‘jehovah’s witnesses told me i would die at 15 – so i didn’t save for a pension’.
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BLONDIE:
Edit: I just read if a person is over 65 they don’t need a disability to qualify for SSI. They just need to satisfy the financial questions to show their income is below whatever. However, if anybody is under 65 they must prove a disability.
It’s still awful but I guess better than zero and maybe they can live in a relative’s room?
But, seriously, if any intelligent JWs had a crystal ball and saw this predicament decades ago, they would have made other plans!
‘jehovah’s witnesses told me i would die at 15 – so i didn’t save for a pension’.
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HI BLONDIE:
I wrote that.🤣
But, yeah JWs figure there will be pennies from heaven.
I heard about those nervy articles about ‘filling out paperwork to qualify for money from secular sources’: Maybe some state Welfare programs??? I read that somebody in the U.S. CANNOT get SS unless they paid into it. Maybe if a spouse worked then the other or a dependent can get something.. The other option is IF somebody can prove disability they can apply for SSI.. Otherwise, it doesn’t sound hopeful.
Bottom. line:: If somebody never worked in the U.S. it really sounds like they are screwed, frankly..They wouldn’t qualify for much, if anything…and how long would they wait to even be approved?? All this is, ultimately, the final tragedy of listening to the Witness religion when they were younger!👎
However, I do understand what you mean about global and political instability and that is a very scary thing for us all!
‘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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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!
i was doing some research on the taxable status of money being gifted to co’s and travelling missionaries and was surprised with what i found.
i had assumed that it was not taxable income in australia.. it is taxable income in australia and it‘s likely that the same rules apply in some other countries.. a registered religious institution only receives tax free status on donations because they have been endorsed by the australian tax office.
travelling overseas and missionaries are not in this category.. there’s a tax ruling that goes into great detail.
BLONDIE:
I always wondered if people who worked for Witnesses were happier or better off.
Well now I know they were not better off - in fact quite the contrary. I am glad I always worked for secular employers.
And, again, those Witnesses who worked for themselves who did not declare all they made, hurt themselves in the long run.. Social Security payouts are based on what was reported! I guess this was a rude awakening for many JWs. Too many Witnesses had/have piss poor practical knowledge about finances and how the world works. Now, many are getting a crash course late in the game!
the current memorial invitation campaign got me thinking about the few times over the years that someone i invited to a meeting actually came: .
1) once when i was "new", i invited a friend to a sunday meeting.
neither of us drove, so the brother conducting my study picked us up.
LV101:
🤣That was me who said that about Witness bias against converts!
Yes, the prim “Stepford-type wives”, etc. that I encountered decades ago (who seemed in a 1950s timewarp) - all thought that about new converts, particularly if you were younger like I was.. Plus add the fact I wouldn’t heed older Witnesses’ suggestions to quit my job to pioneer and clean toilets - horrors! I would only be accepted if they could control my life. So I was on the shit list early on.
But, I can laugh about all this now all these years later.
the current memorial invitation campaign got me thinking about the few times over the years that someone i invited to a meeting actually came: .
1) once when i was "new", i invited a friend to a sunday meeting.
neither of us drove, so the brother conducting my study picked us up.
UGOT2BEKIDDINGME1:
Yes, there is a very obvious class system in the Jehovah’s Witnesses.
You are correct that if you are not part of the ‘upper class’ or ‘In crowd’, you are treated badly. If you’re not pioneering but have a job, forget about it. They will hate you.. [I want to stress here because I haven’t seen anybody comment on this in all my years on the forum:: but I observed there was a definite BIAS against people who were converts and not born-in Witnesses.]
Witnesses purport to want converts but I saw this attitude there when I was new... Don’t know if it still is because I got Out ages ago. Maybe they’re less ‘picky’ now that they are losing people…They were so arrogant with pushing people out - now they can’t get anybody to stay!🤣 Serves them right.
i was doing some research on the taxable status of money being gifted to co’s and travelling missionaries and was surprised with what i found.
i had assumed that it was not taxable income in australia.. it is taxable income in australia and it‘s likely that the same rules apply in some other countries.. a registered religious institution only receives tax free status on donations because they have been endorsed by the australian tax office.
travelling overseas and missionaries are not in this category.. there’s a tax ruling that goes into great detail.
BLONDIE:
I had heard a similar story years back of a JW who worked and their employer supposedly did not take out taxes and pay the fed or state.
It didn’t occur to me that this could have been a Witness employer… So I don’t know.. When I hear about all the horror stories involving Witnesses (stories I know about and others I heard of), it is positively shameful and I don’t know how they can call themselves moral people. They justify a lot of garbage with their convoluted beliefs.
I learned to stay away.
i scanned this article and i saw a theme throughout it.
when info like this shows up in the study wt, you can be sure the elders are doing it wrong and the wts hits directly on what it is.
older elders do it wrong and train by word and action the newer elders to do it wrong.
HOSER:
I know what you mean about unwarranted counsel.
Years ago, a not very bright JW (elder) said a lot of crap to me out of left field. Just for the record for anybody who doesn’t know:: Jehovah’s Witnesses think they can say anything they want to a single woman. But, they would hesitate with a married woman.
All this encounter revealed to me was that some people in the hall were envious, I was apparently the target of gossip plus he had issues of his own.
Meanwhile, I was the single working woman with few friends, hardly invited anywhere!! I worked, minded my own business and made meetings as best I could.
But, apparently, some delusional people in the Witnesses believe fallacies that single people have ‘no problems’.. Some imagined that I ‘owed’ somebody something.. So, this ignorant guy spoke out of the abundance of his stupidity. But, I left him frustrated because he got nowhere!
i was doing some research on the taxable status of money being gifted to co’s and travelling missionaries and was surprised with what i found.
i had assumed that it was not taxable income in australia.. it is taxable income in australia and it‘s likely that the same rules apply in some other countries.. a registered religious institution only receives tax free status on donations because they have been endorsed by the australian tax office.
travelling overseas and missionaries are not in this category.. there’s a tax ruling that goes into great detail.
FEDUPJW & FULANO:
I observed when I was in the JWs an undercurrent of saying things were a ‘conscience matter’ with regard to an individual paying taxes.
Somebody like myself who worked at a regular job had taxes taken out of my paycheck by my employer. However, those people in the congregation who ‘worked for themselves’ whether cleaning or other..were on the ‘honor system’ as to reporting taxes. The whispers I heard indicated that many were not so upright as to reporting how much money they made.
For those JWs who were not so honest about reporting their taxes all through the years: ..it has come back to bite them in the end with a pathetically low Social Security payment!!
‘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.
70. gift this article free.
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.
