by LongHairGal 85 Replies latest jw friends
Chalk this up to the sunk cost fallacy.
This is what keeps long-timer, old schooler JWs going.
Even though they realize they could be suckers,, suckered.
There is enough information now to put any questioning doubts,,, to bed.
But the craziness keeps going.
This is very satisfying. For one thing, advising people to prepare for their old age is prudent, but it is also SO GOOD to see that The Watchtower is essentially admitting that all the "inspired advice" from the era of the Knorr/Franz two-headed wild beast was baseless speculation largely due to the imagination of a man who saw himself as an "oracle," supported by the "oracle's irrational fanatic true believers.
Remember, folks, just because you believe something doesn't make it true. That is what I believe.
Happy new year! We are STILL ALIVE IN 2025! Good for us!
One thing that has irked me for more than half my 75 years is that while people talk about the importance of retirement planning, almost nobody will give you an answer to "How much do I need?"
So I'll offer an answer. If you are starting your retirement fund today, set a target of $5,000,000.00 (five million US dollars) as your goal, and be prepared mentally and emotionally to increase that number due to inflation.
Yes, it is a BIG number, but it can be done. Others have done it, you can too. It is a matter of setting priorities. The POWER of compound interest is amazing!
It is helpful to pay for the advice of an advisor with a good track record. Use caution.
Nathan Natas
One thing that has irked me for more than half my 75 years is that while people talk about the importance of retirement planning, almost nobody will give you an answer to "How much do I need?"
So I'll offer an answer. If you are starting your retirement fund today, set a target of $5,000,000.00 (five million US dollars) as your goal
Get real man, only 0.1 Percent of American Retirees have managed that.
I don't give a shit about your compound interest theory because a lot of other things factor into reaching 5 million dollars by the time you retire at about 65 or higher. Which only gives you a few years left of life considering the average life span of men and women.
Hell, I'm worth a lot more than 5 million but it's not because I saved and took advantage of compound interest, or because I'm smart, or because I have a degree in Business and majored in finance.
I'm rich because I was Lucky and inherited a Trust Fund.
I don't even manage my assets, I have people a lot smarter than me to manage my fund and grow it.
I have friends who are rich because they started a business and it took off. And they will tell you the same thing, they took a risk and were lucky.
I even know a couple of young girls that just turned 20 that became millionaires by doing only fans. They were lucky also because our social culture is changing and they were lucky to be born at the right time and won the genetic lottery to help them out. They are out of the business because they made enough money to retire at 20.
But I've been around people who work hard, are smart, and still have a struggle saving a couple of million. Because shit happens in life.
Don't take my word for it, this is to According to data from the Employee Benefit Research Institute, based on the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances
Saving for retirement is important, but there are other things in life a lot more important. Like enjoying the ride before it's over! And not be consumed with the idea that you need to have X-amount of money for retirement.
Hell, my uncle worked his ass off and was smart about it, and grew his wealth by millions. And the poor guy died in his late forties. His last words to me were; "Don't pursue riches, enjoy your life as much as possible, and avoid all the Drama that usually comes from getting involved with the wrong kind of humans. You only have one life..Cherish it and cherish the people you love.
I inherited his wealth and did nothing to earn it! I just happen to become his close friend. I had no idea he was wealthy. Until his lawyer contacted me after his death.
https://www.fuchsfinancial.com/retire-with-5-million/
Retiring with $5 million dollars is an exceptionally rare achievement. According to data from the Employee Benefit Research Institute, based on the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances, a mere 0.1% of retirees have managed to accumulate over $5 million in their retirement accounts. This statistic underscores the exclusivity of such high-value retirements.
While $5 million retirements are scarce, even $1 million retirements are relatively uncommon. Only 3.2% of retirees have amassed over $1 million in savings. This comparison highlights the significant gap between average retirement savings and these high-value benchmarks. The median retirement savings account balance stands at a modest $87,000, according to the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances.
The Federal Reserve’s 2022 Survey of Consumer Finances reveals that the average retirement savings for all families in America is $333,940, while the median retirement savings is $87,000. This significant disparity between the average and median values highlights the uneven distribution of retirement wealth across the population.
Interestingly, those who achieve $5 million retirements often did not anticipate reaching such financial heights. Key factors contributing to these high-value retirements include consistent savings efforts from early in their careers and maintaining modest lifestyles. Many of these successful retirees continue to work part-time and make thoughtful spending choices, demonstrating that disciplined financial habits play a crucial role in accumulating substantial retirement savings.
at the meeting this week there will be many older ones sitting there thinking ops I must have missed this direction all those years ago to save money. How did I miss that direction??????
thry will be thinking it’s too late now.
i gave several decades of my life to knocking on doors for free , trusting the GB when they kept telling me to sacrifice better education or better careers. I just worked cleaning jobs and I’m broke old and tired and now I realise I must have missed the direction to save money for retirement. How on earth did I miss that?
wait did I miss it or is this new light?
LIAM:
You are extremely lucky that you inherited a vast amount of money at a young age.. Don’t be hard on those who wisely advocate to save money. Whatever somebody manages to save during their working years is better than the nothing they would have if they pissed it all away.
EXBETHELITENOWPIMA:
Any older JW who is ‘awake’ has to be outraged to hear this ‘new light’. I am out of the religion over two decades and did the ‘right’ thing and I am still outraged. I got the same feeling as last year after their annual meeting when I learned they said ‘it was no longer necessary’ to count hours and submit a time slip!.. I was judged over both these things: having a full-time job and getting low hours in service.
Of course, somebody who was harmed by their policy and didn’t work and suffering today would obviously be more angry than I would be. My indignation is over how I was treated back then... There are some older judgmental Witnesses long gone who would have deserved to be told off . I would have liked to rub this in their faces like shit, but I will have to content myself with the fact that I am Glad I never listened to them!
This situation is just one of the reasons why the religion deserves to be exposed to the world!
Hi LHG.
I’m not trying to be hard on anyone trying to save for retirement. I’m all for working hard and saving as much as you can for retirement.
What I really don’t like is YouTube influencers and others that tell people that they need to save an unrealistic amount of money to be able to retire happily.
The average person in the USA who makes at least 60,000 dollars a years will never be able to save 5 million dollars for retirement, unless something Weird happens in their life.
Reason being is Because life happens.
Even if a person goes to College, these days most kids graduate College with a huge debt that will take decades to pay off.
Then there’s marriage, buying your first home with a mortgage for the next 30 years with tons of interest payments going to the lender. Then Kids come around, and according to some surveys, it now cost about $300,000 to raise ONE child in the USA. Imagine two or three or more.
https://usafacts.org/articles/how-much-does-it-cost-to-raise-a-child/
Then there’s health insurance, car insurance for every driver, Life insurance, Home insurance, etc.
Then there’s unexpected Illness. The mother may get cancer the father may get Parkinson, the child may die, and there goes all the hope of saving 5 million dollars.
Then there’s divorce, almost 50 percent of all marriage end up in divorce. That is enough to derail all retirement planes.
Then there’s people like us who were born in a JW household.
Imagine what many on this site, who were Jehovah’s Witnesses for years and were scammed into working for free for the Watchtower all their youth. Many here and on exjwreddit woke up in their 40s 50s and 60s, and now find themselves in a very depressing situation because they not only didn’t save enough for retirement, but it’s too late to do so. These people will never be able to save 5 MILLION DOLLARS.
Imagine how they feel when someone spurts out nonsense like; “YOU Need to save at least 5 MILLION DOLLARS FOR RETIREMENT.
That can be so discouraging and depressing because most Americans will not be able to attain that amount unless something unusual happens.
Now if that’s the case for Non-Jws, how much more so for Ex-Jws who woke up later in life and are starting off late.
I know a JW couple that never regular pioneer, but both worked in full time jobs. They paid in social security from the time they married while in their teens, and saved a little over 300k in their personal bank. They raised one child, Bought a small house, keep their cars for 30 years before they buy another one. Last I saw them several years ago, they told me that they never had a 401 K but got a check for a little over 3,000 a month from SS plus Medicare.
I always admired them because they were this old couple that’s loved Jehovah, (even if he is not real,)
He never qualified for Ministerial Servant because he had a full time job that came first. They were in their late 80s when I first met them. They would hold hands and walk around the block. He would pull the chair back for her to sit down for breakfast. He would treat her like a teenager he was dating, always buying her presents, making dates with her to take her to breakfast.
I worshiped that couple, I wanted a marriage just like them. I wanted my life to turn out just like theirs. That was my goal, until my situation changed drastically and threw me into a different world.
Sadly they passed away. But they were never in need and they didn’t have 5 MILLION DOLLARS IN RETIREMENT.
I read tons of posts by exjws who were scammed by the Watchtower and now find themselves in a dire situation…….And it Just Breaks my heart to hear their experiences. There are literally hundreds, if not thousands of experiences I’ve read in just the past few years. Here is just one example a few days old on reddit.
logicman12
I agree. I'm 65 and will have to work until I drop dead thanks to those conmen bastards. I will get very little social security because I was a fulltime JW for decades (beginning in my 20's) and never paid much into the system. I slaved fulltime for the cult for decades in misery. I now work very long hours work out of town (four hours from my home). I lose every Sunday night driving four hours to my work city and every Friday night driving back home - getting home about midnight. For the first three years at this job, I slept in my car during the week. For the last two or so years, my employer has let me sleep in an old warehouse at my place of employment. I have zero benefits since I work for a small business (eight employees including the owner and his wife and son). I get zero vacation days and I have no opportunity to retire, so I have nothing to look forward to. I also have no weekends because I have to work on my house all day Saturdays and Sundays to get it ready to sell because I can't afford to live in it.
and yeah, it did fuck me over... and my wife. We talk about it constantly.
That is why I get furious hearing the leaders say, as they've been doing lately, that JWs should be ready to obey instructions no matter how impractical (or something like that) those instructions may sound. Well, I and my wife did obey back in the 80's. We listened and obeyed. It seemed impractical, but we trusted the ones taking the lead. It seemed impractical for us to give up educational and job and inviestment opportunities to knock on doors fulltime unpaid, but we did it. We did what they said... we obeyed... and look what it did for us; it fucked us up. We both have to work fulltime now and hardly ever see each other since I work out of town Mon-Fri, and she has to work on Sundays. I get furious when I see nonJW friends my age who are long retired and doing whatever they whenever they want. I have one friend who has been retired eleven years as of this past October. He retired at 54 and makes more in retirement than my wife and I make together working long hours fulltime. He has a really good retirement and his wife (specialist nurse) has a good one, too. It burns me up. I hate the cult that stole our lives.
These experiences help me to be compassionate, and not say anything that might depress them more than they already are. They can’t change their situation at this point in their life. I make it a point to cry with those who cry. I try very hard to not put unrealistic hope in the minds of people.
Anyway, I’m taking a break from exjw sites for a while. I’ve committed myself to a friend to learn how to fly a helicopter. I don’t know if I will make it because I’m afraid of heights. Tried a plane but I wasn't ready for that. But we will see what happens with a helicopter. Bye!
You don’t need 5 million to retire.
At least not in Canada.
The better you are at setting up your tax liabilities for your retirement the less money you will need.
The older you are the less you tend to spend and the less taxes you have to pay
I think the older JW Will be surprised by this advise.
G.
I think many will be bitter and angry.
I know one elder that is 68 years old, working a labour job and still making mortgage payments.
