April 21, 2026 • 25 mins
What does it look like to radically change your family’s future? In this episode, Laura sits down with Sammy Wedemeyer, who is documenting her family’s journey to pay off $214,000 of debt on a single income. What started as a practical debt payoff plan has become something much deeper: a story of stewardship, simplicity, generosity, faith, and legacy.
Sammy shares how a sermon on giving and stewarding what God has entrusted to us completely shifted the way she thought about money, possessions, and the “little treats” culture that keeps so many families stuck. That message led her to declutter her home, rethink what her family actually needed, and eventually make radical changes—including selling a truck with a $699 monthly payment to free up margin and build momentum.
Laura and Sammy talk about:
- how debt became normal in our culture
- what stewardship really looks like in everyday family life
- the emotional side of selling a vehicle to speed up debt payoff
- how simplicity creates more peace and less chaos at home
- what happens when faith becomes part of your money journey
- why this story is inspiring so many other families to start their own debt payoff plan
This conversation is honest, encouraging, and full of hope for anyone who feels buried by debt or unsure where to begin. Sammy’s story is proof that radical change is possible—and that freedom often starts with one brave decision.
Follow Sammy on Instagram @Sammy.Wedemeyer
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Episode Transcript
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Laura (00:01):
Legacy builders.
I recorded this episode way backin February, and yes, it has
taken me that long to edit itand get it to you.
I apologize because this is suchgood content.
I wanted to make sure.
That it was done perfectly andsometimes perfection is the
enemy of good.
And I am sorry I stole multipledays of you being able to have
(00:24):
this excellent interview in yourearbuds.
You can check her out, followher journey on Instagram.
Her journey to debt payoff hasbeen absolutely inspirational to
me and over a hundred thousandpeople that are following her on
this journey.
Please take a second.
Go follow her on Instagram.
Sammy.
Do Wedemeyer and check out thispodcast with my new friend
(00:48):
Sammy.
You are listening to the Moneyand Legacy Podcast with Laura
Sexton.
I'm helping families pay offdebt, grow wealth, and build a
legacy without sacrificing whatmatters most.
This is where money feels easy.
GMT20260213-210147_Recor (01:02):
Hello, legacy builders.
Thank you for coming back to thepodcast today.
I have a very special guest withme.
Sammy Wedemeyer is with me and Imet her accidentally on
Instagram.
She is doing one of these reallycool challenges where she's
trying to get her family of fouron a single income out of
$214,000 of debt.
(01:24):
And I will tell you, I found heron day.
Four and we are 45 days in, Ibelieve to, or 44.
I don't even know what day it isanymore.
Yeah.
Yep.
At the time of this recording.
Sammy, first of all, thank youso much for being on this
podcast.
Whose legacy or who is somebodywhose legacy you would like to
(01:44):
emulate one day?
Thank you first and foremost forhaving me on here.
This is so exciting.
Whose legacy would I like toresemble?
It's funny you asked thisquestion and the first and only
person that comes to mind isJesus.
And I know that might soundcrazy, but the closer that I get
(02:05):
to God through this wholeprocess, the only person I want
to emulate is Jesus.
I just want to.
Love like him and take care ofpeople like him and steward what
I have well and keep my heartposture in check.
I was never really, I wasinfluenced to get into debt very
(02:28):
easily just by society.
And this was just the norm.
So I never really relied onanyone except God to help get us
out of jet.
So that is my answer.
It's a fabulous answer and itreally puts us in the right
heart posture for where we wannabe with this.
And I love that our family mottoor one of our family mottos,
we're working on it, we'retrying to figure out which one
(02:49):
we really want to stick with,but one of our family mottos is
to everyday live and love morelike Jesus.
So yeah, I love it.
Can you tell me,'cause I know alittle bit about your story, I
know what you've put out intothe world, and so I'm hoping to
get a concise kind of storyhere.
But you listened to a sermonthat even before you were in the
debt payoff, this sermon causedyou to clear out your home.
(03:13):
I need to hear this sermon.
Can you tell me a little bitabout that?
Yeah our church was doing aseries on the importance of
giving and it started out thefirst couple, I think it was
like a five or six week sermonseries, and the first two were
about how important tithing was.
And I learned a lot abouttithing and then we got into the
(03:36):
importance of being able to giveand being a generous giver and
how the realization of justthat.
None of what we have.
None of what we earn, none ofwhat we are given is actually
ours.
And that was such a profoundthing for me.
I remember sitting there going,wait, what do you mean?
And the entire sermon was allabout how we are, everything is
(03:59):
a gift.
Our children are gifts.
Our homes are gifts.
Our jobs are gifts.
Our health is a gift, and wehave to work on stewarding these
things well and being able toprovide for other people and be
joyful about providing for otherpeople and helping other people
and using.
Our income and the money we havein, I guess like in the right
(04:22):
way and not spending it onthings that are just not
necessary, that don't actuallybring us joy or do anything for
the greater good.
So that sermon really.
And my pastor specifically saidhow did he say it?
He said, we are in thisdeserving mindset.
This just society, especiallyAmericans, think that we deserve
(04:45):
every little thing and I deservethe little treat and I deserve
to go shopping and I deserve thebreak.
And while we work hard and we dothe things that we're supposed
to do every day, we don'tactually.
Deserve all this little stuff.
It's just justification andvalidation to spend.
And that part really got to me.
(05:06):
And then he encouraged everybodyto go home and to get rid of one
thing this week, but not justone thing.
One thing that you like, likesomething that you like that is
in your home?
Yeah.
That you don't necessarily.
Love, but you would have adifficult time parting with and
seeing if you could give it tosomeone else or gift it as a
(05:27):
gift or donate it.
So I came home and decided thatwe would do that with 70% of our
house.
That's amazing.
I just went crazy.
Yeah.
No, I don't think you wentcrazy.
I don't think that's a label youshould put on yourself.
I think that you went.
Radical maybe, but Jesus, sothat's totally okay.
(05:49):
Wow.
What could it look like if morepeople kept their homes to the
things that they needed and notall of the stuff that they
wanted?
Because we tend to get reallyover cluttered.
And when there's stuffeverywhere, it clutters our
mind.
It keeps us from being able tofocus on the things that we need
to focus in on.
We get easily distracted.
And so by pairing things, bypruning, you've really made less
(06:13):
chaos in your life.
Yeah.
Oh, for sure.
And it's funny I keep doingthat.
I find myself looking around andbeing like, do we actually need
this?
Do we actually use this?
Is this something that you'veoutgrown?
We just, it leaves more room forus to be together.
It leaves more room for me tonot be cleaning and organizing
all the time.
It allows more time for me to bein the word because I'm not so
(06:35):
focused on.
All the stuff that needs to getdone.
So it's been truly just such ablessing.
And even at Christmas time, webought gifts for our kids and
ended up returning half of themprior to Christmas because we
wanted them to just have a fewthings that they really loved
and not just like a lot of whatthey liked.
So we're trying to teach that,which is going well, but it's
(06:58):
just, yeah, I think the less.
Stuff like we just don't needall the stuff.
And I'm just noticing that Ithink getting to the root of why
we collect and why we have, andwhy we shop and is really
important too.
Yeah.
So you have them just in thisperfect timeframe of we're gonna
change and we're not gonnaconform to the patterns of the
(07:20):
world, but we are going to be anew creation who are doing
things the way that God calls usto do them.
And God does not.
Anytime debt is mentioned in theBible, it is a negative.
It is, you're stupid.
You're, don't do this'causeyou're putting yourself in a
trap.
So you're changing the legacyfor them on multiple different
(07:44):
levels.
And I love that you're doingthat.
Yeah, I'm trying.
I'm trying.
No, you are.
You are.
Thank you.
'cause your kids are playingfollow the leader, whether you
know you're playing the game ornot.
And they're going to, that'strue.
They're going to see what youwere doing.
So I hope that this is anencouragement for you.
Now you did something that wastotally crazy and you decided to
(08:06):
take your kids back to thenineties.
To the point of buying a VHStape, I need to know how they
reacted to this.
Like how did you find a VHS tapeanywhere?
And how would you encourageother people that want to do
something is similar to that?
So we they were never reallyiPad kids.
(08:27):
They, we have iPads.
I'm not gonna say we don't webought them last year and we had
a trip in December planned, andI was like, oh, we need the
iPads.
We're driving.
And it turned out we did notneed the iPads, but we, I was
really I knew when we weregetting.
Wanting to get out of debt, thatall of the streaming services
were costing a lot of money, andwhether that's Disney Plus or
(08:49):
Hulu or Netflix or whatever.
And I said, this is insane.
And actually my mom was movingand she had all my VHSs from
when I was a kid and all of mylike home videos.
So I really wanted to watch myhome videos.
So we searched the thrift storefor months for a VHS player.
I bet you did not know that VHSplayers are coming back.
So they're on eBay, but they'revery expensive.
(09:11):
Yeah, so I did not wanna spendupwards.
I know.
I was like, I didn't wanna spendupwards of like$80 on eBay, so
we just kept looking.
And then at Goodwill, one, onetime my husband went over to the
electronics and he came backwith a VHS player for 9 99, and
I was just.
Ecstatic.
So it worked.
(09:32):
And then we just curated acollection of the VHSs we've
loved as kids and they at first.
So it's interesting, thegraphics are very different.
If you remember back to theneverything is less vibrant and
almost slower.
So they had to sit through thepreviews, but that was actually
very cool because it's likecoming soon in 1994.
(09:55):
And so we got to relive this andI got to tell them about, what
it was like when I was growingup.
And so that was really cool.
And now they don't mind.
And we have a DVD player too.
So we've been trying to only usethose tools.
So that's been this entire yearso far, and it's been really
fun.
I grew up where movies were thething and my grandfather would
(10:15):
gift movies.
That was what we got as a gift.
And I love this it, when I sawthat on your Instagram, I
started screaming.
So that was a fun thing, andthis one's gonna be a little bit
more emotional.
Maybe you've gotten past theemotion of this, but you and
your husband made the decisionto sell his truck and based on
(10:35):
what I saw online, he seemedmuch more okay with this than
you did.
And so I'm curious, A lot ofpeople push back on this with
me.
They push back we can't be asingle.
Vehicle, household.
And I had that problem becausewe moved over an hour away from
my husband's work.
So being him, having the onlycar Oh wow.
Ended up being a very scarysituation when we had a fire
(10:57):
across the street from our houseand I had no way of leaving with
my six month old baby.
Oh wow.
Yep.
Yeah, that was not fun.
It was very scary.
But we chose to not go out andmake an emotional purchase and
continue with what we weredoing, where we just saved up
and we eventually boughtourselves a vehicle.
But you have gone down to beinga single income or single
(11:19):
income.
That's funny.
You were already a single incomefamily.
You've gone down to a singlevehicle family, but you had a
harder time with that than hedid.
So can you tell me a little bitabout what you were feeling and
like how that all played out forthe two of you?
Sure.
So I I am definitely the moresentimental one I am, the more
emotionally invested one.
(11:40):
I, when we bought that truck, wewere not in the situation that
we are in now.
We have since accrued.
A lot more debt just be bythings happening.
None of it is, was reallyconsumer debt.
It was just life.
But when we bought that truck,he had spent his entire last 10
years just driving, I wouldn'tcall them beaters, but not so
(12:04):
great.
Not so safe cars to work just tosave money.
So the truck was a very bigdeal.
We were finally in a place wherewe could do it.
And when I say we could do it.
A lot of people are pushing backon us saying, we actually
couldn't do it because we weremaking monthly payments.
But I never saw having a carpayment as like negative debt or
(12:28):
even that was something that wasnot correct.
I was always just, I've nevernot had a car payment, the truck
to me was okay.
We put a down payment on it andwe had monthly payments and it
was fine.
So we never missed a payment.
It wasn't anything like that,but it was expensive and I knew
how special.
It was, he does not ask foranything.
(12:50):
He's a very simple, easy go withthe flow man.
And he does everything for us.
So I just wanted to encouragehim to buy that.
And when he did, it was a veryexciting big deal day.
And then having to sell that wasthe complete opposite of that
for me.
I did the math.
(13:11):
The first two, three days of theyear, and I he was sleeping at
the time.
He came down and I said, Hey, Ihave a proposal.
He's okay.
I said, we can knock like$40,000off of our total.
And he said, if I sell thetruck, I said, yeah.
And without even question, hewas like, okay, done.
And I was like, okay.
(13:32):
But I.
It.
I think the emotion part too wasjust the how quickly it was all
happening.
We started this whole plan ofpaying it off and I think on day
nine is when we sold the truck.
So it just felt we were justmoving very fast and I was
trying to keep up and theemotion was just raw and real,
and he was very excited andready to do this, and I was very
(13:55):
much wait, but it's fine.
The cool news is when you're outof debt.
You'll be able to save up moneyand go buy whatever truck he
happens to want.
Yep.
And you may want somethingdifferently when you have to pay
cash for it.
Yes.
There's something about, usingcredit where it feels like
monopoly money almost, whereit's not real.
(14:16):
Like it'll be real later.
It's not real today.
So I totally.
I was the same way.
I never experienced life withouta car payment.
So I, I was the same way.
But I'm curious, would you ifyou wouldn't mind sharing, and I
can take this out if you don'twant any here.
How much was your monthly carpayment for the truck?
So the truck was.
(14:36):
It.
The truck was 6 99 so$699 amonth, and then we actually
saved a hundred dollars roughly.
It was like 98 on insurance.
And then the gas was alsoinsane.
He only really drove it to work.
But all in all, I want to saywe're saving like between eight
and 900, maybe closer to athousand a month just by getting
(14:58):
rid of the truck.
Okay, so here's the crazy thing.
I don't know how old you are andI'm not gonna ask you, but rough
numbers here.
If you are 35 years old and youwork until you are 67 years old,
and the only money youcontribute into an investment
account is the$699 of that carpayment in those 32 years, that
(15:22):
$699 will turn into$1,946,000.
1.9 million.
That's crazy.
And that's just, and no one hasever said that to me.
Really?
No, I know nothing aboutinvesting at this point, which I
know that's on my to-do listeventually, but No, take your
time.
So it's one of those thingswhere when you guys are out of
(15:44):
debt.
And you're ready to start theinvestment plan?
I'll be reaching out.
Oh yeah.
I don't do investments, but I'llhelp you build your strategy.
Great.
So you guys are on this journey.
Things are going crazy.
What do you think has been thehardest part?
For the last 44 days, I thinkthe hardest part is.
Patience because we are, we havethis vision of where we wanna
(16:06):
be.
Now that we are, we've gainedmomentum and we have a plan.
But trusting God's nudge to moveus and to not feel like we're in
control of this completely hasbeen really challenging because
we know, I think too.
Wanting to do this right.
And I don't actually know whatthat means or looks like.
(16:28):
But wanting to do it right andbeing held accountable by
hundreds of thousands of peopleon the internet now, which is
still crazy to say.
There's this level of likeexpectancy and pressure, but
that's a good thing for me.
But I think also just doing itright and making sure.
That this all just makes senseand that I'm paying off what I
(16:48):
should be instead of otherthings and just sitting in
patience of all of that.
I know that was loaded, butit's, there's a lot that goes
into this journey in general,but I think adding a piece of
doing it publicly, I.
Adds a whole other realm of fun.
So I, I can see the future and Ican, okay.
(17:08):
I can't see the future, but Ihave the vision of what I hope
the future looks like.
So I so badly wanna be there,but I know that I'm in.
A process right now where I'mbeing led through it and
documenting it, which I'm alsocertain is for a purpose.
But doing it in God's timing iswhat's the most challenging.
(17:30):
I think I'm watching people inyour comments that are like, oh,
we're gonna do it too, andthey're like, they're feeling
jazzed up and excited about it,and they're moving forward.
I think that you are inspiring awhole bunch of people.
That don't know that it'spossible or wouldn't have even
thought about it.
There are a lot of people outthere that are like no.
The car payment's normal.
Why would I not have a carpayment?
Yeah, for sure.
So you were such anencouragement.
(17:51):
Now you also, because you'redocumenting this all live, you
were given a bit of a gift by abit of a gift, a really big one.
Yes.
Which was crazy watching you.
And I'm sitting here and.
I try, I, I've been trying tofollow along and you were like,
we were given this gift.
We're gonna open it here inperson.
I heard there was a check for meand for my husband, and the
(18:13):
second you said that, I waslike, oh, it's$38,000.
The second, because I knew whatthe gift tax, right?
If one person gives.
A check to you and a check toyour husband, then there's no
gift tax.
And I was like, I was certain Iknew before you opened it.
I was like, she's about to be infor the shock of her life right
now.
Oh yeah.
Oh yeah.
(18:34):
It, that also happened so fast.
That was very early yourjourney.
Day 12 was when we received it.
I think the conversation startedmaybe on day six, day seven, and
it was simple and just this likevery basic human conversation
with a stranger on the internet,which sounds insane.
But it was just I wanna supportyou.
I have been blessed.
(18:55):
I, we choose families every yearto do this for, and I'm like,
oh, okay.
Thank you.
That's so wonderful.
I thought, not a lot of it, tobe honest with you.
I didn't even totally expectthat it would actually come to
fruition.
And then.
For our safety.
We had them send the checks, Iguess the letter to my husband's
work.
And then he brought it home andwe recorded it live, almost like
(19:18):
a live opening.
And I expected maybe at mostlike a hundred dollars.
I was like, okay, this would begreat.
And then when we opened that,and that was just, I was, I.
I still, it almost feels likeout body.
I've never held that kind ofmoney in my hand besides signing
a car payment or a house paymentor, but that's not that.
So that was just still one ofthe most surreal moments ever.
(19:43):
And what I think it did for usmore than anything is I cannot
wait to be on the giving end ofthat and having someone else
feel that.
Receiving that and knowing thatpart just fires me up.
Yeah, it was wild when I sawyour reaction, I was like, she
is gonna go give this.
And what I see in you and yourspirit, I was like, she's going
(20:04):
to turn this around one day anddo this for so many other
people.
If I were to give you$10,000 andI said, the only thing you can
do with this is to turn aroundand bless other people, what
might you wanna do with thatkind of money?
I have a running list of all thethings that I pray someday I can
do with what I feel we will beblessed with in the future.
(20:25):
So big parts of it are I wouldlove to give back to my church,
current church, even if we move.
My church right now is small.
It is obviously only funded ontithing, and we do tithe every
single month still.
But I would love to drasticallyhelp them out.
They are a massive reason that Ieven know who Jesus is.
So that is definitely somethingthat I would love to do for
(20:47):
them.
I have friends and family in mylife that also could very much
benefit from.
Financial help.
I have thoughts of how to helpthe unhoused population.
I don't exactly know what thosethoughts are, but I have
thoughts about it.
I also think being somethingabout going to normal places,
(21:09):
like very average, normal,typical places and being able to
help out a server or help outsomeone that's working or be
able to just bless.
Average people who are doingaverage things that really may
have lost hope in all humanity,which this platform has
completely restored that for me.
But to show them that goodpeople still exist and we're all
(21:31):
created for each other, and Ijust want, however God leads me,
I just want to steward the moneythat we eventually, I pray, fall
into well and be able to provideto whoever I can.
Yeah, I think that's beautiful.
I love that.
I, one day I wanna go to arestaurant and tip a server so
ridiculously and just walk away.
(21:52):
Just leave it and walk away.
One day.
What do you think is next foryou?
Like I, I know this platform hasyou paying off the debt and I
have no doubt in my mind thatyou were going to, I honestly, I
think that you are going tosurprise yourself.
You had this a hundred thousandfor the year and you're getting
real close to that already, andwe're in.
(22:13):
February.
So I have no doubt in my mindthat you guys are gonna knock
this out.
I say 18 months at the most forthe whole thing paid off.
Thank you.
Thank you.
And I say it the most, Iwouldn't be surprised if you
didn't end the year debt free.
So what would you like, whatwould you like to use your
platform for after that?
(22:35):
So the vision for that.
If anything the most surprisingpiece about all this is yes,
going back to what you saidearlier, I've had a slew of
people tell me that we'veinspired them to start their
journey.
My husband also started a page,so he has his own following, but
I, the coolest part of all ofthis is how many people have
told me that I've.
Influence them to pick up aBible or to buy a Bible or to go
(22:59):
back to church or, I, it's, andI struggle to, I don't wanna
share that too much to be like,look at what I'm doing.
I, it's, but that part has beenthe absolute coolest.
I pray that my platform reachespeople who.
Don't either know Jesus yet orhave been hurt in some way and
(23:19):
want to rekindle therelationship.
I just wanna be the light thatis, whatever that means.
And however that end up I wouldlove to, it sounds a little
insane, but I feel like ifyou're not dreaming big enough,
and your dream, or if yourdreams don't scare, you're not
dreaming big enough.
I would love for people to knowwho my husband and I are based
(23:40):
on the good that I pray we cando.
I would love to be known as alive like testimony of God and
his work.
And I have tried to pay debt offso many times but this time is
the only time that I've everbrought God into it and it has
just drastically changed.
And I just think being able to.
(24:00):
Show that and give hope topeople who feel like they're
stuck and pray over people andgive suggestions and give
strategy and all the things tohelp as many people as we can.
I think that this platform was ablessing.
So I, it's, that part is stillcrazy to me.
But I think it was given to usfor a reason okay.
(24:23):
I'm constantly amazed at how thetwo of you are so down to earth
and so loving and just you seethe light when you're talking
like you, you do, that you havegone about this brought Jesus
even from the very beginning.
You've brought Jesus the wholeway, but you also don't knock
anybody over the head with it.
(24:43):
You're not Bible bashing oranything like that.
It is it's a very genuinerelational.
Way that you guys have goneabout this and it's really
lovely to see.
Thank you.
Thank you.
I know that for me, I'm going tocontinue following your journey.
I think it's absolutely amazingif there's somebody listening to
me right now and they are notalready following and they need
(25:04):
to, how do they get a hold ofyou?
How do they follow?
I am glad you're here for thisjourney.
So my handle on Instagram andFacebook are both Sammy
Wedemeyer.
It's my full name, and that isthe easiest way to be able to
follow along.
And I try to update.
I'm typically on Instagram everysingle day, and then I cross
(25:26):
post the same information toFacebook, but I'm on both of
those platforms.
Legacy builders.
Thank you so much for comingalong with us.
Please follow Sammy and herfamily.
They are doing amazing thingsand you wanna be there to cheer
with them when they hit thatfinal debt payoff.
You don't wanna miss it, I'msure it's gonna be amazing.
So legacy builders go out andmake a difference.
Legacy builders.
I recorded this episode way backin February, and yes, it has
taken me that long to edit itand get it to you.
I apologize because this is suchgood content.
I wanted to make sure.
That it was done perfectly andsometimes perfection is the
enemy of good.
And I am sorry I stole multipledays of you being able to have
(00:24):
this excellent interview in yourearbuds.
You can check her out, followher journey on Instagram.
Her journey to debt payoff hasbeen absolutely inspirational to
me and over a hundred thousandpeople that are following her on
this journey.
Please take a second.
Go follow her on Instagram.
Sammy.
Do Wedemeyer and check out thispodcast with my new friend
(00:48):
Sammy.
You are listening to the Moneyand Legacy Podcast with Laura
Sexton.
I'm helping families pay offdebt, grow wealth, and build a
legacy without sacrificing whatmatters most.
This is where money feels easy.
GMT20260213-210147_Recor (01:02):
Hello, legacy builders.
Thank you for coming back to thepodcast today.
I have a very special guest withme.
Sammy Wedemeyer is with me and Imet her accidentally on
Instagram.
She is doing one of these reallycool challenges where she's
trying to get her family of fouron a single income out of
$214,000 of debt.
(01:24):
And I will tell you, I found heron day.
Four and we are 45 days in, Ibelieve to, or 44.
I don't even know what day it isanymore.
Yeah.
Yep.
At the time of this recording.
Sammy, first of all, thank youso much for being on this
podcast.
Whose legacy or who is somebodywhose legacy you would like to
(01:44):
emulate one day?
Thank you first and foremost forhaving me on here.
This is so exciting.
Whose legacy would I like toresemble?
It's funny you asked thisquestion and the first and only
person that comes to mind isJesus.
And I know that might soundcrazy, but the closer that I get
(02:05):
to God through this wholeprocess, the only person I want
to emulate is Jesus.
I just want to.
Love like him and take care ofpeople like him and steward what
I have well and keep my heartposture in check.
I was never really, I wasinfluenced to get into debt very
(02:28):
easily just by society.
And this was just the norm.
So I never really relied onanyone except God to help get us
out of jet.
So that is my answer.
It's a fabulous answer and itreally puts us in the right
heart posture for where we wannabe with this.
And I love that our family mottoor one of our family mottos,
we're working on it, we'retrying to figure out which one
(02:49):
we really want to stick with,but one of our family mottos is
to everyday live and love morelike Jesus.
So yeah, I love it.
Can you tell me,'cause I know alittle bit about your story, I
know what you've put out intothe world, and so I'm hoping to
get a concise kind of storyhere.
But you listened to a sermonthat even before you were in the
debt payoff, this sermon causedyou to clear out your home.
(03:13):
I need to hear this sermon.
Can you tell me a little bitabout that?
Yeah our church was doing aseries on the importance of
giving and it started out thefirst couple, I think it was
like a five or six week sermonseries, and the first two were
about how important tithing was.
And I learned a lot abouttithing and then we got into the
(03:36):
importance of being able to giveand being a generous giver and
how the realization of justthat.
None of what we have.
None of what we earn, none ofwhat we are given is actually
ours.
And that was such a profoundthing for me.
I remember sitting there going,wait, what do you mean?
And the entire sermon was allabout how we are, everything is
(03:59):
a gift.
Our children are gifts.
Our homes are gifts.
Our jobs are gifts.
Our health is a gift, and wehave to work on stewarding these
things well and being able toprovide for other people and be
joyful about providing for otherpeople and helping other people
and using.
Our income and the money we havein, I guess like in the right
(04:22):
way and not spending it onthings that are just not
necessary, that don't actuallybring us joy or do anything for
the greater good.
So that sermon really.
And my pastor specifically saidhow did he say it?
He said, we are in thisdeserving mindset.
This just society, especiallyAmericans, think that we deserve
(04:45):
every little thing and I deservethe little treat and I deserve
to go shopping and I deserve thebreak.
And while we work hard and we dothe things that we're supposed
to do every day, we don'tactually.
Deserve all this little stuff.
It's just justification andvalidation to spend.
And that part really got to me.
(05:06):
And then he encouraged everybodyto go home and to get rid of one
thing this week, but not justone thing.
One thing that you like, likesomething that you like that is
in your home?
Yeah.
That you don't necessarily.
Love, but you would have adifficult time parting with and
seeing if you could give it tosomeone else or gift it as a
(05:27):
gift or donate it.
So I came home and decided thatwe would do that with 70% of our
house.
That's amazing.
I just went crazy.
Yeah.
No, I don't think you wentcrazy.
I don't think that's a label youshould put on yourself.
I think that you went.
Radical maybe, but Jesus, sothat's totally okay.
(05:49):
Wow.
What could it look like if morepeople kept their homes to the
things that they needed and notall of the stuff that they
wanted?
Because we tend to get reallyover cluttered.
And when there's stuffeverywhere, it clutters our
mind.
It keeps us from being able tofocus on the things that we need
to focus in on.
We get easily distracted.
And so by pairing things, bypruning, you've really made less
(06:13):
chaos in your life.
Yeah.
Oh, for sure.
And it's funny I keep doingthat.
I find myself looking around andbeing like, do we actually need
this?
Do we actually use this?
Is this something that you'veoutgrown?
We just, it leaves more room forus to be together.
It leaves more room for me tonot be cleaning and organizing
all the time.
It allows more time for me to bein the word because I'm not so
(06:35):
focused on.
All the stuff that needs to getdone.
So it's been truly just such ablessing.
And even at Christmas time, webought gifts for our kids and
ended up returning half of themprior to Christmas because we
wanted them to just have a fewthings that they really loved
and not just like a lot of whatthey liked.
So we're trying to teach that,which is going well, but it's
(06:58):
just, yeah, I think the less.
Stuff like we just don't needall the stuff.
And I'm just noticing that Ithink getting to the root of why
we collect and why we have, andwhy we shop and is really
important too.
Yeah.
So you have them just in thisperfect timeframe of we're gonna
change and we're not gonnaconform to the patterns of the
(07:20):
world, but we are going to be anew creation who are doing
things the way that God calls usto do them.
And God does not.
Anytime debt is mentioned in theBible, it is a negative.
It is, you're stupid.
You're, don't do this'causeyou're putting yourself in a
trap.
So you're changing the legacyfor them on multiple different
(07:44):
levels.
And I love that you're doingthat.
Yeah, I'm trying.
I'm trying.
No, you are.
You are.
Thank you.
'cause your kids are playingfollow the leader, whether you
know you're playing the game ornot.
And they're going to, that'strue.
They're going to see what youwere doing.
So I hope that this is anencouragement for you.
Now you did something that wastotally crazy and you decided to
(08:06):
take your kids back to thenineties.
To the point of buying a VHStape, I need to know how they
reacted to this.
Like how did you find a VHS tapeanywhere?
And how would you encourageother people that want to do
something is similar to that?
So we they were never reallyiPad kids.
(08:27):
They, we have iPads.
I'm not gonna say we don't webought them last year and we had
a trip in December planned, andI was like, oh, we need the
iPads.
We're driving.
And it turned out we did notneed the iPads, but we, I was
really I knew when we weregetting.
Wanting to get out of debt, thatall of the streaming services
were costing a lot of money, andwhether that's Disney Plus or
(08:49):
Hulu or Netflix or whatever.
And I said, this is insane.
And actually my mom was movingand she had all my VHSs from
when I was a kid and all of mylike home videos.
So I really wanted to watch myhome videos.
So we searched the thrift storefor months for a VHS player.
I bet you did not know that VHSplayers are coming back.
So they're on eBay, but they'revery expensive.
(09:11):
Yeah, so I did not wanna spendupwards.
I know.
I was like, I didn't wanna spendupwards of like$80 on eBay, so
we just kept looking.
And then at Goodwill, one, onetime my husband went over to the
electronics and he came backwith a VHS player for 9 99, and
I was just.
Ecstatic.
So it worked.
(09:32):
And then we just curated acollection of the VHSs we've
loved as kids and they at first.
So it's interesting, thegraphics are very different.
If you remember back to theneverything is less vibrant and
almost slower.
So they had to sit through thepreviews, but that was actually
very cool because it's likecoming soon in 1994.
(09:55):
And so we got to relive this andI got to tell them about, what
it was like when I was growingup.
And so that was really cool.
And now they don't mind.
And we have a DVD player too.
So we've been trying to only usethose tools.
So that's been this entire yearso far, and it's been really
fun.
I grew up where movies were thething and my grandfather would
(10:15):
gift movies.
That was what we got as a gift.
And I love this it, when I sawthat on your Instagram, I
started screaming.
So that was a fun thing, andthis one's gonna be a little bit
more emotional.
Maybe you've gotten past theemotion of this, but you and
your husband made the decisionto sell his truck and based on
(10:35):
what I saw online, he seemedmuch more okay with this than
you did.
And so I'm curious, A lot ofpeople push back on this with
me.
They push back we can't be asingle.
Vehicle, household.
And I had that problem becausewe moved over an hour away from
my husband's work.
So being him, having the onlycar Oh wow.
Ended up being a very scarysituation when we had a fire
(10:57):
across the street from our houseand I had no way of leaving with
my six month old baby.
Oh wow.
Yep.
Yeah, that was not fun.
It was very scary.
But we chose to not go out andmake an emotional purchase and
continue with what we weredoing, where we just saved up
and we eventually boughtourselves a vehicle.
But you have gone down to beinga single income or single
(11:19):
income.
That's funny.
You were already a single incomefamily.
You've gone down to a singlevehicle family, but you had a
harder time with that than hedid.
So can you tell me a little bitabout what you were feeling and
like how that all played out forthe two of you?
Sure.
So I I am definitely the moresentimental one I am, the more
emotionally invested one.
(11:40):
I, when we bought that truck, wewere not in the situation that
we are in now.
We have since accrued.
A lot more debt just be bythings happening.
None of it is, was reallyconsumer debt.
It was just life.
But when we bought that truck,he had spent his entire last 10
years just driving, I wouldn'tcall them beaters, but not so
(12:04):
great.
Not so safe cars to work just tosave money.
So the truck was a very bigdeal.
We were finally in a place wherewe could do it.
And when I say we could do it.
A lot of people are pushing backon us saying, we actually
couldn't do it because we weremaking monthly payments.
But I never saw having a carpayment as like negative debt or
(12:28):
even that was something that wasnot correct.
I was always just, I've nevernot had a car payment, the truck
to me was okay.
We put a down payment on it andwe had monthly payments and it
was fine.
So we never missed a payment.
It wasn't anything like that,but it was expensive and I knew
how special.
It was, he does not ask foranything.
(12:50):
He's a very simple, easy go withthe flow man.
And he does everything for us.
So I just wanted to encouragehim to buy that.
And when he did, it was a veryexciting big deal day.
And then having to sell that wasthe complete opposite of that
for me.
I did the math.
(13:11):
The first two, three days of theyear, and I he was sleeping at
the time.
He came down and I said, Hey, Ihave a proposal.
He's okay.
I said, we can knock like$40,000off of our total.
And he said, if I sell thetruck, I said, yeah.
And without even question, hewas like, okay, done.
And I was like, okay.
(13:32):
But I.
It.
I think the emotion part too wasjust the how quickly it was all
happening.
We started this whole plan ofpaying it off and I think on day
nine is when we sold the truck.
So it just felt we were justmoving very fast and I was
trying to keep up and theemotion was just raw and real,
and he was very excited andready to do this, and I was very
(13:55):
much wait, but it's fine.
The cool news is when you're outof debt.
You'll be able to save up moneyand go buy whatever truck he
happens to want.
Yep.
And you may want somethingdifferently when you have to pay
cash for it.
Yes.
There's something about, usingcredit where it feels like
monopoly money almost, whereit's not real.
(14:16):
Like it'll be real later.
It's not real today.
So I totally.
I was the same way.
I never experienced life withouta car payment.
So I, I was the same way.
But I'm curious, would you ifyou wouldn't mind sharing, and I
can take this out if you don'twant any here.
How much was your monthly carpayment for the truck?
So the truck was.
(14:36):
It.
The truck was 6 99 so$699 amonth, and then we actually
saved a hundred dollars roughly.
It was like 98 on insurance.
And then the gas was alsoinsane.
He only really drove it to work.
But all in all, I want to saywe're saving like between eight
and 900, maybe closer to athousand a month just by getting
(14:58):
rid of the truck.
Okay, so here's the crazy thing.
I don't know how old you are andI'm not gonna ask you, but rough
numbers here.
If you are 35 years old and youwork until you are 67 years old,
and the only money youcontribute into an investment
account is the$699 of that carpayment in those 32 years, that
(15:22):
$699 will turn into$1,946,000.
1.9 million.
That's crazy.
And that's just, and no one hasever said that to me.
Really?
No, I know nothing aboutinvesting at this point, which I
know that's on my to-do listeventually, but No, take your
time.
So it's one of those thingswhere when you guys are out of
(15:44):
debt.
And you're ready to start theinvestment plan?
I'll be reaching out.
Oh yeah.
I don't do investments, but I'llhelp you build your strategy.
Great.
So you guys are on this journey.
Things are going crazy.
What do you think has been thehardest part?
For the last 44 days, I thinkthe hardest part is.
Patience because we are, we havethis vision of where we wanna
(16:06):
be.
Now that we are, we've gainedmomentum and we have a plan.
But trusting God's nudge to moveus and to not feel like we're in
control of this completely hasbeen really challenging because
we know, I think too.
Wanting to do this right.
And I don't actually know whatthat means or looks like.
(16:28):
But wanting to do it right andbeing held accountable by
hundreds of thousands of peopleon the internet now, which is
still crazy to say.
There's this level of likeexpectancy and pressure, but
that's a good thing for me.
But I think also just doing itright and making sure.
That this all just makes senseand that I'm paying off what I
(16:48):
should be instead of otherthings and just sitting in
patience of all of that.
I know that was loaded, butit's, there's a lot that goes
into this journey in general,but I think adding a piece of
doing it publicly, I.
Adds a whole other realm of fun.
So I, I can see the future and Ican, okay.
(17:08):
I can't see the future, but Ihave the vision of what I hope
the future looks like.
So I so badly wanna be there,but I know that I'm in.
A process right now where I'mbeing led through it and
documenting it, which I'm alsocertain is for a purpose.
But doing it in God's timing iswhat's the most challenging.
(17:30):
I think I'm watching people inyour comments that are like, oh,
we're gonna do it too, andthey're like, they're feeling
jazzed up and excited about it,and they're moving forward.
I think that you are inspiring awhole bunch of people.
That don't know that it'spossible or wouldn't have even
thought about it.
There are a lot of people outthere that are like no.
The car payment's normal.
Why would I not have a carpayment?
Yeah, for sure.
So you were such anencouragement.
(17:51):
Now you also, because you'redocumenting this all live, you
were given a bit of a gift by abit of a gift, a really big one.
Yes.
Which was crazy watching you.
And I'm sitting here and.
I try, I, I've been trying tofollow along and you were like,
we were given this gift.
We're gonna open it here inperson.
I heard there was a check for meand for my husband, and the
(18:13):
second you said that, I waslike, oh, it's$38,000.
The second, because I knew whatthe gift tax, right?
If one person gives.
A check to you and a check toyour husband, then there's no
gift tax.
And I was like, I was certain Iknew before you opened it.
I was like, she's about to be infor the shock of her life right
now.
Oh yeah.
Oh yeah.
(18:34):
It, that also happened so fast.
That was very early yourjourney.
Day 12 was when we received it.
I think the conversation startedmaybe on day six, day seven, and
it was simple and just this likevery basic human conversation
with a stranger on the internet,which sounds insane.
But it was just I wanna supportyou.
I have been blessed.
(18:55):
I, we choose families every yearto do this for, and I'm like,
oh, okay.
Thank you.
That's so wonderful.
I thought, not a lot of it, tobe honest with you.
I didn't even totally expectthat it would actually come to
fruition.
And then.
For our safety.
We had them send the checks, Iguess the letter to my husband's
work.
And then he brought it home andwe recorded it live, almost like
(19:18):
a live opening.
And I expected maybe at mostlike a hundred dollars.
I was like, okay, this would begreat.
And then when we opened that,and that was just, I was, I.
I still, it almost feels likeout body.
I've never held that kind ofmoney in my hand besides signing
a car payment or a house paymentor, but that's not that.
So that was just still one ofthe most surreal moments ever.
(19:43):
And what I think it did for usmore than anything is I cannot
wait to be on the giving end ofthat and having someone else
feel that.
Receiving that and knowing thatpart just fires me up.
Yeah, it was wild when I sawyour reaction, I was like, she
is gonna go give this.
And what I see in you and yourspirit, I was like, she's going
(20:04):
to turn this around one day anddo this for so many other
people.
If I were to give you$10,000 andI said, the only thing you can
do with this is to turn aroundand bless other people, what
might you wanna do with thatkind of money?
I have a running list of all thethings that I pray someday I can
do with what I feel we will beblessed with in the future.
(20:25):
So big parts of it are I wouldlove to give back to my church,
current church, even if we move.
My church right now is small.
It is obviously only funded ontithing, and we do tithe every
single month still.
But I would love to drasticallyhelp them out.
They are a massive reason that Ieven know who Jesus is.
So that is definitely somethingthat I would love to do for
(20:47):
them.
I have friends and family in mylife that also could very much
benefit from.
Financial help.
I have thoughts of how to helpthe unhoused population.
I don't exactly know what thosethoughts are, but I have
thoughts about it.
I also think being somethingabout going to normal places,
(21:09):
like very average, normal,typical places and being able to
help out a server or help outsomeone that's working or be
able to just bless.
Average people who are doingaverage things that really may
have lost hope in all humanity,which this platform has
completely restored that for me.
But to show them that goodpeople still exist and we're all
(21:31):
created for each other, and Ijust want, however God leads me,
I just want to steward the moneythat we eventually, I pray, fall
into well and be able to provideto whoever I can.
Yeah, I think that's beautiful.
I love that.
I, one day I wanna go to arestaurant and tip a server so
ridiculously and just walk away.
(21:52):
Just leave it and walk away.
One day.
What do you think is next foryou?
Like I, I know this platform hasyou paying off the debt and I
have no doubt in my mind thatyou were going to, I honestly, I
think that you are going tosurprise yourself.
You had this a hundred thousandfor the year and you're getting
real close to that already, andwe're in.
(22:13):
February.
So I have no doubt in my mindthat you guys are gonna knock
this out.
I say 18 months at the most forthe whole thing paid off.
Thank you.
Thank you.
And I say it the most, Iwouldn't be surprised if you
didn't end the year debt free.
So what would you like, whatwould you like to use your
platform for after that?
(22:35):
So the vision for that.
If anything the most surprisingpiece about all this is yes,
going back to what you saidearlier, I've had a slew of
people tell me that we'veinspired them to start their
journey.
My husband also started a page,so he has his own following, but
I, the coolest part of all ofthis is how many people have
told me that I've.
Influence them to pick up aBible or to buy a Bible or to go
(22:59):
back to church or, I, it's, andI struggle to, I don't wanna
share that too much to be like,look at what I'm doing.
I, it's, but that part has beenthe absolute coolest.
I pray that my platform reachespeople who.
Don't either know Jesus yet orhave been hurt in some way and
(23:19):
want to rekindle therelationship.
I just wanna be the light thatis, whatever that means.
And however that end up I wouldlove to, it sounds a little
insane, but I feel like ifyou're not dreaming big enough,
and your dream, or if yourdreams don't scare, you're not
dreaming big enough.
I would love for people to knowwho my husband and I are based
(23:40):
on the good that I pray we cando.
I would love to be known as alive like testimony of God and
his work.
And I have tried to pay debt offso many times but this time is
the only time that I've everbrought God into it and it has
just drastically changed.
And I just think being able to.
(24:00):
Show that and give hope topeople who feel like they're
stuck and pray over people andgive suggestions and give
strategy and all the things tohelp as many people as we can.
I think that this platform was ablessing.
So I, it's, that part is stillcrazy to me.
But I think it was given to usfor a reason okay.
(24:23):
I'm constantly amazed at how thetwo of you are so down to earth
and so loving and just you seethe light when you're talking
like you, you do, that you havegone about this brought Jesus
even from the very beginning.
You've brought Jesus the wholeway, but you also don't knock
anybody over the head with it.
(24:43):
You're not Bible bashing oranything like that.
It is it's a very genuinerelational.
Way that you guys have goneabout this and it's really
lovely to see.
Thank you.
Thank you.
I know that for me, I'm going tocontinue following your journey.
I think it's absolutely amazingif there's somebody listening to
me right now and they are notalready following and they need
(25:04):
to, how do they get a hold ofyou?
How do they follow?
I am glad you're here for thisjourney.
So my handle on Instagram andFacebook are both Sammy
Wedemeyer.
It's my full name, and that isthe easiest way to be able to
follow along.
And I try to update.
I'm typically on Instagram everysingle day, and then I cross
(25:26):
post the same information toFacebook, but I'm on both of
those platforms.
Legacy builders.
Thank you so much for comingalong with us.
Please follow Sammy and herfamily.
They are doing amazing thingsand you wanna be there to cheer
with them when they hit thatfinal debt payoff.
You don't wanna miss it, I'msure it's gonna be amazing.
So legacy builders go out andmake a difference.
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