A New Trend for JW Baby Boomers? (page 3)

Dune

I took a feminist theory class in college, of course, no other witness in my congregation knows this. I doubt that she can seriously stay a witness and be taking a women's issues course, one of the first things they talk about is socialization and attack the patriachy of male dominated society and religion.

Billygoat

I don't really know how my parents are doing. I think they're doing "okay". My father worked for a large online travel company. He got paid peanuts in salary, but his boss kept throwing him stock options left and right. When my dad left the company he had a substantial amount of money by cashing out his stock options. My mom still works and my father has since started his own online travel magazine. I'm not to terribly worried about them. I do feel better knowing my brothers are there to take care of them, and they'll do a fine job. But it does worry me because they're both pioneers working for peanuts themselves. I don't know if they have the where-with-all to handle a responsibility like that.

As for Mozz and I, we're the only kids in his family here in town. I know we'll be taking care of his parents one day. I'm fine with that. He has lovely parents.

greendawn

That's the crux of the matter and an example to the rest of the JWs, this so called lofty, clean, maternal, virtuous organisation is not concerned about the serious harm it causes to its followers because they are opportunists that are out to fill their own bellies, serve their own interests.

When I went to university in the 1980's and they said "what's the point if the end is so near" I told them the end is not near and they never looked at me with a straight face after that.

Mind you though, most of them were quite materialistic and well off it's those that tried to play it totally devoted to jehovah (the WTS in fact) that will have financial troubles in their old age.

pratt1

Welcome NYCkid,

I am from NY as well and my parents are in their 60's.

Fortunately my dad was never a dub so he made sure that he and my mom would have a saving plan or cushion for retirement, however my mom just sees it as another way that Jehovah has provided for her so that she can poineer.

I also help my folks out financially as well and will continue to do so.

Every now and then it does bother me that those elders who critized me for going to college and pursuing a career, now compilment my parents on the material things I provide for them, and complain that their children never help them out.

jgnat

Imagine how these boomer parents feel about the latest tack in the wind...college is out! Those who remember, I hope, will tell their children to ignore this very bad advice, and not follow the footsteps of their parents.

The seniors in our congregation have sort of a look of desperation about them. This is not the future they were banking on.

Jourles

Yes jgnat, the college rhetoric lately has been great. Just before I was df'd, college was one of the things I talked about with my folks. They said that the Society never discouraged it. I wonder if they remember that conversation now?

As far as my parent's retirement goes, I have no idea how well they are set up. I imagine they will be OK, but I don't honestly know. It's funny. Prior to my df'ing, we all joked about which of the kids would get which set of parents to take care of. I always figured that my wife and I would get my parents and my wife's sister or brother would get her mother or dad(they were divorced a while ago). But now, all of that has changed. As fate would have it, it seems that no one will want to be taken care of by an apostate. I would fall over dead if the shunning ceased in order to be taken care of. So much for putting jehober first, eh? My folks will probably go live with their siblings before ever asking me to house them. Fine with me. I will be able to enjoy my abundant retirement without the pressures of jw life infringing upon us. Yes, I may be a bastard for thinking that. But hell, if your parents want to shun you for not agreeing with a book publishing corporation's ideas, they get what they deserve.

Sheepish

Welcome NYCkid,

This is a very interesting topic. The Bible says those that don't take care of their own are worse than an infidel. Someone, and it would have to be someone who was in good standing before they attempted this, ought to to take Headquarters to court and sue for retirement money. I am totally serious. Is there a lawyer in the house??

Jankyn

Okay, this is the one that really gets me riled up (well, this one and education). My parents are finally facing the fact that they did in fact grow old and ill in this system, and that they'll probably die. Like someone above mentioned, they've been selling off everything they have to make a little extra, and continuing to work part-time jobs along with SS, but it's not enough. The house is mortgaged up to the hilt (they'll probably lose it, and then what?).

But they never put the blame where it belongs. It's always "Satan" and "this wicked system of things." Aarrgh!

I help as best I can, because no matter what, they're my parents. And I can't really put all the blame on the Society, because you can't bamboozle someone who's not sitting there waiting to be bamboozled (unless of course it's a captive child).

It's just frustrating that my folks are going to die without ever having lived.

Jankyn

joelbear

well i am the boomer, not my parents, but i'll still comment.

My parents had about $10,000 when my father was about 62. That was 1984. It finally hit him that the end wasn't coming before he retired. so, he invested his money in onion seeds and grew Vidalia sweet onions for 3 years every summer. With the money he made from that he bought 40 acres of land. He sold most of the timber off of the land and that paid off the land and left him enought to built a house. He hired contractors to pour the foundation, he put in the plumbing and electrical (i helped some with this part and put in the thingies upside down, so down is on and up is off on the ones i installed, okay okay, no butch jokes). Anyway, now they had a house to live in and some savings.

I learned from this experience and started saving when I was 25. Now I am almost 50 and my house is paid for and I have a nest egg (that would have been bigger if I hadn't stuck with tech stocks a big too long).

so:

1. Its never too late, although the later you wait the more creative you have to get.

2. Start saving now. If you rent, buy ASAP.

3. avoid giving your money to scams.

jukief

My father, who's been a dub all his life and on the fringes since 1976, changed jobs 10 years before he retired. He went from labor (no pension) to management (profit sharing). He had $100,000 in profit sharing when he retired 13 years ago. He's managed to double that because he's continued to work at his own business since he retired from his regular job. I can't get my parents to spend their money. They're worried about having a lot to leave to us kids. Yeah, to my loser Circuit Overseer brother who still owes them $30,000 he borrowed 20 years ago, and my loser sister (married to an elder) who's been taking their money for her entire marriage of 35 years (her husband is worthless as a wage earner). I encourage my parents to enjoy their money--travel, buy a new car, etc.--but I think my dad still has that depression mindset. But they have a comfortable life, and I won't have to worry about taking care of them (my JW siblings would never consider doing so). But I hate to think of them going without things they'd enjoy just so my worthless JW siblings can spend their money within an hour after they die on frivolous things. It really pisses me off. I've noticed a trend among the boomer JWs I know. Back in the early 70s, when I was first married, my husband and his best friend, who both worked for the same company, didn't join the pension plan because they didn't think they'd need to worry about retirement money. Now this same friend is comfortably middle class, and not only is in the pension plan, but has been building storage units as investments. He is much more materialistic than any "worldy" person I know. They have the very best of everything. (And, ironaically, y ex-husband, who quit the religion, is poor as a churchmouse.) Another dub couple I know (the wife is my brother's sister-in-law) are wealthy. They've invested a lot of money in real estate. When I knew them, way back then, they were on the lower rungs of the income ladder. This woman's father, a die-hard elder who's my brother's father-in-law, has also made a lot of real estate investments. From what my parents tell me, there's a lot of talk about planning for retirement. I never heard that kind of talk when I was a dub (but then I quit in 1984). I think the boomers are realizing that Armageddon is'nt going to come in their lifetimes and that they'd better start thinking about retirement. They aren't like my parents' generation, many of whom decided to forgo having children and buying homes because the great day was so near at hand. Those oldtimers really believed. People don't any more.

A New Trend for JW Baby Boomers?

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