Financial catch-up after the WTS

by Simon 49 Replies latest members marriage

• 

  Simon

  Did anyone else feel that they had to catch-up financially after the WTS?

  It seemed to emphasise short-term living with no proper planning for retirement or taking care of the future.

  However, given all the talk about people in the UK making insufficient contributions to their pensions it could just be an 'excuse' to blame the WTS for it all (even though they have undoubtedly influenced people adversely in their lifetime planning).

  Since leaving we've been paying lots into pension funds and savings so that we have at least caught up with where we should have been ... we're probably well ahead if reports are to be believed (it is so hard to plan - everytime you estimate things you get a different figure between "we're going to be skint!" and "wohoo, I'll be better off when I retire than I am now!").

  Do you feel you have go back on the right track or are you still on the detour hoping that the tracks will come together down the line?

  It's never too late to start ...
• 

  under74

  Well...I dropped out of highschool because it wasn't encouraged...didn't get that cleared up and start college until I was 25. Just got out of grad school.....so there was some catch up in that if I'd gone through highschool and encouraged to go to college I might have had a much better chance of getting a scholarship to pay for it OR in the least qualifying for some that have age restrictions. Also, that since I started much later than others I feel a bit behind at times...BUT I did it and I guess since there were obstacles I appreciate where I am a little more.
• 

  LittleToe

  Yup.

  I'm hoping to start putting something away for my pension from next year. Previously it's been untenable.
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  DannyHaszard

  Fraud in the name of God.The Jehovah's Witnesses/Watchtower after 33 years of high wage earning had sucked me dry. The only reason i am not on the street or in a homeless shelter (have major disability from mismanaging my lifelong ulcerative colitis) is because of my pension and disability pay from working 22 years.

  I made big bucks as a union carpenter & gave all my 'disposable' assets to the WatchtowerThe only reason i have my pension to survive today is because the WT couldn't get at it because i also couldn't get at it.They did get my IRA fund. I was a true believer $50,000 a year and never drove a car worth more than $1,000

  They trashed my cash
• 

  Terry

  
  The first 30 years of my life were the kind of struggle you'd expect living in a third world country. I had the worst of the Witness jobs typical of all the brothers in my Kingdom Hall. Working as a janitor is honest work; but, for Chrissakes! If you have half a brain (and I do--exactly half:) you know there is more to life than dumping garbage and changing out toilet paper.

  
  Many is the time I had my gas or electricity cut off at my tiny apartment. Many a time I ran out of gas for my hand-me-down car trying to squeeze it till the next payday.

  
  I tried Pioneering AND holding a job. Some can do it and some can't. I did it until the pressure brought my hours down and I was removed from the Pioneer list. I felt an utter miserable failure. Like a fool I married (it was either that or fornication) and discovered having three kids in a row means you are doomed as a JW! You are in a hole you'll never crawl out of. The spouse is supposed to stay home and clean house and change diapers, naturally. No chance of a second income. We sank deeper and deeper into quicksand. That is why Armageddon in a few years looks mightily appealing!

  
  Now how has it changed?

  
  I pay MYSELF first! I TITHE. I take the firstfruits of every paycheck and PAY MYSELF in the form of a savings account and an I.R.A. investment program.

  
  If only I had done that from the start!

  
  After leaving the WTS it took me twenty years to recover financially.

  
  My friend, Johnny, who is still an active JW after 45+ years and is 58 years old still has to work 3 jobs! Why? He has diabetes and needs to maintain insurance benefits and compensate for the fact he'll not have anything to leave his wife and 5 kids if he dies suddenly. ALL OF HIS KIDS are disfellowshipped and cannot manage their own lives. His daughter is in A.A. They never learned (from him) how to manage to live a normal life because the world view (the Watchtower view!) they have doesn't fit with reality. So, they simply drift from one problem to the next without a clue..........

  
  It isn't just the lack of money that plagues Jehovah's Witnesses. It is the utter ignorance of what financial responsiblity really means. Living your life as though there is no tomorrow (only a comfy paradise up ahead) bodes doom. The retirement years will find the majority of the Witnesses living out their nightmare in a Fool's Paradise.

  
  The Faithful and Despicable Slave has a lot to answer for!

  
  T.

  see: http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/29/98929/1.ashx
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  AlmostAtheist

  Living your life as though there is no tomorrow (only a comfy paradise up ahead) bodes doom.

  Yes, exactly. Gina and I are finally putting something away for the future as well. At 35, we're not starting THAT late. But we could've started comfortably at 25, maybe even a little earlier. With Armageddon only "years, maybe months" away, why bother? <sigh>

  Dave of the "half a brain" class
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  dannyboy

  Man, oh man does this subject strike a raw nerve.

  I can distinctly recall, for example, a District Convention talk where the point was made that "saving/preparing for retirement demonstrated a lamentable lack of faith". What utter nonsense! But of course like most other JW's I bought into it, hook, line and sinker.

  So when I left in the late 90's, I had no retirement fund/arrangements set up, except for the equity in my house (a situation typical for dubs, I think).

  As I look back, there were so many financial moves I made/didn't make while a dubbie [things I shoud have done]......another aspect of many wasted years suckered by the Watchtower Society/Jehovah's Witnesses. Like many of you, I thought I was doing the "right thing" at the time.

  ---Dan
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  DannyHaszard

  ALL OF HIS KIDS are disfellowshipped and cannot manage their own lives. His daughter is in A.A

  All FOUR GENERATIONS of my clan an entire tribe of Haszard's and associated JW inlaws from JW 'inbreeding' have been destroyed by the satanic Watchtower.

  I have JW enemies out there from all my apostate activity,you want a piece of me come and get!
• 

  Simon

  The key thing to remember is whatever the WTS has done, it's never too late to start doing something now and something is usually better than nothing.

  My fear is that the JW relatives who haven't planned ahead will suddenly want to know us when the realise that we have and will start pulling the "blood is thicker than water" nonsense (which of course the were happy to ignore when shunning suited them).
• 

  DannyHaszard

  My fear is that the JW relatives who haven't planned ahead will suddenly want to know us

  Roger that mate you are right on the 'money'!

  I was the family anchor for my clan oldest of 5 siblings uncle Danny had the brains,brawn and the money.It's a ruinious two edge sword hacked by the WT.I am denied the support of my loved ones and i can't help them either.

  That's what's so diabolical about the WT the borg 'absorbs' entire family dynastys and sucks them dry.The other cult survivor's like Elizabeth Smart case, often have supportive family to go back to.

  The WT has f**ed over so many millions there should be donation money streaming in to the apostate sites like JWD Freeminds Silentlambs.Except NOBODY (EXJW's) has any money.

  Example-my best worldly friend would readily pay $10,000 for a cult intertvention if one of his Children were recruited.That's how guys like Rick Ross made money.