The First Proposal In Ramsey Show History

Brought to you by the EveryDollar app. Start budgeting for free today. About a year ago, I was actually in an accident, a car accident. A guy on meth rear-ended me. Oh no. Glad you're okay, man. Yeah, sent me to the hospital and everything, but because of that, yeah, I didn't know what I was going to do with my life at that point. Things kind of changed. I was in flight school through my community college, and because of the concussion and everything like that, unfortunately I couldn't continue. Oh man, so sorry about that. I'm getting a large settlement through the accident. What should I do with it, or how should I invest it? Do you feel comfortable saying the chunk of money? Yeah, so right now my bank account's sitting at about $60,000. Okay, and that's the only chunk. Will there be more in disbursements, or that's it? That's the total right there. Okay. Where are you in the baby steps? Are you familiar? Not too much. She was showing me, but not really. Okay, great. She's saying four. Baby step four, no debt. Yeah, so because of the accident, the first round of settlement, she convinced me you should just pay off all your debt. You're going to zero everything out. You'll have no money in your bank account, but you'll have no debt at all. And how much was that that you paid off? About $35,000, $40,000. So what's the living situation? Are you renting? Are you thinking of buying? That's what I'm looking at with this money first off. We're currently just renting. She actually is, well, I don't want to steal her thunder or anything like that, but we've both been slowly putting our finances together. Okay. I'd probably keep this money in a high yield for a while. It sounds like the next thing on your list is probably going to be a residence of your own, and you're going to want a down payment for that. One thing I heard, John, I heard you guys are slowly combining finances, but you're not married. No. So we've been dating since 2022. Wrap it up, homie. Take four to $8,000 and put it. Okay. A, what are you waiting for, man? And B, yet, even though I would not combine finances until you are officially married, I wouldn't buy a house together unless you're married because here's the thing. I know y'all like it would never happen to us. The number of calls we've taken over the years of we were engaged for four years. We were together for this long and then something happened and we broke up and we don't have the legal protection to untangle everything. Is that cool? That's awesome. One thing, if it's okay with you guys, can I get her up here real quick? Come on. No, no, no. It's not like that. Dude, that is not a cool head fake. Oh man. Bless her heart. I thought it was about to happen. I was going to sing. I was getting my Barry White voice ready. Okay, Nelson, what's happening right now? She applied to try to do, um, uh, you know, the debt-free scream on your show. And, um, yeah, I just wanted to give her that opportunity. I'll trade you a debt-free scream for a, will you marry me? Wow. Did I do that, James? I just made things real weird. Did you just say, I'll take that? Did you say that? Wait a second. As in right now? I'll take that. Okay. Get down on one knee. So Royce, um, you've been everything to me. Um, I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you. You've changed my life in ways that I never thought that was possible. Um, and, um, yeah, I never thought, I never thought I would be in a situation to where I could, um, love someone as much as you. And, um, I want to know, will you marry me? She said yes, ladies and gentlemen. Wow. Nelson, Nelson, while she gathers herself, tell us your, your, your bride-to-be's name. What is her name? Uh, Royce Ogden. Royce? Yes. Okay. Let's give the mic to Royce. Royce, what is going through your head right now? Tell us. I wasn't expecting any of this. No. Hey, neither was John. That's the best part. That never works. I'm stunned right now. Okay. We're going to, James, we're going to pay this off. So you guys know how we do this on the show. This is going to be amazing. Okay, Royce, how much debt have you paid off and how long? Tell us your story. I paid off about $35,000 worth of debt. In how long? 24 months. Awesome. That's awesome. Tell us what the debt was. What kind of debt was it? It was primarily credit card debt, um, and a little bit of medical debt. And while paying off all of this debt, I stopped twice to cash, cash flow two emergencies with my health, uh, totaling about $25,000. Wow. You're so amazing. What happened 24 months ago where you said, this is it. I'm getting debt free. What happened? I was watching a lot of the financial YouTube videos trying to figure out what I was doing with my life. I had just gotten off a work injury and it was just so hard to make ends meet on only 40 hours a week, which is insane. Um, once I sat down and I did the math, I realized I was hemorrhaging about four or $500 a month just because of my debt payments. And if I hadn't had them, my work injury wouldn't have ever been an issue. 35,000, 24 months, plus you cashflow. I mean, it's unbelievable. All right. So for people who are sitting in this room and who are watching on YouTube, they're blown away by what's just happened. What would you say to them is the key to getting out of debt? I think the key is probably setting the goal and walking yourself through getting there. Um, there were a lot of points to where it's, it felt like just wasn't making any progress and it was hard and the medical issues kept feeling like setbacks, but really they, um, it was an absolute blessing to be able to get through them cash flowing instead of taking out any more debt. Love it. And during this time, you were also loving and honoring a veteran who was struggling with his health too, right? Yes. It was because of going through all of this and the Ramsey process. It was about halfway through this, that his emergency happened. You're an amazing woman. Yeah, no question. Both of you. It's awesome. Having all of these changes took it from an emergency to an inconvenience. Awesome. All right, Royce, you ready to do your debt-free screen? I know you couldn't make it to Nashville. We're going to do it right here. And these people are going to lose their ever-loving minds. Are you ready? Do I hold the mic away? No, no. Give it all you got. You do, hey, listen, you do your screen the way you want to do it. I'm going to do a version of it. Okay. I'm going to lead you through this. Where are you from? I'm from Greeley, Colorado. Okay, here we go. So we got Royce from Greeley, Colorado. She paid off $35,000 in 24 months while cash flowing another 25 with health emergencies, dragging poor Nelson along. God bless his heart. She's helping him. She's an amazing woman. You are the poster child for anybody who lays eyes or their ears on this show. You can do it and they can do it. Let's hear your debt-free scream. Count it down. Three, two, one. I'm debt-free! Wow. Create your free every dollar budget today. The simplest way to budget for your life.