly did not understand what was even going on.
And I raised my hand to my teacher and I said,

Speaker 7 that's where my dad works.

Speaker 5 That's his office building.

Speaker 7 I've been there a million times.

Speaker 7 And he gave me a look, and that's when I started. to realize like how bad and serious this was.

Speaker 7 The rest of the day and the days after are a bit of a blur, but we found out, we know my dad was outside of the buildings when the plane hit, when the bulk planes hit, and he called home and he left a voice message on the machine.

Speaker 7 And he told us how much he loved us and how things were really bad.

Speaker 7 He then went back in to help evacuate. and save people that day.
And he unfortunately was not able to get out himself or save himself.

Speaker 1 So

Speaker 7 things of course were very very difficult for my family and many many other families after that but the giving and generosity that took place for my family and other 9-11 families was

Speaker 7 was very very incredible and that was the first time I saw giving and generosity at such an extreme level.

Speaker 7 And as a 13-year-old kid,

Speaker 7 I knew I wanted to be able to give like that someday.

Speaker 7 Many years later, I met my wife, my beautiful wife, and we struggled with infertility for many, many, many years.

Speaker 7 And then that giving and generosity came back into our lives again with love and support and prayers.

Speaker 7 Even our company that we worked for paid for all of our infertility treatments, IUIs, IVF,

Speaker 7 the works, close to 50 grand.

Speaker 7 And again, that giving and generosity blew us away.

Speaker 7 And then a miracle happened, and we had a beautiful little girl. Our daughter, her name is Journey.

Speaker 7 We named her that because it was a journey to have her

Speaker 7 through IVF. And then another miracle happened, and we are currently expecting our second in the new year.

Speaker 1 Wow.

Speaker 7 Again, yep, we have one on the way.

Speaker 1 Fun.

Speaker 7 And

Speaker 7 it just blew our minds. And again, that giving and that generosity that kept coming into our life time and time again when we don't deserve it.
And, you know, things are just,

Speaker 8 it's just amazing.

Speaker 7 And this summer, coming up in the new year, we are celebrating our 10-year wedding anniversary. And we're doing a big bow renewal.

Speaker 7 And we are taking all of our family and all of our friends to Turks and Caicos. And we're paying for the whole thing.
We're doing, you know, the all-inclusive resort and the whole shebang. And

Speaker 7 that's our giving generosity story.

Speaker 1 Wow.

Speaker 1 So 24 years ago, you were 13. So you're 37?

Speaker 8 36, yeah.

Speaker 1 36. Okay.
Wow.

Speaker 1 Yeah. I mean, because 9-11 feels emotionally for most of us

Speaker 1 that we're 11 at that time like yesterday.

Speaker 1 But it puts it

Speaker 1 24 years ago. You were a kid,

Speaker 1 and now you're a

Speaker 1 36-year-old man who's taking people to Turks and Caicos. It's pretty cool, man.
Pretty cool.

Speaker 7 Thank you. Thanks to your team and the Rangely Plan.
That's the way we're able to do it. Yeah.
Wow.

Speaker 1 Wow. And I would imagine, I mean, I have

Speaker 1 the Todd Beamer story and several of the other stories around 9-11.

Speaker 1 I had friends that were writing the books and doing the stuff and were involved in getting the stories out on some of the heroes that were involved.

Speaker 1 And I would imagine you kept learning for years about different things with your dad having gone back in time and time again to get other people out, it sounds like.

Speaker 7 Yeah, he was the property manager of World Trade 2, and he knew everyone. He knew everyone in the building.
And he was just that light, that type of personality.

Speaker 7 Everyone would say, Hey, Bobby, how are you?

Speaker 12 Hey, how are you?

Speaker 7 And

Speaker 7 we have a bit of a timeline of his mourning and step-by-step and everything that. And we know people who he've helped who people who he saved and

Speaker 7 and even though he didn't make it out he got a medal from President Bush a couple years after 9-11 and it was it was very it was very special and

Speaker 7 we got to go to the lighthouse and it was it was beautiful yeah

Speaker 1 wow wow that's incredible fabulous story thank you john thanks for sharing the details yeah generosity in times of good that's fun but generosity in times of grief and trauma that will change you forever.

Speaker 1 Shifts everything. That's legacy.
Yeah. And, you know, and the thing about that is you don't get to choose your timing.

Speaker 1 If you're the person doing the giving, you've got to be ready when it happens.

Speaker 2 You've got to be ready for spontaneous giving.

Speaker 1 Exactly. You've got to have this instantaneous reaction there.

Speaker 1 Student loan debt is an epidemic. Defaulting on debt makes you feel even worse.

Speaker 1 But our question of the day sponsor, Why Refi, refinances defaulted private student loans and builds a custom loan based on your ability to pay.

Speaker 1 You'll have a payment you can afford with a low fixed interest rate that you couldn't get anywhere else. Go to yrefi.com slash Ramsey.
That's the letter YREFY.com/slash Ramsey.

Speaker 1 Might not be in all states.

Speaker 2 And in honor of our giving show, we're going to do a giving story instead of a question of the day. So today's giving story comes from Morgan in North Carolina.

Speaker 2 An older couple came into the small bank where I worked to open a checking account. The husband mentioned he was expecting a wire of over $1 million.

Speaker 2 Immediately,

Speaker 2 my alarm bells went off. Someone had contacted him claiming to be the executor of a cousin's estate with documents and a website to create legitimacy.

Speaker 2 When I pointed out the flaws in the documents, the customer was devastated. He had no car and had planned to get one with his newfound wealth so that he could provide for his family.

Speaker 2 Every year I collect money and donate items in my papa's honor. I called a friend who has an auto repair shop and asked him for help.

Speaker 2 God was working behind the scenes and he knew someone who was selling a reliable van. The lady who owned it

Speaker 2 lowered the the price to the exact amount we had to spend. We called the couple to let them know we had a surprise for them and were heading to their home.

Speaker 2 The man and his wife broke down in tears when they saw the van. He had just gotten home after walking in the freezing cold to get a loaf of bread.

Speaker 2 I'll never forget squeezing the keys in his hand and saying that he would finally be able to provide for his family again.

Speaker 1 Wow.

Speaker 1 Man.

Speaker 1 And that's like

Speaker 1 off the back end of an almost scam.

Speaker 1 Yeah. He was getting scammed, and she puts a stop to it as a

Speaker 1 brilliant bank employee looking up and seeing, oh, this is not real. You're getting scammed.
Because they were getting ready to do a switch on him is what they were doing.

Speaker 2 She turned it from Grift to Grace.

Speaker 1 Oh, there we go.

Speaker 1 Here's the book.

Speaker 2 They're going to make a movie about it. That title's free.

Speaker 1 Yeah. It'd be a Hallmark movie if they use that.
But yeah.

Speaker 1 Wow, man. That's good, George.
You got it.

Speaker 2 I got more. The Grift that keeps on giving? No?

Speaker 1 All right. I'll be here all week.

Speaker 2 That's a really cool story, though.

Speaker 1 That is fun. Wow.

Speaker 2 And again, you have to be able to look up and see the opportunity. When you're so focused on your own situation, your own money problems, it hurts your ability to give.

Speaker 1 Well, when you have a car and you didn't have a car, you can go to work.

Speaker 1 And when you can go to work, you can provide for his family. That's what he's crying about.
I mean, that's real.

Speaker 1 I mean, you give somebody a $2,000 car, you change their life. You give somebody a $4,000 car, you change their life.
And by the way, you can do 10 of those for only $40,000.

Speaker 2 That's cool to think about.

Speaker 2 Put that on your bucket list of generosity.

Speaker 1 I mean, cars are like, you start giving away cars, you're like Oprah. I mean, come on, really.

Speaker 1 I mean, even if they're $2,000 cars or old minivans that come from the mechanic, yeah, if your car doesn't work or you don't have one, a $2,000 car might as well be a $100,000 car.

Speaker 1 And this lady felt like Oprah handing the keys over to that, and he's squeezing those keys in his hand, going, yes, I now got a shot. I got a chance.

Speaker 2 She gave him dignity. She gave him hope.

Speaker 1 Absolutely. Both.
Very cool. Very good.
Every year I collect money and donate items in my papa's honor.

Speaker 2 There you go, man. Seeing a theme here, legacy, paying it forward, contagious generosity, special.

Speaker 1 Annual giving show here on The Ramsey Show.

Speaker 1 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's the Ramsey Show, where we help people

Speaker 1 build wealth, do work that they love,

Speaker 1 and create actual amazing relationships. George Camill, Ramsey personality number one best-selling author, is my co-host today as we do our annual giving show brought to you by Convoy of Hope.

Speaker 1 They're a faith-based organization that partners with local churches and civic groups to provide relief to people affected by disasters and hunger. This is a trustworthy organization.

Speaker 1 They've been doing this for 30 years, and they do a great job. We want to honor their sponsorship today by having you guys go to their website, convoyofhope.org/slash Ramsey.

Speaker 1 It's an opportunity for you to support their mission, and they'll show up at places like Asheville, North Carolina, where they were some of the first on the ground, and they'll be some of the last on the ground because they're still there after the TV cameras left.

Speaker 1 I met Hal, the founder of Convoy for Hope, a couple of years back at an event, and he and I got to spend some time together, had an instant connection because he spends his whole life serving people that are struggling in one way or another, and has devoted what is now hundreds of millions of dollars of donations annually of food and all kinds of things all over the world.

Speaker 1 And so today we've got Ed Garvin with us. Ed is the senior vice president, chief partnership officer at Convoy of Hope.
And Ed's a former pastor, joined Convoy of Hope.

Speaker 1 Matter of fact, Ed and I had spent some time together. We did an event at his old church down in Orlando at Calvary one time.
And so welcome, Ed. Good to have you.

Speaker 15 Well, it's an honor to be with you today.

Speaker 1 Good to have you, sir. So, and we're honored to have Convoy of Hope as a part of our giving show.
It fits in just perfectly because when those big trucks roll in,

Speaker 1 when people are hurting, they start smiling because they know help is on the way.

Speaker 1 They know they're getting ready to be some food, getting ready to be some water, getting ready to be some chainsaws on the ground or whatever is needed. So very cool stuff.

Speaker 1 So talk about how Howe began this 30 years ago and how this thing has evolved because the scale is enormous today.

Speaker 1 And,

Speaker 1 you know, this evolution over 30 years, what are you guys most proud of there?

Speaker 1 Yeah,

Speaker 15 I think of everything that Convoy of Hope does,

Speaker 15 the fact that we bring lasting change and move people from desperation to resiliency.

Speaker 15 That really is the hallmark of Convoy of Hope's missional footprint.

Speaker 1 Right. And in the old days, they just started out, and it was the first thing they did was what, when Hal first started it.

Speaker 15 Yeah, so Convoy of Hope started in 1994. It actually was the outgrowth of Hal, his background

Speaker 15 is in journalism. And he was asked to go to Calcutta, India to

Speaker 15 ghostwrite a book

Speaker 15 for some missionaries that were based in Calcutta. And while he was there, he was asked as part of the book to interview Mother Teresa.

Speaker 1 Whoa. Yeah.

Speaker 15 And so while he's interviewing Mother Teresa, she,

Speaker 15 as one would expect, she turns the tables and looks at him and says, Young man, what are you doing to respond to the needs of the poor and suffering?

Speaker 1 Just get called out by Mother Teresa. That'll do it.
Might drop.

Speaker 15 Well, and in that moment, you might think about lying, but I don't think you should.

Speaker 1 Mother Teresa. Yeah.

Speaker 15 And so Hal was honest and he said, I'm really not doing much of anything. And she looked at him and said, young man, everyone can do something.
Just do the next kind thing.

Speaker 15 And as a young man, this shook him.

Speaker 15 He took 30 days when he got back to the United States, going to some of the major cities in America and seeing the plight of the poor and suffering. And out of that, emptied his bank account.

Speaker 15 and started distributing food to the micrant workers in California where he lived at the time. And out of that, Convoy of Hope was born.

Speaker 15 And now some 30 years later, Convoy of Hope last year alone helped more than 37 million people.

Speaker 1 At scale. Yeah.
All because Mother Teresa asks a pointed question and that begins the journey. And so what are some of the different areas you guys have that our listeners can jump in and support?

Speaker 1 What are some things where they would see you and know you're there?

Speaker 15 Yeah, one of the things that I love about Convoy of Hope is that it does have a neighbors to nation strategy. And so

Speaker 15 we're involved all across America.

Speaker 15 One of the big things that we do is we do disaster relief. We have responded to right at 100 disasters already this year.

Speaker 15 What that looks like, an example would be Asheville, North Carolina, that area responding to Hurricane Helene.

Speaker 15 Convoy of Hope has delivered more than 200 semi-loads of relief supplies into that devastated area.

Speaker 15 The missional footprint of Convoy of Hope reaches around the world. We're currently feeding right at 600,000 children.

Speaker 15 We do that every school day. We have more than 40,000 women and girls that are in our women's empowerment program globally.
We're training more than 35,000 farmers.

Speaker 15 And so Convoy of Hope does everything from children's feeding to coming alongside rural churches in America. and helping people move from poverty to that place of resiliency.

Speaker 1 So it's not necessarily just a triage to stop the bleeding, but you also come along and help them completely heal so that poverty is in the rearview mirror.

Speaker 1 You can't have sustainable programs in these situations. That's important.

Speaker 1 So we look at, in the Ramsey Foundation, one of the things we look at when we're doing giving to organizations, we look at their operations costs and how much is actually going to the need.

Speaker 1 And you guys are...

Speaker 1 Man, the numbers are, you're only doing about 10% for operations. Everything else, 90% is going out the door to serve the needy and serve the distressed.
How do you guys keep your ops so low?

Speaker 15 Yeah, so we're blessed by having an amazing volunteer army, 136,000 volunteers last year, which allowed us, like our overhead rate last year was 8.4%, and we'll probably be somewhere in that area again this year.

Speaker 15 Having exceptional partners and an army of volunteers really allows us to make the difference.

Speaker 2 That's impressive. So I want to speak to the person out there who wants to give.

Speaker 2 They may go, I don't know if this is a trustworthy organization. How do you get someone who has not given to go, all right, I'm going to jump into this cause? What is this target demo there?

Speaker 2 What gets them to give?

Speaker 15 Well, you know, when we think about our, when we think about our giving, when we think about what we're doing philanthropically, we really do want to make sure that we're operating with wisdom.

Speaker 15 And so my encouragement would be, whether it's Convoy of Hope or any other organization, make sure that you do the homework and

Speaker 15 make sure that you dig beneath the surface. And one of the things that I love, I was a, so I was a donor to Convoy of Hope for 15 years before I joined the organization on the team.

Speaker 15 And one of the things I love about Convoy of Hope is it's actually more impressive even from the inside than it was from the outside.

Speaker 15 And

Speaker 15 if you look, if you look at the various accountability organizations,

Speaker 15 you're going to find that consistently, Convoy of Hope, that we get the highest of marks.

Speaker 1 Very good. Good stuff.
Ed Garvin, the

Speaker 1 senior vice president, chief partnership officer at Convoy of Hope. He spent 22 years of his life serving as a lead pastor.
Now he's serving this organization as they serve.

Speaker 1 distressed and needy and hungry all around the world and in your backyard. They're our sponsor for our annual giving show today.

Speaker 1 First time we've ever had a sponsor in 30 years of this particular show.

Speaker 1 it and it made sense to have Convoy be that. So we're honored to have you guys along partnering with us and honored to let our audience know about you guys.
Thanks for dropping by, Ed. It was a joy.

Speaker 1 Merry Christmas.

Speaker 2 Convoyofhope.org slash Ramsey.

Speaker 1 This is the Ramsey Show.

Speaker 1 George Camill Ramsey personality is my co-host today.

Speaker 1 This is our annual giving show where we calls from you to tell your generosity stories where you are receiving or giving generosity and do that to inspire everyone out there and remind everyone out there there's a lot of good human beings walking this planet.

Speaker 1 They're everywhere. Brought to you by Convoy of Hope today.
The phone number here, 888-825-5225. Jocelyn is in Knoxville.
Hi, Jocelyn. Merry Christmas.

Speaker 9 Hi. Hi, Dave.
Hi, George. Thank you for having me on.
Sure.

Speaker 1 Tell us your generosity story.

Speaker 6 I would love to.

Speaker 9 So just a quick backstory. My grandfather's best friend through school, once he graduated and got married, him and his wife needed somewhere to stay.

Speaker 9 So my great-grandparents let them rent a cabin that they had in Gatlinburg for a couple of years.

Speaker 9 But when they went to move out, my great-grandparents then gifted them all that rent money that they had paid just as a gift to jumpstart to life.

Speaker 9 So fast forward 50 plus years, my grandma is randomly like, hey, I want you to go out to eat and meet somebody. So my family and I, we go out to eat.
And I walk up and I meet this older man.

Speaker 9 He's in his mid-80s. And we sit down and he starts talking about how him and my grandpa were best friends.
My grandpa had passed since then.

Speaker 9 And he's telling me all these stories that they shared. And he ended with

Speaker 9 in his honor and because of the friendship they had, he would like to send me to school. So I got to choose any college I wanted to go to.

Speaker 9 He would pay for my, yes, he would pay for my tuition, my housing, and also wanted to gift an allowance because he did not want me to work to concentrate on school.

Speaker 9 And the only requirements he had was that I keep Abuba 3.0 and that I would meet with him after every semester.

Speaker 6 And so that's what I would do.

Speaker 9 I would drive to his house. I'd pick him up.
We would go eat. We would talk about everything.

Speaker 9 We would talk about my grades, how everything was going. And in 2016, I graduated completely debt-free from college.

Speaker 9 And I would like to add, because he did that for me, years later, now my brother is about to graduate in May from college with his engineering degree. And

Speaker 9 after all his

Speaker 9 my my parents will actually have put him through school with the help of his

Speaker 9 what he had got from school as well so he will graduate debt-free wow so all because of what my great-grandparents did now 50 plus years later

Speaker 9 we've my brother and i have both

Speaker 1 it's came around to us so wow The ripple effect of that is pretty cool.

Speaker 11 Yeah.

Speaker 2 How do you even choose? When the world is your oyster, what college did you end up going to and where'd you study?

Speaker 6 I actually went to ETSU

Speaker 9 and I got my bachelor's in mass communication. So public relations and advertising is what my concentration was.

Speaker 1 From East Tennessee State? Yes, sir. Yeah, okay.
Wow. So that was near home, of course, since you're in Knoxville, right?

Speaker 6 It was. Yeah, it was.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Okay. Very cool.
Very cool. That's neat.
So I'm thinking, so this guy's 85 and he was 20

Speaker 1 when they were renting the cabin in Gatlinburg and got the money back from your great-grandparents and he was friends with your grandfather. I got that right.

Speaker 9 Yes. And I, yes.
And I never got to meet my grandfather. He, he passed when my dad was actually young.
So I believe him and my grandma actually lost

Speaker 9 the connection there at some point and they ran into each other randomly. and started talking and that sparked their conversation on, well, do you have grandkids? And that's how.

Speaker 1 Did your grandmother even know the Gatlinburg story before they bump into each other?

Speaker 9 No,

Speaker 9 she knew of him. They were best friends and she knew him.
But as far as knowing that rent story, I'm not really sure if she knew that beforehand or not.

Speaker 1 Wow.

Speaker 2 He was waiting a long time for some payback and he got the idea. Talking to grandma and went, I know exactly how to do it.

Speaker 1 I really like this guy. This is class.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah, and actually,

Speaker 9 since this has happened, he did pass in 2020, but he has a special place in my heart. He really did change my life.
And the ripple effect to that,

Speaker 9 he really did make a difference.

Speaker 1 Man, that's pretty serious. That is so cool.
I love this story

Speaker 1 because it took so long to unfold.

Speaker 9 Yeah, and then my grandparents just as good faith, and he was a great friend. They did that, and here I am.
Yeah.

Speaker 9 So

Speaker 9 it was something that I will never forget. And, you know, I knew it was a big deal when I was young in my 20s.
But as I get older, you know,

Speaker 9 those acts of kindness, they mean more and more. As you get older, you realize how much of a deal that was.

Speaker 1 Oh, man. Well, he took that in his heart, and for 40 years or whatever, 50 years, you know, he's

Speaker 1 carrying it around. I mean, 25, 60 years from 20s to 80s.
You're right. You know, and then 60 years later has a chance to bring it back around.
That's pretty stinking incredible right there.

Speaker 1 I love that.

Speaker 2 I like the long tail on that.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Amen.
Carla is in Nashville. Merry Christmas.
Carla, tell us your generosity story.

Speaker 12 Merry Christmas, Dave and George.

Speaker 5 Thanks for having me on. Sure.

Speaker 5 In January of 2021, our 13-year-old son, Brett, was diagnosed with leukemia.

Speaker 5 And the day that he was diagnosed, we were told he might not make it through the night.

Speaker 1 Whoa.

Speaker 5 Yes, his white blood cell count was $865,000, which normal is between like $4,000 and $11,000. Whoa.

Speaker 12 So they basically described his blood being like sludge.

Speaker 5 So it was causing, you know, problems with every organ.

Speaker 5 He spent 19 days in the pediatric ICU at Labonner in Memphis. And then a week of that, he was in a coma.

Speaker 5 So at one point during that, they called family in to say goodbye.

Speaker 13 And the staff was just surprised.

Speaker 5 Every day, he just kept making it. And so

Speaker 12 we had thousands of people that were following.

Speaker 5 We had a Facebook page, Brave Like Brett, where people were going to check for updates. And we had people praying for Brett from all over the United States and from over 40 countries.

Speaker 1 Wow.

Speaker 5 So after that, first 19 days in the ICU, he was transferred over. It was just five minutes away, but it took that long to get him stable enough to be able to transfer to St.

Speaker 5 Jude, where he spent the next 300 days. And so when he got there, he couldn't hold his head up.

Speaker 12 He could barely wiggle his toes.

Speaker 5 He couldn't remember what had happened 30 seconds.

Speaker 7 before,

Speaker 5 which honestly at times was a blessing that he couldn't remember some of those things going on.

Speaker 5 He just faced overwhelming odds over and over for the next, you know, 11 months while we were there. He had a brain bleed, had lost most of his vision.

Speaker 6 He had multiple relapses with his cancer.

Speaker 5 And in August of that year, he received a bone marrow transplant, and his brother was the donor. His brother Bond was a 100% match.

Speaker 1 And so

Speaker 12 that was a huge blessing.

Speaker 5 and we were able to go home in December of that year so his doctors that were with him from the beginning from the very beginning called him a miracle and they tears would roll down their face you know and they would see him coming back for follow-ups they had never really even seen him walk you know at the time that they had had him and so

Speaker 5 Brett is currently he's 17 he's three years post-transplant we have moved to Nashville

Speaker 5 He is legally blind now, continues to have the short-term memory loss challenges, has some mobility deficits, but he's attending high school full-time.

Speaker 5 He's involved in church and best buddies at school.

Speaker 12 So he is currently cancer-free.

Speaker 1 Wow.

Speaker 5 This all happened during COVID, so we weren't allowed any visitors. So there were so many people, though, that were so generous during that time.

Speaker 5 And so, I mean, we had our next door neighbor mowed our yard for an entire year just without anyone asking, just did it.

Speaker 5 My husband and I were both coaches. Referees would just sign over their checks, you know, at our ball games.
Sometimes they would do that.

Speaker 2 So all your financial needs were just miraculously covered by community.

Speaker 12 We had lots of help from lots of different people for sure.

Speaker 2 That's special.

Speaker 1 So glad he's doing it so well. That's pretty cool.
Miracle comeback. I love it.

Speaker 1 This

Speaker 1 is the Ramsey Show.

Speaker 1 It's our annual giving show here on the Ramsey Show. Thank you for joining us, being part of the program today, America.
Well, Christmas is here. Can you believe it's here? I mean, it's amazing.

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Speaker 1 Our annual generosity, our annual giving show. This particular version brought to you by the fine folks at Convoy.
of hope

Speaker 1 and Landry is next in Oklahoma City. Merry Christmas, Landry.

Speaker 10 Merry Christmas.

Speaker 1 So tell us your generosity story.

Speaker 8 Okay.

Speaker 16 Well, first I just want to say my name is Landry Johnson. I'm a sophomore at the University of Oklahoma.
And now I'm going to just give a little backstory.

Speaker 16 So when I was 15, my father, Noah Orlando Johnson,

Speaker 16 passed away to suicide very abruptly.

Speaker 16 During this time, I was 15 and my older brother was 17.

Speaker 16 Obviously, we're getting ready to go off to college, and it was definitely just a lot going on. Not only did my my father take his own life,

Speaker 16 before taking his life, he shot my stepmom six times.

Speaker 9 Oh my gosh.

Speaker 16 And just during this time, it was very hard financially, mentally, in every single way.

Speaker 1 Trauma. But

Speaker 16 yeah, it was a lot going on all at once, especially for a 15-year-old girl.

Speaker 16 We were also traveling back to and from Oklahoma to Texas to see my stepmom while she was in the hospital. We were definitely very much there for her, a lot of it.

Speaker 16 But obviously hospital bills and all the things like that was, it was a lot. And then

Speaker 16 we found out my dad didn't have life insurance.

Speaker 16 He also didn't have a will of any sort, which just left me and my brother and my stepmom just in a very hard place because my brother Christopher and I were both getting ready to go off to college and we didn't really have those funds set up because we weren't expecting this to just happen.

Speaker 16 No one was expecting him to just do what he did.

Speaker 16 So my brother and I immediately just started looking for scholarships and things like that once we got our heads in the right space.

Speaker 16 My brother is now at Texas State,

Speaker 10 and I'm at, obviously, the University of Oklahoma.

Speaker 16 But during our research, we found a website called Life Happens. And through this website,

Speaker 16 it has a bunch of different scholarships for kids. who have lost parents that didn't have life insurance.

Speaker 16 And one of those companies is called Xander Insurance, Insurance, which is the company that so gratefully and graciously gave me my scholarship.

Speaker 16 And the scholarship that I got with them, I get it every year, so it's reoccurring.

Speaker 16 And it's actually the scholarship that puts me to where I need to be so I don't have to take out any student loans and I'm debt-free from college because of this scholarship, which is truly just a blessing.

Speaker 16 Yeah. So not only has it opened doors for education, community, meeting people, it's put me in a place where my situation as losing my father isn't going to define my future based off that.

Speaker 1 Amen. It's really amazing.

Speaker 1 You're amazing. Wow.
Thank you.

Speaker 1 You come through that trauma and you got a head on your shoulders like this and you're a sophomore in college. You're impressive.

Speaker 1 I'm proud of you. Good work.

Speaker 2 Xander chose well.

Speaker 1 Yes, they did.

Speaker 6 Yeah, they're awesome.

Speaker 1 Yeah. So what are you studying?

Speaker 16 I'm studying healthcare administration with a minor in marketing.

Speaker 1 I bet. Yeah, that's perfect.
Very good. Very cool.

Speaker 1 And you're extremely well-spoken, young lady. I'm proud of you.
You just came on in front of millions of people and handled that like a pro.

Speaker 3 Thank you.

Speaker 16 I appreciate that.

Speaker 2 And wishing you the best with the rest of college. And forgive my ignorance.
I didn't know Xander did that. So that's a really cool program they have.

Speaker 1 I knew they did a lot of generosity things, and they have all kinds of different things they do in giving

Speaker 1 that we have participated in. I was not aware of that one.
That's pretty cool. That's very interesting.

Speaker 2 You'll have to ask Jeff Xander about that next time you guys hang out.

Speaker 1 Yeah, we'll send him a clip of this.

Speaker 1 That'll make his eyes leak. That's a good thing because I like watching Jeff cry.
It's fun.

Speaker 2 Well, it's cool to see the other side because when you're Xander, you give out the scholarship, you may not hear from them. So it's cool to see the progress and momentum.
And that's pretty amazing.

Speaker 2 How she's changed her life because of this, going to school debt-free.

Speaker 1 For those of you not figuring out what we're talking about, Jeff Zander is Xander Insurance, and he's been an advertiser on the show for we've advertised for him, for people to, oddly enough, get life insurance.

Speaker 1 That's where we send you to to get life insurance, and they shop among a bunch of different companies, get you the best deal.

Speaker 1 Obviously, Landry's dad did not have that, and that's how this is all set up. And that's probably why they give to this particular fund, you know, is a way to give back, so to speak.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 so we've endorsed that company for, gosh,

Speaker 1 almost 30 years and

Speaker 1 sent people there by the the hundreds of thousands over the years. And then he turns around with some of the profits from that, running that organization and does this.
So

Speaker 1 a great generosity story. Love that.
Well done, Jeff. I'm proud of you, my friend.
Well done, Landry. You handled that call like a pro.
You told that story beautifully.

Speaker 1 I don't know many sophomores in college can do that.

Speaker 2 No, that's pro level right there.

Speaker 1 Yeah, well played.

Speaker 2 Teaching her well at University of Oklahoma.

Speaker 1 Well played. Danielle is in Grand Junction.
Hi Danielle. Merry Christmas.
Hi.

Speaker 6 Hi, how are you?

Speaker 1 Better than I deserve. Tell us your generosity story.

Speaker 10 Okay, so my husband and I are both educators in a small school. And in 2018, there's a theme I've noticed today in the show, but unfortunately we lost two students to suicide.

Speaker 3 And it was

Speaker 10 one of the hardest things as an educator that we had to go through.

Speaker 10 And we decided we were on baby step six, and we decided to go ahead and take a goal that we had for baby step seven. And we went ahead and started a college scholarship in the name of my brother.

Speaker 3 His name was Evan.

Speaker 3 And

Speaker 10 we raise money and we give scholarships to students at our high school. And so far to date, since then, we've been able to give 15 scholarships ranging from $750

Speaker 3 to

Speaker 10 actually, I'll pause real quick and say that where we get the funds is

Speaker 10 we don't, I have an annual fundraiser in the summertime and the students at the school will help me put on the fundraiser and we sell food, burritos and salsa and the community is extremely generous.

Speaker 10 And so

Speaker 10 I'll tell people that

Speaker 10 the food costs a certain amount, but they'll tip me like crazy because they know that every dollar that they give to us will go straight to the college scholarship, scholarship, straight to the kids.

Speaker 10 And the reason why we wanted to do the scholarship is because the loss felt really real to us, and we wanted to have change in the community. But we also knew that

Speaker 10 we would prefer that the scholarship be more about going to school without loans than mental health. And so our focus is on teaching kids also on how to go to school without any loans.

Speaker 1 Love it. Love it.
That's well played.

Speaker 1 And you said you've done how many scholarships so far?

Speaker 10 We have given out 15 so far, and we've awarded over $64,000 in scholarships.

Speaker 1 I love it.

Speaker 10 Yeah, it's really, it's a community, like the community is very generous. Plus, we have some really generous donors.

Speaker 10 And how the kids will qualify for the scholarship is they have to listen to the borrowed future or watch the documentary, and they have to come up to us and let us know how they're going to school without loans.

Speaker 10 And so our scholarship renews every year for up to $10,000.

Speaker 10 And I'm proud to say quite a few of these kids, I know it's made a difference in them going to school, we changed their mindset and they go to school without any loans and that makes me very proud.

Speaker 6 And it's the only positive thing I can say that came from the losses that we had.

Speaker 12 Wow.

Speaker 1 You ought to be proud. I'm proud of you.
Listen to this story.

Speaker 2 What a great reminder. You don't have to give a lot personally, but Danielle was bold and said, I'm going to start this thing.
And the community, you know, rallied around it and made it happen.

Speaker 1 You just got to raise it up or have a vision. Exactly.
And beautifully done. Beautifully done.
And tied to it, the whole debt-free thing, they get to see George. That's right.
On Borrowed Future.

Speaker 2 That's fun. There we go.
Yeah. I wouldn't call it a feature, but there it is.

Speaker 1 It was a cameo.

Speaker 1 Oh, this is the Ramsey Show.

Speaker 1 It's our annual giving show on generosity here on the Ramsey Show. George Camill, Ramsey personality, is my co-host today.
Frank is with us in Nashville. Hey, Frank, Merry Christmas.

Speaker 4 Merry Christmas to you and George, Dave. Thanks for taking our call.

Speaker 1 Absolutely. Tell us your story about generosity.

Speaker 4 Well, Linda and I began overgiving about seven years ago. We were in a restaurant, and on the way in, we noticed a van, a couple of people in the van, young children, and they stayed out there.

Speaker 4 We went in, we had our dinner, and they came in just before we finished our dinner. They finally came in.
They talked with the owner and the server, they were trying to bargain for two buffet

Speaker 4 payments for a meal to feed them two and their three kids. And so we're in earshot of this, and we heard what was going on.
And finally, the

Speaker 4 owner finally agreed to have the minimum take some stuff for the kids.

Speaker 4 But then we went over to the table as we finished our dinner, we went over to the table and we wished them Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday. And we told them that we will buy all five of their meals.

Speaker 4 And we told the server that it was going to be on us, and we were going to pay for it.

Speaker 4 And we then emptied our pockets of whatever cash we had, which is just over $100 or so, and we gave it to that couple.

Speaker 4 They definitely seemed to be maybe passing through, definitely destitute, and looking for a need. So we responded.

Speaker 1 Absolutely. Well done, sir.
Well played. Well played.
The good news is they got a full belly and you got a great story for the rest of your life.

Speaker 8 Absolutely.

Speaker 4 And that changed our life after that.

Speaker 4 We had already been millionaires a little bit before that. And

Speaker 4 we said, you know,

Speaker 6 we're just not giving enough.

Speaker 4 We have no children.

Speaker 4 There's no one for us to leave this to except our nieces and nephews, which, you know, we do help on occasion. And we said, you know, we need to just give better, give more, give better.

Speaker 4 Better tipping, better

Speaker 4 involvement with certain causes, you know,

Speaker 4 charities and veterans associations, because, you know, I'm a veteran and, you know, we need to boost up the population.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Well done, Frank.
Well done. I like it.
I like it a lot. You know, and the interesting thing is, folks, Frank's story is Merry Christmas to you, Frank.
The Frank's story is just a reminder.

Speaker 1 All you got to do is just lift your eyes up just a little bit and look around the room. There's somebody somewhere in the room.
I mean, all the time. There's you at the gas pump,

Speaker 1 wherever. I mean,

Speaker 1 there's.

Speaker 2 If you just start listening and start looking, you will find so many opportunities to give.

Speaker 1 It's amazing. And, you know, where occasionally $100 makes a big difference.
You know, just $100. I mean, you've got a million.

Speaker 2 Well, and just the surprise element of kindness is just so shocking in today's culture that it really does change a person's day, their week, maybe even their year.

Speaker 1 And here's what's interesting.

Speaker 1 The

Speaker 1 power of giving, what it does is it

Speaker 1 reshapes when you give,

Speaker 1 regardless really of what you give to. But the more personal it is, like Frank's situation or some of these stories we've had in the

Speaker 1 last couple hours here are just incredible.

Speaker 1 When you give, it reshapes and changes you permanently. You are moving along the spectrum from self-ish to selfless.

Speaker 1 And generous people are highly attractive

Speaker 1 because they smile more.

Speaker 1 It's hard to find someone who's depressed who's generous. If you're outrageously generous, these are some of the smiliest people you'll run into.

Speaker 1 You know, it's hard to find someone, you know, if you're outlandishly generous, it spills over into your marriage. If you're crazy generous, it spills over into your parenting.

Speaker 1 You're the one that holds the door for someone. You're the one that picks up the groceries when the bag drops out the bottom of it and stuff's rolling all over the parking lot and you help and stop.

Speaker 1 It reshapes who you are because you become, by definition, other-centered rather than self-centered. Selfish.

Speaker 1 And that's the beautiful thing about these stories is it reveals that someone was looking outside of themselves. George, we've had some great stories written in, too.
Pick one of them up.

Speaker 2 Oh, yeah. This one's from Carl in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Here's what he had to say. My wife is vision impaired.

Speaker 2 Every time we buy tickets for a concert, we always have to buy as close as possible so she can somewhat see the show. A lot of times, that includes using third-party vendors to get the better tickets.

Speaker 2 The Eagles had a concert at Thompson Bowling Arena in Knoxville, April 1st, 2023. We bought a pair of tickets for around $1,200.

Speaker 2 A week or so later, we found a better pair of tickets for $1,100.

Speaker 2 We decided to purchase the second set and turn around and sell the first to recoup our money. To make a long story short, we tried for over a month and could not sell our tickets.

Speaker 2 We drove to Knoxville the night before the concert, and the day of the concert, we decided to eat at one of our favorite restaurants in Knoxville, and it was about three or four hours before showtime, and we still had the two extra tickets.

Speaker 2 That is when my wife and I decided to give the $1,200 tickets to our server. She was a grandma and raising her two grandkids and a very nice lady.

Speaker 2 We asked her if she had plans that evening and she said no. We then asked her if she liked the Eagles.
She said she did and we asked her if she'd like to go to the concert for free.

Speaker 1 Whoa.

Speaker 2 It took us about an hour working with her phone and hours to transfer the tickets on Ticketmaster, but we did get it taken care of and even gave her a big tip on top of that to cover her parking.

Speaker 2 The concert was fantastic, but my wife and I enjoyed blessing her and her husband even more than the concert itself.

Speaker 2 It was the first concert she had ever been to, and the Eagles is a great first concert to go. Absolutely.

Speaker 2 She texted us after the concert and told us she and her husband had a wonderful time and thanked us again. Best $1,200 my wife and I have ever spent.

Speaker 1 Biggest tip that waitress ever got, too.

Speaker 1 That's the truth.

Speaker 2 And I know, Dave, you're a big Eagles fan.

Speaker 2 And, you know, being a Knoxville fan, it's all there. This is a very Dave story.
If I had to make one up.

Speaker 1 I had nothing to do with the story, but it does, yeah, it's all around me.

Speaker 2 If I said, Chat GPT, give me a generosity story that Dave will love. It's going to involve the Eagles and Knoxville.

Speaker 1 You didn't do that. That's not a made-up

Speaker 1 AI story. That's a real story.
It's just really happened, and I had nothing to do with it, I'll just say. But yeah, that's pretty incredible.
That's fun. And,

Speaker 1 you know, it's interesting. Again, this whole thing, the formation of character comes out in this.

Speaker 1 That's pretty stinking cool right there. This woman is waiting.

Speaker 1 Honey, what happened at work today? I got a $1,200 tip

Speaker 1 in the form of Eagles

Speaker 1 tickets. That's wild.
Yeah, that's very cool. Very cool.
Hey, folks.

Speaker 1 The next segments of the Ramsey show are on the Ramsey Network app only or talk radio only.

Speaker 1 And so if you want to tune into those, you need to download the Ramsey Network app you always get the last segment of the show by having the Ramsey Network app you can get the first segments of the show in video audio whatever you can search the show by questions if you've got a certain question you want to answer it'll pull up calls from that you can send us emails directly through the Ramsey Network app it costs absolutely nothing there is no subscription and no salesman will call

Speaker 1 So if you'd love to have more Ramsey Network stuff, including the back ends of this show, the the place to do that would be the Ramsey Network app.

Speaker 1 And again, you can download that for free on wherever great apps are sold, right?

Speaker 1 Although this one's not sold. It's free.
So check it out over at the Apple Store or Google Play or whatever else you need to do to get an app in. And,

Speaker 1 you know, you'll really enjoy. picking up the rest of the story, as Paul Harvey used to say.
There you go. So good stuff.
Good stuff. Folks, I can't inspire you enough.

Speaker 1 I I can't remind you enough the power of giving and

Speaker 1 how it loosens up your view of life, how it changes your peripheral vision, how it changes the way you walk through this life versus

Speaker 1 being so inward focused, you become outward focused and

Speaker 1 it just makes you highly attractive. So one of the reasons we love to teach on and preach on and encourage generosity any possible way we can.
That puts this hour of the Ramsey Show in the books.

Speaker 17 What up, what up? It's Dr. John Deloney from the Dr.
John Deloney Show with some amazing news.

Speaker 17 The latest episode of United States of Anxiety is available right now exclusively on the Ramsey Network app.

Speaker 17 This docu series follows real people from my show as they embark on a 90-day journey to transform their lives and I personally walk alongside them every step of the way.

Speaker 17 Okay, now here's a sneak peek of what the new episode is all about. And don't forget to click the link in the show notes to download the app.

Speaker 1 What's up, Kelsey?

Speaker 9 So I've lived with crippling anxiety for as long as I can remember. How do I stop it from constantly coming up in different areas of my life?

Speaker 17 What does crippling anxiety mean? Paint me a picture of that.

Speaker 17 All right, so you ready to jump in?

Speaker 6 I'm ready to jump in.

Speaker 17 So we're gonna check in with Kelsey 30 days, 60 days, 90 days.

Speaker 18 I cannot even function because I'm just crying.

Speaker 18 My mom left us when I was four.

Speaker 9 I truly felt like for a while I had no family.

Speaker 17 She's experiencing things that really hurt a long time ago.

Speaker 1 Tell me about this boy.

Speaker 9 He triggers me a lot.

Speaker 18 Scared of losing Paul, scared of doing the wrong thing, scared of not being enough.

Speaker 17 It just feels like it would be exhausting to be Kelsey. It is.
Whenever somebody's playing whack-a-mole with their anxiety, when it just keeps moving, that tells me the underlying system's not okay.

Speaker 18 How do I get my inner child out of this relationship? Because I feel like she's running the show.

Speaker 17 One of two people that's supposed to never leave took off.

Speaker 1 I was this.

Speaker 1 I was this burden. New burden, that's right.

Speaker 17 To the one person

Speaker 17 who should carry it, all of it. Did you ever tell that little girl that it wasn't her fault?

Speaker 9 I don't know what to do.

Speaker 17 You either have to choose to let this guy love you, or you got to choose to let this guy go.