Yes, I know of a brother that would have to be now in his 70s (plus) who went to Bethel in the mid sixties because of the Vietnam War and was reassigned by Bethel to serve in the congregations when he was 55 or so. To my knowledge, after bethel he struggled greatly financially.
To be honest, there are many people regardless of religion that are not prepared for retirement. I'm in a union and have good health insurance and you are required to work so many hours each month to remain qualified or you can pay.
The union has our employers also pay into a pension fund and a retirement fund. The retirement fund was started decades ago because union members would work for 30 years and still didn't own their own house. So, now 5+ dollars an hour goes into the local retirement fund so when you retire you can pull it out to pay your house off but you have to pay tax on it.
Recently, an older worker at my company turned 70, and is now able to get his social security, his union pension, and he is still working full time.
At Walmart earlier today, a woman in her late 70s was a cashier. Now with some heightened inflation I'm sure more elderly will be joining the workforce.
What I'm saying is "we all lost a lot in that damn organization" and gave away the best productive years of our lives to the Wt. But there are people that didn't and they struggle also. No trying to defend wt.
I would be interested in also knowing of witnesses we may have known that have died young because they wouldn't go or couldn't afford to go to a doctor? Sometimes you hear of someone in this situation on GoFundMe and it's sad.