Moshe,
I knew many JWs with union jobs and good pensions and they were not laughed at. Your KH friends must have been the fanatic types.
Debt Problems and Jehovah's Witnesses
by skeeter1 17 Replies latest jw friends
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moshe
They were the self employed/small family contractor types. I remember one elder who bought a piece of land and built a small subdivision of about 50 homes in the 70's. The land owner next door gave him first offer on enough land to build on for another 10 years- Nope don't need it- Armageddon will be here in a few more years. Well at least he has a subdivsion with his family name on it.
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Scully
I recall in the years leading up to 1975, a lot of JWs were building houses that they couldn't really afford. A few of them thought it was very clever to take out a mortgage that they'd never have to repay beyond 1975.
Of course, Armageddon™ didn't come, and they had to sell in a very hostile economic climate.
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blondie
I have found that people don't go into debt because they are jws. But I have found that some jws who go into debt are not very responsible as to paying back other jws, perhaps because they can't be sued by jws. I have also found that just being inept handling the money of others in investments doesn't automatically equal a JC proceeding...first it has to be "proven" that they deliberately planned to rip people off.
Where I live all small claims hearings are online; all one had to do was input their names and see how many businesses went after them for nonpayment.
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garyneal
My father-in-law was poor at handling his money, went into a lot of debt, and wound up filing for bankruptcy. My mother-in-law is on disability and pioneers full time, but at least she knows the importance of making sure the mortgage got paid (they almost lost their home because the husband missed payments).
Father-in-law was laid off for two years and they recently fell on dire straights needing money from us. Strange, I thought, how in spite of their finances they can still afford to go to assemblies and conventions out of town, not to mention buy satellite television service while my family watches antenna tv.
During the first five years of our marriage, my wife took the attitude that as long as there is credit she can spend what she wants. Money is not too important and everything will work itself out somehow. Now we're $10,000 in debt, which is good considering that we use to be nearly $20,000 in debt, and my wife laments over the fact that we cannot buy a house right away. However, on a positive note, I broke her of that habit and now she only spends cash (even though she is still a bit wreckless on overdrawing her account from time to time).
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MMXIV
The JW's I knew probably had less debt than your average person in the street but also had far less savings and lower pensions.
There were some I knew with large debts and they were the ones who assumed it was a shared debt. They expected to borrow everything from the ones who'd saved such as their cars etc. and get their meals bought for them!!?
I've not seen so much materialism than in the KH. One elder in a neighbouring KH stole funds to pay for his demanding wife's shopping habits. Over quite a few years he took £50k. She wanted a divorce when she found out probably because she knew the money had dried up. She always acted like she'd been the one taken to the cleaners.
MMXIV
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sass_my_frass
I got myself into appalling credit card debt, but I don't know how much of a factor being a JW had to do with it. I just liked spending more than I earned. Over the years I'd consolidate the card debt into a personal loan, and it very slowly grew. I guess the fact that I wasn't ever planning to be a homeowner had something to do with it - if I'd been saving for a deposit I would have lived a lot more frugally.
I've sure turned it around though - woot!
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WTWizard
The witlesses are urged to sell out so they can pio-sneer, wasting all their money-earning time going from door to door selling the rags. They are also told that the end is about to happen, usually within a 6 months to 2 year time frame. If the end was indeed coming within that time, it would make no sense to ever save for retirement, since the system would be gone by the time the money was "needed" or the loans came due. It would also make sense to take out a 5 year balloon mortgage if Armageddon was for sure coming within 2 years, since the system would be long gone by the time the balloon came due.
On top of that, the witlesses have crap jobs. Little education--no college, impaired high school (the boasting sessions and field circus get in the way), and learning that "everything in the world is from Satan" at the Kingdumb Hell prevents most of the witlesses from getting decent jobs. Without decent jobs, they cannot pay their regular expenses and need to go into debt. And, they cannot expand--window washers make so little money that, if I was in that business and expanded into installation of Halloween and Christmas decorations on a professional basis, my Christmas business would swamp the window cleaning business. Yet, the witlesses have zero tolerance for anything Christmas. Thus, that closes out the chance to make more than $100,000 per season installing Christmas decorations on top of whatever they are making washing windows. Thus, they are left without a way to pay their normal living expenses.
Not to mention paying for donations to the Worldwide Pedophile Defense Fund (they are now accepting credit cards for this purpose at most a$$emblies), gas, suit dry cleanings, and eating lunch every single day at McDonalds. I have seen one "sister" who was having trouble making regular bills putting $20 bills into the Worldwide Pedophile Defense Fund like it was nothing.