- Now let's hear from a couple
who completely changed
their financial situation
which helped them during
the 2008 recession
and now with COVID-19.
Welcome, Jason and Allison.
Thank you guys for being on.
- Thank you for having us.
- Thank you for having us.
- Okay, so tell me a
little bit about your story
and what made you guys want to change
what you were doing with money.
- Okay, so back in, you know,
what they call the crash, back in 2006 and 07 and 08,
at that time Allison
and I, we were farmers.
We actually worked on a farm,
and we made like $43,000 a year.
And we had no budget, and at the time,
I think we probably had
$1,000 in our bank account,
and we had $19,000 in debt.
And I had heard this guy
Dave Ramsey on the radio,
and I just decided, you
know, we were kind of
sick and tired of being sick and tired.
Like, let's just listen to the program,
see what it's about, and let's try to fix
the mess that we'd got into.
So that's kind of how it started for us.
- I love that.
I think that's the point, right?
You get to this point, like you said,
and you're like, okay, I'm
tired of living this way.
Like it shouldn't be like this.
I shouldn't have $1,000 to my name
and thousands of dollars of debt.
Like, this is not working.
- 100%.
- And so, you guys really buckled down,
and you decided to get on
a budget, start the plan.
So, I want to know about the first budget.
What was that like when
you guys sat down to do it?
What was it like between you guys?
- So the budget was interesting.
I always envisioned a budget
as, it was a bad word.
And I actually, I just didn't
even want to talk about it.
You probably want to hear
about our fights, right?
- Well we all have 'em, we all have 'em.
So, yeah, I'll hear yours.
- Because when we did
the budget, my wife is,
she just trusts me, and she's
like, "You do the budget."
Well, that was not Dave's advice.
Dave's advice is it needs
to be a group effort.
So, I created the budget, but
I slid it across the table
and said, "Hey, look at this
and can we agree to this."
And there was one thing
that you wanted different.
- The clothing budget, of course.
Well, before we got on a
budget, I always felt so guilty
spending money. Like every
dollar I was like "Am I taking
from our retirement? Am I, you
know, taking from our kids?"
But after having a budget
for each one of those items,
like it just felt so good knowing that
that money is for that particular item.
- Well that's like the perfect example
that a budget doesn't
limit your freedom.
It gives you freedom.
- Yes
- So your life beforehand, 
like you were saying,
you were questioning every
purchase, you were nervous.
"Is this stealing from our retirement?"
I mean, all these questions,
but they're all answered in the budget.
You don't have to have
guilt or shame about it.
It's there. It's planned for.
I think that's incredible.
So, I'm curious, how
long did it take you guys
to get through Baby
Steps 1 through 3?
- So Baby Step 2, to get out of debt,
we had a fixed income.
If I made not a single dollar more,
which was gonna be the
case, we were gonna go,
it would take 18 months
to get out of debt.
And then I ended up selling my Jeep.
And my Jeep was like, at the
time, was my prize possession.
I sold that because it
was paid off at the time,
and it would just, it would catapult us
forward so much, and
it gave us an opportunity.
I rode my bike to work every day.
Rachel, we went from
$1,000 in our bank account,
$19,000 in debt. Nine
months later, we had no debt
and $14,000 in savings.
And this is why I credit
the Ramsey organization
for saving our life.
I lost my job.
And if that would've
happened with that debt
and with no money, I
mean, my kids never knew.
They never knew that I
went like almost six months
with no income, and they
never knew because of what
your organization did for us.
So we literally credit
it with saving our lives.
I was not a Christ follower
when I listened to Dave originally.
None of my family were.
And he would say, "Hey, this
is how you should handle money.
"By the way, this guy Jesus said that."
And I would be like, oh, that's cool,
I just want to hear about
the money stuff, right.
But, I now know, and at that
time, we realized like,
all of those things were leading
us in a certain direction
because God already knew
where we were going.
He already knew what was gonna happen,
and we were just lucky to hear the call
to do these things to set us
up so that we would succeed.
And it was all because
of Dave and Chris Hogan,
and Rachel, and so we are so
grateful and blessed for that.
- Well that's amazing, I
mean, that's the ultimate.
That's like our ultimate goal, right?
And you even got there, I mean, that's it.
The money stuff, like you said,
we disguise it to show Jesus
to people, and so that's it.
I mean, you thought it was just—that really,
that's such a higher calling
of changing your family tree
beyond even the money stuff.
- Yes, 100%, 100%. We agree.
- That's an incredible legacy,
an absolute incredible legacy.
So for you guys, though. Man, you,
you changed spiritually,
you changed financially,
I mean, for the better in so many cases.
So right now there are a lot of families
that they're struggling,
they're freaking out.
They've had to dip into
their emergency fund
because of the pandemic.
What kind of motivation, what kind of hope
can you give those families out there?
Cause you guys have experienced
a little bit of that,
you know, when you lost your
job, not through COVID-19,
but earlier than that.
So, what kind, what kind
of advice do you give
for people out there
who are kind of scared,
they're kind of worried,
they haven't really started a plan?
- I can guarantee that
anyone listening right now
has probably been to a gym.
And you know the first three
weeks of going to the gym,
it's the worst, right?
It's hard to wake up
every day and do something
that you physically feel
like is hurting you.
- Follow through with it.
- But after three weeks,
it starts, you start to see
a little bit of improvement.
It starts to get fun.
And after three months, you
see a lot of improvement,
and you get stronger and faster,
and things you couldn't
do, you can suddenly do.
And it will be hard, right.
There's no shortcut. Like,
you're not gonna just take money
and put it into this account.
It will take time.
And it might take years.
It literally could take years to do this,
but it is so worth it because
even if you keep your job,
even if you don't get sick,
but what if you do lose
your job? What if do get,
like these things could happen.
So, when those things
happen in our lives now,
it's, we walk different, talk different.
- Yeah, it's now, like it
feels so good to be able
to give to people, to be in that position,
to, you know, people that are struggling,
or having a rough day.
You know, we can give.
- And we're so grateful for the sacrifices
that we made up front so
that we could live this life.
I want that for all Americans
because it is possible.
It is totally possible no
matter what income you make.
You can do this.
You just have to stay the course.
- It's amazing.
Well you guys are the complete picture
of what it looks like to
take control of your money
and do something different.
I mean, you changed your money habits.
You changed the way you viewed money.
You found the truth of how money works.
You applied it to your life.
You actually did the steps,
and now here you are.
I mean, debt-free
completely, money in the bank
and able to take a whole
other career into real estate.
I mean, it's just absolutely incredible.
You guys, thank you so,
so much for being on.
So if you want to learn
everything that they just did,
what they just talked about,
make sure to go to daveramsey.com/hope,
and go through our free 14-day trial
of the nine lessons of
Financial Peace University.
You're gonna learn so much
and learn how to take control of your money
and be like these guys.
I mean, absolutely incredible.
