Dave Ramsey Bought $10M Of Bad Debt For Just $259K. His Employees’ Christmas Gift Was To Call Thousands Of People With Unexpected News

Benzinga and Yahoo Finance LLC may earn commission or revenue on some items through the links below.

Dave Ramsey once spent about $259,000 to buy roughly $10 million worth of distressed consumer debt. What he did next caught even his own employees off guard.

Instead of collecting on it, the personal finance personality erased it completely and turned it into a company-wide Christmas initiative that had his team calling thousands of strangers with unexpected news.

Ramsey shared the story during a recent “EntreLeadership” podcast conversation with Harvard University professor Arthur Brooks, offering a rare look at how the move unfolded inside his company.

Don’t Miss:

A Christmas Gift That Wasn’t What Anyone Expected

A few years ago, Ramsey made an unusual decision. He purchased about $10 million worth of distressed consumer debt for roughly $259,000.

“You can buy it for nothing,” Ramsey said about bad medical debt, car repossessions, and credit cards. “I paid like 259,000 for it.”

He wiped it out completely. Then came the surprising part. His employees’ Christmas gift that year wasn’t money, bonuses or perks.

“Each of them, their Christmas present was to get to call eight people and tell them their debt was forgiven in Jesus’ name,” Ramsey said.

The company, Ramsey Solutions, had around 1,000 employees and about 8,000 accounts. Each person was tasked with delivering life-changing news to strangers.

“People were cheering and crying all through the whole building,” Ramsey recalled. “They didn’t get a present. Their present was that they got to do that.”

The reaction stood out. Ramsey said the emotional response was stronger than when employees received traditional rewards.

“It generated more happiness than most of the time when I’ve given them something,” he said.

Trending: This Under-$1 Pre-IPO AI Company Is Still Open to Retail Investors — Learn More

Why Success Alone Isn’t Enough

That story tied directly into the broader conversation with Brooks, who argued that modern culture teaches people how to be successful but not how to be fulfilled.

“The modern world doesn’t teach us how to be happier,” Brooks said. “It teaches us how to be more efficient, how to be more successful outwardly.”

He broke happiness into three components: enjoyment, satisfaction and meaning. While many high achievers focus on achievement, Brooks said meaning is often missing.

“The lack of meaning in life is one of the biggest epidemics that we’re facing today,” he said.

Ramsey agreed, adding that money was never designed to deliver purpose.

“Success or money is not designed to give you meaning,” he said. “It’s not designed to give you hope. It’s not designed to give you happiness.”

Instead, both emphasized that fulfillment comes from things that don’t show up on a balance sheet: faith, family, friendships and serving others.

See Also: Demand for Faster Diagnostics Is Surging — NASA- and NIH-Supported Space-Tested System Targets At-Home Lab-Quality Blood Testing

The Power Of Serving Others

One of the most counterintuitive ideas from the conversation was that serving others creates more happiness than being served.

Brooks described it as a form of transcendence, where people stop focusing on themselves and start focusing outward.

“It is boring to think about yourself all day long,” he said. “Me, my money, my television shows, my lunch. It’s just tedious.”

Ramsey echoed that idea from a leadership perspective. He warned business owners not to rely on perks or compensation alone to create happy teams.

“You can’t fix this from the outside in,” he said.