JWs in the news: UK Telegraph:"‘Jehovah’s Witnesses told me I would die at 15 – so I didn’t save for a pension’"

by Balaamsass2 13 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Balaamsass2

  12/13/25 "

  ‘Jehovah’s Witnesses told me I would die at 15 – so I didn’t save for a pension’

  Fame & Fortune: award-winning author on religion, divorce and her dream car

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  Kit de Waal once believed that money was the root of all evil and would be dispensed in God’s new paradise Credit: Sarah Lee

  Nicola Venning

  13 April 2025 10:00am BST

  Kit de Waal is an award-winning author who left school at 16. Her debut novel, My Name is Leon, was published when she was 56, and became a bestseller.

  It was turned into a TV movie for the BBC and is now on the GCSE English Literature syllabus. With her first advance, Kit set up a scholarship for writers from disadvantaged backgrounds.

  She has two adopted children and lives in Leamington Spa with her adult son.

  How did your childhood affect your attitude to money?

  My father was an African-Caribbean bus driver from St Kitts. He saved up all the money he had to go home to the West Indies. My Irish mother worked very, very menial jobs to make ends meet.

  Both of them gave the message that money was tight, hard to come by and not to be spent.

  What was your first proper job?

  I left home at 16 because my mother was a Jehovah’s Witness – I didn’t want to be involved in that any more. I worked as a secretary for Hoskins, a company that made hospital bedsteads and exported them to the Middle East.

  I filled out bills and export forms for £20.00 per week – it was crushingly boring.

  What impact did growing up as a Jehovah’s Witness have?

  Jehovah’s Witnesses believe in an imminent Armageddon. When I was a child, the appointed year was 1975, when I would be 15.

  Money – believed to be the root of all evil – would be dispensed in God’s new paradise. He would provide food and housing and meaningful, mostly manual, employment.

  Although I stopped being a Jehovah’s Witness when I was 16, a year after the appointed date, somewhere in the back of my mind I thought Armageddon might happen. I never really subscribed to the notion of a career, or even getting older.

  I’d never need a pension or critical illness cover. The rational side of my mind told me to get with the programme, but the indoctrination bit deep. I always suspected that there would be some kind of divine rescue from old age and poverty.

  I’ve had to force myself to take ageing seriously, to get a pension and provide for the inevitable. It hasn’t been easy."...... https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/pensions/not-save-pension-world-was-ending/?ICID=continue_without_subscribing_reg_first
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  Earnest

  She wrote a book in 2022 - Without Warning and Only Sometimes - about her childhood which was serialised on Radio 4 in the UK as reported here at the time.

  Kit de Waal grew up in a household of opposites and extremes. Her haphazard mother rarely cooked, forbade Christmas and birthdays, worked as a cleaner, nurse and childminder sometimes all at once and believed the world would end in 1975. Meanwhile, her father stuffed barrels full of goodies for his relatives in the Caribbean, cooked elaborate meals on a whim and splurged money they didn't have on cars, suits and shoes fit for a prince. Both of her parents were waiting for paradise. It never came.
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  Phizzy

  I feel so sorry for Kit, and others where as she said, "the indoctrination bit deep", with me, born-in in 1950, it did not bite that deep, in 1975, when was all supposed to be over by October, I started my Pension in August, oh, how unfaithful I was !

  My thinking was that if Armageddon came at some time, my Pension would be irrelevant, but if it did not, then vital, as it has proved to be !

  I was still indoctrinated enough to stay in for some decades after though, my life would have been SO much better had I woken up earlier !

  May all who leave find happiness, fulfillment, and expunge any thoughts and feelings implanted by the Evil J.W org !
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  LongHairGal

  PHIZZY:

  I totally get it for a lot of born-in Witnesses that they were conned into believing they shouldn’t pay into a pension plan.. But I fear common sense was kicked aside in favor of conformity and telling people their business. Why would anybody need to know you paid into a pension plan??

  I am glad not all Jehovah’s Witnesses fell for this as you yourself did not - and good for you.. You figured wisely that if you prepared and the End came so what? But, if the End did not come your preparation was vital.. NOW, how about me who was not even born-in?.. I would have had to be out of my mind to heed their suicidal stupidity.

  I came in a young adult with a full-time job (in the U.S.) ..and I was hounded by old people to quit and do housecleaning/pioneering. Meanwhile, ALL these elderly people were in the workforce when younger and were collecting THEIR pensions. Hypocrisy?? Or did they just hate women? Was it a holdover of pre-1975 mentality? Whatever.

  The fact is, I never listened back then and am grateful today.. It was worth it to be shunned by people most of whom are deceased today!

  Sorry for anybody who fell for Witness nonsense and are suffering today.. This is not an easy world to live in and even people who prepared have to watch their pennies because things are tight.
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  blondie

  I always viewed as a "suggestion" not a command; but many jws were really serving men, an organization, and did not look at the scriptures.
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  Balaamsass2

  Never underestimate the long-term developmental damage Watchtower inflicts on JW youth. Budgeting, education, and saving are life skills required for success. JW kids start life with serious handicaps that have to be addressed and overcome.
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  Ugot2bekiddingme1

  Jwism doesn't do shit for you in the real world. The leaders don't have a pulse as to real world experience.
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  blondie

  Here in the US when people work, they pay into Social Security and can collect as early as 63 at a lower amount than at 66 or 70 though. I worked for the state government who also matched what I paid into retirement. So no other investments. So I had retirement I could look forward to. I am now collecting both social security and retirement from state government retirement fund. Not buying Ferraris or traveling to Europe every year, but feel safe so far. The future is even more unsure now.
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  LongHairGal

  UGOT2BEKIDDINGME1:

  Yes, you’re right. I know some ex-JWs might say their experience helped them with public speaking - but that’s just a small side benefit. The real truth is that JW-ism has No currency in the real world.

  BLONDIE:

  If you, with your wise preparation for retirement, are worried because of an insecure future, what about Witnesses who did little or nothing?? …I am Glad I never listened to suicidally stupid talk telling me to quit my secular job w/benefits & retirement and pursue poverty by pioneering/cleaning.. I was told to ‘have faith’.. This would be like jumping from a plane without a parachute. I was supposed to live with little to no money and not concern myself about my future.

  But, the sensible Catholic girl in me rejected their nonsense and kept my job.. I’m proud of being shunned.. And many of my JW critics are deceased. Some lived a cushy life.. You didn’t see THEM doing without!
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  Balaamsass2

  If you read about multi-generational wealth, emotional IQ, and financial planning, one subject that comes up is cultural differences. Practical training in budgeting, saving, compound interest, and career choices are things some cultures and affluent families tend to share with their children.

  Pew did a study years ago comparing the financial wellbeing of adherents of various religions. Jehovah's Witnesses placed at the very bottom. If you "leave everything in God's hands", because "the end is coming any day", or "pray about it", you tend to not PLAN for emergencies, or eventual retirement. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2016/10/11/how-income-varies-among-u-s-religious-groups/