"The Great Armageddon Retirement Fund" - A Rant by Princess Daisy Boo

Princess Daisy Boo

First a bit of background (in case you are not familiar with my family history)... My Mom is 68, My Dad is 63. They run their own small business which involves my Dad travelling all over the country and my Mom running the office. My Dad is an insulin dependant diabetic and my Mom suffers from chronic high blood pressure. My only sibling is a sister who is 27 and lives in Bethal.She is a housekeeper and her husband repairs the shoes there.

Today I call my mom to say Hi... the conversation goes something like this....

Me: So when are you going back to work Mom?

Mom: uggh, on the 2nd Jan... I wish I could just retire you know!

Me: So where's your big pension fund? When do you plan to retire?

Mom: Haha what pension fund... but it's ok... Armageddon is coming soon

Me: Ya - it has been coming soon for lots of years (very brave of me - I never challenge mom on JW issues)

Mom: Well things are just getting worse and worse and it is not just here - look at what just happened in Pakistan.

Me: (muttering) yeah and bad things like this never happened in the entire world history

Mom: (hearing me getting a bit tetchy) So how are the kids...? (and the subject swiftly changes)

So here is my rant, and it is on different levels...

1. I hate the WTS and all it stands for - it is so clear to me that they are taking all their followers for fools and they are all victims of a cruel deception.

2. I hate that my Mom and Dad and sister and so many others are victims of their bloody deception and are too blind to see what a ride they are being taken for.

3. I hate that I never stand up to them and challenge them and their lies... I don't know if it is lack of courage or trying to preserve some semblance of a relationship that prevents me from doing this.

4. I hate that the sole responsiblity of looking after my parents is going to fall on me because they haven't made provision for their old age - because hey - armageddon was supposed to be here before I even finished highschool (that was almost 13 years ago!)

Uggh - I am just so mad at the moment!

Princess Daisy Boo

BTT - Daisy Boo needs attention!

SacrificialLoon

Well I'm not much for commiseration, but I don't like when my topics get lost either. :)

I can say this much, I think that at least as far as this matter is concerned recognizing that they are victims of WTBS conditioning as a lot of us were too is a good start. Too many people forget what it was like to be under the spell.

Princess Daisy Boo

Thanks Sacraficial Loon.. at last some attention... I think maybe my post was a bit longwinded... people fell asleep reading it, thus the lack of response!

south african beef

Don't worry.

I've got two parents who are totally brainwashed by the WTBS - I would never challenge them on their beliefs because I don't want them to see how anti Jw's I've become and also they are very clever with words and would try and tie me up in knots.

Anyway I haven't spoken to them for over 5 years since I was df'd.

All the best and I thought your post was good and to the point.

Regards

SAB

LtCmd.Lore

people fell asleep reading it,

No, we all got distracted spell-checking the word tetchy, which I didn't know included a second t.

Only to find out that it can, in fact, be correctly spelled either "tetchy" or "techy".

Anyways, I agree, it's horrible. My parents have the same problem. They have absolutely NO plan for retirement. My siblings will probably be pioneering and won't be able to take care of them either.

So it'll fall to ME to take care of my parents...

Evidently

I guess the question Daisy is this; What are you gonna do about it....or, is there anything you CAN do about it????

Its tough when its your parents and/or siblings, but you gotta call their bluff, so to speak. Ask them what they're gonna do if this system lingers another 20 or 30 years, whats their Plan B if the big A doesn't come next week. If they're self employed they may not have social security to fall back on (for what its worth), so you have a right to be concerned.

Perhaps remind them about the 1975 fiasco and the problems it created for many of the R&F who sold out for Armageddon coming that year, then subsequently the years it took for many to recover (some probably never did). Of course the "new light" about the 1914 generation should also show them that no witness can get comfortable that "Sky Daddy" (sorry, couldn't resist) is gonna pull the plug any time soon.

If you want to have a serious conversation with your mother about this you probably should not '"attack" her beliefs, leave that for another time. But help her see that Armageddon cannot be a reliable retirement plan.

FWIW

Evi

serendipity

When I was a JW, and was questioned about why I was saving for retirement, I replied "I hope for the best (Armageddon), plan for the worst (retirement in this system). Besides, saving money is a great exercise in self-control and helps me to not be materialistic. " Most JWs changed the topic at that point, because JWs are as materialistic and into conspicuous consumption as "the world".

frozen one

It saddens me to no end when I go visit my 80ish parents. They are still working. Not as hard as they used to because they are old which is turning into a vicious cycle. Getting old, can't work as much, less money coming in, standard of living erodes a bit, etc. But they make it to all the meetings and crap.

On the other hand my sister, who dropped out of the witness scene years ago, saved her entire working life for retirement. She'll be done working in a couple of years in her mid 50's. I'm hoping to follow her example also.

NYCkid

Daisy Boo,

I'm right there with you sister. I'm going bald with the hair I'm pulling out. My father passed away last year and my mother has already gone through half of his small life insurance. Other than what's left of the insurance and a little 401k money, she has no savings to speak of. She's planning on retiring next year with about $25,000 in her 401k because she wants to pioneer. Last year before we stopped talking, I sat her down to review her monthly expenses and the money she will need for medical care, home and car emergency expenses. Her future is really bleak. She paused for about 5 seconds, then declared that she's not worried, Jehovah will take care of her and besides, "Armageddon is coming".......aaaaarrrrrrrrgggggghhhhh

A while back I calculated the hours they spent in the JW door-to-door work. With at least 50 years each at 10 hours a month (not counting auxilary pioneering a month each year, bible studies and countless hours at elder meetings), if they were paid for the time they spent at the current hourly minimum wage of their state, they would have earned $73,800. I didn't calculate what they spent on gas and the cost of a new car plus the finance charges every 5 years or so. The last 20 years, they have always purchased a a mini-van "especially for field service.

My siblings who are still in the religion are just has hopeless regarding planning for the future. As the black sheep of the family, nothing I say or do will convince them to save for the future.

Again, I feel your pain.

Best regards,

NYCkid

"The Great Armageddon Retirement Fund" - A Rant by Princess Daisy Boo

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