by Sea Breeze 20 Replies latest jw friends
Here's Mine:
1. Go immediately to college and study construction management.
2. Set up an IRA and start contributing every year
3. Invest in as much income producing real estate as possible
4. Leave the JW's for good, join a local-run church & get saved asap.
5. Write a book about what it was like growing up JW
6. Never Get baptized as a JW
7. Except that I am an orphan and don't feel bad about it. Sh*t happens.
not a born in--but in it since i was 9 YO
At 18--
1: continue in the job i had till something better came along.
2: not get involved with the born in control freak that i married 2 years later--in order to have sex.
3: leave home and get a place of my own--maybe sharing with a few mates.
4: behave even more badly.
5: get involved with pop music--maybe learn how to twang a guitar.
6: dont get romantically too involved with anyone--love em and leave em.
7: leave the cult for good--rather than a few years later ( which i did )
How could someone at age 18 be in a financial position to start buying real estate?
1. I would start saving every bit of money that I could, instead of spending it all.
2. I would develop my art and writing skills early, and seek to do that as a career. (I came close to entering the field of comic book art, but there were too many hurdles for a JW to overcome to work in that field, so I gave it up. Still regret it to some degree.)
3. Once the opportunity came, I'd start investing all of the cash I managed to save.
4. Once I was financially secure, start to enjoy my good fortune... responsibly. I'd move out of the city and to a quiet suburb in the Midwest, and enjoy the nicer people and the serene environments.
I've sort of done those things over the past ~15 years or so, and have mapped out a retirement path that hopefully works out. I just wish I'd started early. Can't do that when you're prepping for the end of the world, though.
I had 20k buried in my dads backyard by the time I was 21 in ‘84. Not a bad nest egg for working a sales job. Anyway, could be a solid goal for an 18 YO.
I should have spent every penny on a DP on my own house. Didn’t do it and it slowly disappeared.
Yes Sea Breeze it would have been a good goal for an 18 year old, but if you had begun college at age 18 you wouldn't have had as much time to work from age 18 to age 21. Also you would have had extensive college expenses. As a result at age 21 you would not have had anywhere near $20,000 saved up, but yes later in life the college education likely would have increased your pay.
1. I wished I'd been in a position to sing, 'I gave it up for music and a free electric band.'
2 to 7. I'd also have taken all the opportunities presented to have as much sex as possible with consenting adult females.
PofN,
Just get married to the right woman and all that is taken care of.
Been working for thousands of years.
Pursued a career even if I d I d miss meetings for schooling and job. I fell into a career instead.
Maybe joined army. Friends who did came out grown up. Vietnam would have been the downside.
OTH. I have a good marriage, enough to live on. ( brandon is working to change that).
At age 18 I was already trapped in the religion, since I was baptized
one month before age 16. At age 18 I had responsibilities in the
congregation (but I don't know which specific ones I had at that age,
other than handling mikes). I know I already had congregational
responsibilities at age 18 since I was appointed as a ministerial
servant at age 19. My first year of college was at age 18 and I opened a
brokerage account (but not an IRA) on my 18th birthday.
The
question of "If You Were 18 Again, What 7 Things Would You do
Differently?" is somewhat puzzling to me. Do you mean if at age 18 I had
the knowledge then that I have now, what would I have done differently?
If so, I think that question is unrealistic since to there is no way at
merely age 18 I could ever have had all of the knowledge back then that
I have now. However, hypothetically if I had that knowledge (or at
least certain very important portions of that knowledge) back then it
would have done the following.
1. Resign from all
responsibilities in the congregation. For example if I was an assistant
in handling the sound system (not just the microphones) and an assistant
in the magazine counter or the literature counter, I would resign from
those positions. That way I would have more free time and I would not
have become appointed as a ministerial servant.
2. Resign from
the theocratic ministry school (I had joined it at age 8). If I did that
I would have had no more number 4 talks after turning age 18 and thus
not be forced to make a case for WT doctrines from the platform. I also
wouldn't have had any more number 2 talks after turning age 18. I thus
would not be compelled as much to study the Bible, especially from the
WT's perspective.
3. Stop all participation at congregational
meetings; don't answer any of the WT literature questions at meetings.
Don't prepare for WT meetings. By doing those things besides the above, I
would have greatly reduced my self indoctrination of WT and biblical
doctrines. Tell my mother I don't want to attend congregational meetings
any more, or at least not nearly as much.
4. Greatly reduce my
studying of WT literature, and when I do study it (including the NWT Bible)
analyze it critically to look for problems in what they teach. Look up the sources of the quotes contained in the WT literature, especially in regards to evolution.
5.
Do as little field service as possible (preferably none at all). Tell
my mother I don't want to do field service any more. Don't prepare for
field service.
6. Tell my mother I think I might have made a
mistake in getting baptized. Tell her I need to take a break from active
involvement with the religion in order for me to figure out what I should
believe and so I can have more time to study my college courses. Ask for permission for me to avoid attending JW assemblies and conventions.
7.
While in college take courses (or check out from the university library
and county public library books pertaining to courses) which teach biological evolution (for
example biology, historical geology, physical anthropology, and
evolution). Take an introductory philosophy college course which
includes teaching arguments against the existence of God (and/or a god).
Read far more science magazine articles on biological evolution, chemical evolution, and cosmological evolution than I had been
doing. Read the World Book Encyclopedia articles and the Britannica Encyclopedia articles about evolution, the fossil record, historical geology, radiometric dating (including carbon dating), and cosmology [the science of the origin and development of the universe]. Take a college English course in the Bible as literature, since
it might would had presented the Bible from a critical perspective (or a
non-believer perspective).
8. Find and read books which promote atheism and study the arguments made for atheism and naturalism. Find and read books which point out contradictions and other problems in the Bible.
9.
Have most of my stock market activity be in the form of buying and
holding for years growth stock no-load mutual funds. Don't allocate more
than 25% of my stock market funds to me trading individual stocks and
warrants. But, years later buy a lot of shares of Apple Computer stock
on December 24, 1997 and hold onto all of those shares until at least
the end of the year 2017.
10. Study much more how to make
money in the stock market and to avoid huge blunders in stock market
trading and investing. Learn more about how the market reacts to
economic factors (especially to Federal Reserve actions regarding
interest rates and regarding other federal actions which have a major impact on the economy and the stock market). Observe and study more
the stock market's irrational trading and price fluctuation patterns and
learn how to filter out the 'noise' from the market's activity (and incorrect opinions of stock market analysts in news media reports and sensationalism by the media regarding the market), to
recognize what is actually important in the market's behaviors.
11. At about age 20 or 21 instead of becoming an Operations and Materials Management major in college become a Finance major in college and take at least one college finance course specifically in the stock market.
12. Get counseling from my college in regards to how to do better in my schooling and in regards to career planning. From the college learn about internships so I can apply for them later when I qualify.13. Study much more about how to increase lifespan and healthspan, and then put the dietary information into practice (and do more exercise), including sharply limiting my consumption of desserts. Begin taking daily a supplement which is a multivitamin and multimineral pill. Ask a doctor if it is normal for me to get nauseated if I skip breakfast or lunch, and if not, what is the cause and what can be done to solve the problem (other than eating breakfast and lunch).
