The Poor the Wealthy and the Middle Class

by Simon in

the poor spendthe middle-class savethe wealthy invest.

the unique circumstances of the lockdown and stimulus checks has highlighted these differences in stark ways.. on one hand, you have jumps in sales and valuation of companies like foot locker and nike, as people spend their "free" government money on sneakers.

they blow it on useless tat.

Sigfrid Mallozzi

Warren Buffet said about investing, "It's time IN the market not "timing the market". I've read many books on the stock market, i.e. the pump and dump games the big boys play, stock market history, and books on stock market crashes. YouTube is a good source to hear Warren Buffet address university students with excellent advice.

J. L. Collins has an excellent book for the masses not knowing the first thing about investing. "The Simple Path to Wealth: Your road map to financial independence and a rich, free life". You don't need to buy it, the point of the book is to: buy the Total Stock Market Index Fund from Vanguard and contribute to it regularly and forget about it. Vanguard has an ETF available for small investors. The reason behind buying Vanguard funds is that the management "load" is the lowest in the industry. Technology funds and the S & P 500 are great funds to buy.

https://investor.vanguard.com/etf/profile/vti

I subscribe to Barron's, The Wall Street Journal, and "The Business Insider" business magazines online, and occasionally the Motley Fool. I have a friend and we will share information. He told me that there were four mature women that would each read business articles and they would meet and discuss what they learned and they are now wealthy off of their investments. Instead of keeping up with social media, I read business articles. I also listen to Fox Business News in the morning with Marie Bartiromo and then Stuart Varney and they have occasionally had some great tips. Wouldn't it be cool if we could get some individual investment going here like the Wall Street Bets gang!

35

JWs who are now paying the price of following the cult.

by mickbobcat in

my in-laws are two such people.

people who pioneered and did not work and try to save, instead they made just enough to get by and waited for the end to come.

now my mil is in palliative care and the state is paying for her keep, my fil lives in a dilapidated home and can not keep it up.

Sigfrid Mallozzi

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.

25

Question

by Gorb in

jw
friends

what is the probability that a religious organisation is used for money laundering?

for example, large amounts of money are raised by the organization as a donation and then legally introduced into the financial system.

is there any chance that jw.org is used for this kind of purpose?

Sigfrid Mallozzi

Money Laundering is the process of introducing illegally obtained money back into the economy. Sometimes this occurs through a series of complex bank or commercial transfers, and other times it’s as simple as a cash transaction.

The goal is to exchange the illegally acquired money (dirty money) for legally acquired money (clean money), and therefore, avoid suspicion from law enforcement. Money laundering is also a key ingredient in terrorist financing, and has important consequences from a compliance perspective.

In the US, money laundering took off in the 1920s during the prohibition era. As alcohol was made illegal in the US, a profitable black market soon arose to fill the boozy gap. Organized crime boomed as the demand for alcohol rose.

You may have heard of Al Capone, who was a major mob boss in Chicago. It is rumored that the term “money laundering” originated from Capone, as he set up laundromats across the city in order to disguise the origin of the money earned from alcohol sales. Any illicit profits would simply be added to the revenue generated by the laundromats and thus re-introduced into the financial system.

The History Of Money Laundering - KYC-Chain

25

Question

by Gorb in

jw
friends

what is the probability that a religious organisation is used for money laundering?

for example, large amounts of money are raised by the organization as a donation and then legally introduced into the financial system.

is there any chance that jw.org is used for this kind of purpose?

Sigfrid Mallozzi

If the money to be laundered is cash, it would be easy to take that money in donations at a convention. Then, there are many ways to direct it back to an individual or company where they would benefit. WTBTS needs rolls of paper for their presses? We have a new supplier of paper and will do all business with him or her even though they are marking the rolls up 1000 times the actual cost. If someone in an official capacity questions the transaction, "why would you pay 1000 times more, just claim volunteer incompetence, have just enough edge to claim to plausible deniability and change to some other means. WTBTS only reports the minimum necessary to governments.

55

Alec Baldwin Shot a Woman Dead

by Simon in

so alec baldwin shot a woman dead on set and seriously injured another man.. what do we put this down as?

a tragic accident?

maybe ... except that implies no one was to blame.. the more you find out, the more it seems that this was due to negligence and lack of attention to safety.

Sigfrid Mallozzi

Harvey Weinstein could do no wrong for years as he feasted at the table of young female actors until the world collapsed and he is in jail.

30

Butchered pronunciation

by road to nowhere in

since it is my turn (wife) to have the assembly streamed they start with the music.. i have never in 70 years heard it called a "pree-lood".

twice, morning and afternoon..

Sigfrid Mallozzi

How about "similar" as "sim-u-lar"? Or "extraordinary", as extra'-ordinary instead of

/ɪkˈstrɔrd(ə)nˌeri/

11

Very cool 20 I got in change this week.

by mickbobcat in

got this cool 20 in change this week.

i may frame it.

.

Sigfrid Mallozzi

7

Why are you guys against Jehovah's Witnesses?

by Vanderhoven7 in

why are you guys against jehovah's witnesses?.

gilles grey writes:.

in order to answer this question properly, it is important to distinguish between the various meanings of the phrase ‘jehovah’s witnesses’.

Sigfrid Mallozzi

Vanderhoven, I enjoyed your post. Do you have a source or citation? Thanks

17

Did you encounter any dishonest/shady business owners inside your local Kingdom Hall?

by RULES & REGULATIONS in

the watchtower—study edition | december 2021.

7 a merchant might take pride in the fact that he had never taken anything that did not belong to him.

but what about his business practices?

Sigfrid Mallozzi

Handing out paychecks is soooo outdated. Payroll Direct deposit has been the standard for what 6 plus years? I loved it when you could take a photo of your check within your banking app on your smartphone to deposit your check. But now, I wake up on Friday, pour a cup of coffee hit my checking and savings accounts app and check the hours, etc on ADP. As much as the labor force moves today from job to job and city and state to the next, a paper check is obsolete. At least the WT didn't show a brother paying in cash.

12

Does the Watchtower/JW Organization Regard its Readers & JWs as Fools and are they Secretly Laughing at Them?

by Disillusioned JW in

does the watchtower/jw organization regard its readers & jws as fools and are they secretly laughing at them?

for some examples consider the following.. the wt literature has many times used odd language where they say one thing but word it in such a way as to suggest something else.

they have said that a number of jws drew incorrect expectations about a number of things, including about 1914 and 1975, though it was the wt itself which proclaimed and taught those expectations in the wt's literature to jws.

Sigfrid Mallozzi

", yet later the WT abandoned a number of its claims saying their own claims were in error."

Isn't this "gaslighting"?

Sigfrid Mallozzi

Posts by Sigfrid Mallozzi

/ɪkˈstrɔrd(ə)nˌeri/