JW's planning for retirement

FirstLastName

I had an interesting discussion with a JW family member recently and he brought up his plans for retirement. According to his age bracket, this will not be for another 20 years or so. He plans to buy land, build a house, move the parents nearby. He was actively looking for property.

It is, ofcourse, very smart to plan ahead for retirement, and then it hit me how weird it was that he was thinking that far ahead, with Armageddon looming. When I was in, there was no need to even have a career, cause you would never have use for it - Armageddon was just around the corner!

It struck me, how much the message must have changed in the 10 years that I have been inactive? Or, could it just be that he is not taking chances and he see the flaws in the message himself?

I have kept up with some policy changes reading this board the last couple years, but have no experience attending meetings in a long time. Just was an interesting observation.

eyeuse2badub

I think that JW's are beginning to see the folly of not planning for the future. They see the org planning big construction projects that will take years and I think that it's sinking in that the big A is not coming sooooooooooon, just around the corner.

Like I told my JW wife, if the org thought the big A was sooooon they would just lease property and not get involved in very expensive, time consuming building projects. It will take millions of dollars and 10's of thousands of man hours labor to build the new headquarters. That money and time should be spent preaching don't you think?

eyeuse2badub

Scully

From the age of 6, I kept hearing how Armageddon™ was Coming Soon™. In the interim, I was manipulated into giving up a post secondary education. When I turned 30, it started to sink in how I would be financially screwed if I didn't have a career and all of a sudden I had to support my family. I went back to school, amidst protests from JWs who kept telling me how Armageddon™ was Right Around The Corner™.

It dawned on me that while the WTS was telling people to put off important things like planning for retirement, getting an education, and becoming financially secure, they were hounding JWs for cash, making investments, building new headquarters, and buying, improving and selling property for a very healthy profit. It occurred to me that these were a bunch of cynical b@st@rds who didn't even believe their own rhetoric. They just wanted a gullible audience to put them on a pedestal, put their own lives on hold, maintain a level of ignorance and suspension of disbelief, and fork over their hard earned money, while they lapped it all up and lived high on the hog with funds that were meant for the purpose of Bible education, but were diverted to tax sheltered holdings instead.

In the almost 2 decades since I quit the JWs, I've done a lot of catching up intellectually and financially. There's no going back. I'm watching elderly JWs having to continue working until the age of 80 because they have no retirement savings. I know some who have had to move in to the homes of their children - who incidentally got an education, and started saving for the future after watching the financial trainwreck of their parents' lives.

If any group of JWs have a case to launch a class action or mass action lawsuit against the WTS for its fraudulent rhetoric, it's the ones who forsook taking care of their own retirement. But then again, can you really sue someone else for your own stupidity?

steve2

The change has actually been happening imperceptibly over a number of decades in my extended JW family:

My maternal grandparents who were baptized as Bible Students in 1926/27 fervently believed the end was so very imminent that they never invested in property, choosing to live in rental accommodation for the remainder of their lives (they died in the early and mid-1970s respectively).

Each of their 8 children - including the 5 who remained in the organization - bought residential properties and bedded down for the long term - and their grandchildren, which includes moi, have also to a last one bought residential properties.

Modern-day JWs say on one side of the mouth "the end is near" but make plans for bedding down for the longer term out of the other side of their mouth.

It is nothing new: Each successive end-times religion may begin its life with all members ever-poised for the end, but as time passes, reality sets in, and engagement in routine planning ahead for the future, including, ahem, for retirement, increasingly becomes the norm. A cynic might accuse them of hedging their bets, but a kinder soul would simply acknowledge that it's very normal to care and plan for your future - just in case the Lord once again tarries and you've got no money for retirement.

From a Scriptural perspective, though, the preoccupying mystery to me is how come the organization was "closer" to the end in the mid-1920s than it is in the 2010s? BTW, it's a rhetorical philosophical question that could be aimed at all end-times religious organizations - sooner or later.

FirstLastName

Thank you all for your thoughts. I agree with all of you, that although they push the idea of Armageddon looming, that they also planning for the future without it arriving. It should be noted that this family member I mentioned just had a baby, so perhaps their thoughts are with more important issues like taking care of family, hense the planning for the future.

rubadubdub

I have heard of so many older ones, including a retiring C.O. and his wife, that have to move in with their children. Retiring dubs moving into their kid's basement or an in-law apartment. My FIL, now in his mid-eighties, was the congregation secretary, P.O., conducted the Book Study and led field service from his home for decades and was on the RBC. He is saddened by the loss of "privileges" as he has aged, but remains "loyal to Jehovah".

All the while though, he went about getting a college degree to teach, built a huge home for himself and my MIL and built over 30 rental properties. He has told my husband clearly that they are just fine. "Everything is taken care of." They don't want or need any help from us. They told my husband that he is written out of the will, as he has "left Jehovah". The WBT$ takes all. They have stated that they "don't believe in taking care of adult children." Case closed.

This man did everything he was required to do and still prepared for retirement. At least they won't be a burden on us. I have been my mom's primary caregiver for over 15 years, and it's a tough road.

krejames

I remember we had a CO visit a couple of years or so back that gave, in his talk, some kind of catch phrase - I wish I could remember it word for word - but basically it was something like, "plan as if Armageddon isn't going to come for a long time, but live as if it will come tomorrow."

losingit

The mentality now is that as long as you dedicate your life to Jehovah and do all that the organization requires, then basically you can do whatever you want-- have kids, travel, and plan for retirement. I had friends that go on luxurious trips, buy houses in the uppity neighborhoods. Im assuming retirement is in that category. Certainly some of the older former Bethelites have saved for their children's college education and their own retirement. Who cares about Armageddon? It's background noise, unless the noo lite has changed things.

tiki

Amen Scully.

DesirousOfChange

eyeused2badub: I think that JW's are beginning to see the folly of not planning for the future. They see the org planning big construction projects that will take years and I think that it's sinking in that the big A is not coming sooooooooooon,

There is a word for that.............HYPOCRISY.

SCULLY: It dawned on me that while the WTS was telling people to put off important things like planning for retirement, getting an education, and becoming financially secure, they were hounding JWs for cash, making investments, building new headquarters, and buying, improving and selling property for a very healthy profit. It occurred to me that these were a bunch of cynical b@st@rds who didn't even believe their own rhetoric.

There is a word for that............HYPOCRISY.

krejames: "plan as if Armageddon isn't going to come for a long time, but live as if it will come tomorrow."

There is a word for that...........LACK OF FAITH. (OK. 3 words.)

Doc

JW's planning for retirement

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