Simon

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Posts by Simon

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  32

  Kingdom hall cleaning

  by Farmer Jim1 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  what are your memories of hall cleaning?.

  i actually enjoyed it on the whole, my dad as the elder always tried to keep it to under one hour but in my later years in a hard-line congregation it was a chore.

  the po's wife had a printed list and we had to complete it all before left (or got disapproving looks if we left after an hour).. as well as vacuuming the whole building the lost said you had to dismantle the vacuum and clean and polish all the internal elements.

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  Simon

  Please don't spam the site with your videos.
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  48

  Retirement Planning for ex-JW's

  by Simon in

  1. social
  2. family

  this is something i think about a lot, possibly because i'm just getting older.

  it seems that not only should i finally one day decide what i want to do with my life, but i should also be planning for retirement.. hands up everyone who feels their future has been royally screwed by the wts experience?.

  if you were a good jw and followed the wts advice you could well be finding yourself facing middle or even old age without much or anything put aside in retirement savings.

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  Simon

  #1 Look after you health
  Firstly, if you live in the western world then most likely you probably weigh 10-15kg more that you should, so make that your first priority. If you can't jog around the block, then make that your second goal. Being physically fit will save you from needless medical bills, persevere you looks and help prevent Alzheimer's. Its no point worrying about retiring at 70 if you you don't making it to 60.

  Probably especially important if you're in the US where healthcare costs can be catastrophic.

  I just got a walking treadmill for my standing desk as a way of getting more exercise in. I don't mind walking, I just hate that it's so boring and seems such a waste of my time. So doing it while I'm still productive feels better.

  Cutting down on alcohol is an instant health win and also saves you money - just think about what it really is, a voluntary high tax you choose to pay to the government. Who would want to pay that?

  #3 Stop buying crap.
  Yes ... stop impulse buying. Fast food, fashion sneakers, smart phones ... what ever does not last 5 years.

  Always remember that shiny new thing will become the old outdated tat that you have stuck in a draw that you don't use anymore. Some things are worth buying, and some things are worth paying to get a quality version of, but don't buy anything for appearance or because you "want" it.

  I read a good trick recently which was to calc. how many times you'd use something, and if it averages less than $1 per use it was OK. Just something to make you stop and question it's utility value. The other trick is a self-imposed waiting period based on the cost of the item, like # of days or weeks per certain $ of cost. Often the impulse goes away if we just wait long enough, and many of the fancy new things turn out to be crap if you wait for the reviews to come in (Apple VR, Rabbit R1 AI and many

  #4 Buy gold
  Buy gold bullion. Don't invest in shares, don't invest in anything that give you just a piece of paper, just buy 99.999% gold. Why? Gold from the dawn of time is the ONLY asset that offers protection from ANY kind of economic problem. Save every cent and as soon as you can buy a 1/2oz gold ingot or a 1oz gold coin. Then save more and buy another one ... and then another. Don't let others care for your wealth.

  Bitcoin has also done quite well and now there are ETFs or equivalent in many countries is a far less risky investment than it once was.

  But definitely real gold rather than paper - I read there is something like 30 times more gold owned than exists, because it's re-sold. Plus you never know if someone selling you the "share" really has it in their vaults and hasn't sold the same claim to other people.

  Costco has started selling gold bars and can't keep them in stock.

  The only downside to gold is that it isn't really rare - if the price goes up the miners mine more and vice versa (often in environmentally devastating ways), plus it could be mined from asteroids or comets at some point. Bitcoin is rare across the entirety of the universe. But you can't hold it and stroke it like you're Smaug as you can with gold, LOL.
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  48

  Retirement Planning for ex-JW's

  by Simon in

  1. social
  2. family

  this is something i think about a lot, possibly because i'm just getting older.

  it seems that not only should i finally one day decide what i want to do with my life, but i should also be planning for retirement.. hands up everyone who feels their future has been royally screwed by the wts experience?.

  if you were a good jw and followed the wts advice you could well be finding yourself facing middle or even old age without much or anything put aside in retirement savings.

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  Simon

  I am still working full time, very close to pulling the plug in the next few months. I can't wait, but also nervous about not having a paycheck...I've never not worked

  Yeah, I imagine the transition is difficult. I'm in the fortunate position that my hobby is also my work, so my retirement will just be picking more what *I* want to work on.

  I follow a few groups, to gather intel and avoid costly mistakes. I would like to use some funds for some stock purchases, but I'm a buy and hold type gal, at least for the moment, just too busy with work to have something with timing issues. I do track my balances daily, which is easy as I do this for work so I do the same for my own at the same time.

  Another saying is "time IN the market is more important than timING the market". Most stocks have good and bad days, and many of the gains are concentrated in short bursts which is why it's important to be there for when they happen.

  One thing I always remember someone told me years ago, "it's not what you earn it's what you spend." Watching those subscription fees that sneak into your credit card, the coffees and eating out really adds up, especially now. I love eating out, but pretty much keep it to special times with friends and family. As you get a little older shop for special deals with internet/phone/TV/insurance even some tax breaks.

  I've heard that as "it's not what you earn it's what you keep". It's amazing how it often doesn't even impact what you can but, you just have to be more selective where you buy it from. Expensive coffee vs McDonalds is the classic example.

  The price of eating out has become ridiculous, and many fast food meals now expect more than restaurants did (or sill do, in some cases). So never assume that something is going to be cheap, you could end up paying more for a lesser experience if you don't check. We have a fantastic local Indian restaurant that's currently less expensive than the big-name fast-food burger places, and is so much better.
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  48

  Retirement Planning for ex-JW's

  by Simon in

  1. social
  2. family

  this is something i think about a lot, possibly because i'm just getting older.

  it seems that not only should i finally one day decide what i want to do with my life, but i should also be planning for retirement.. hands up everyone who feels their future has been royally screwed by the wts experience?.

  if you were a good jw and followed the wts advice you could well be finding yourself facing middle or even old age without much or anything put aside in retirement savings.

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  Simon

  If anyone wants to do some retirement planning, there is a fantastic app you can use that lets you model pretty much anything. It's fairly new, but I can see an increasing number of financial planners using it (so being able to plug your own numbers in is a head start). It's also why tracking your net-worth is important.

  https://projectionlab.com/
  
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  48

  Retirement Planning for ex-JW's

  by Simon in

  1. social
  2. family

  this is something i think about a lot, possibly because i'm just getting older.

  it seems that not only should i finally one day decide what i want to do with my life, but i should also be planning for retirement.. hands up everyone who feels their future has been royally screwed by the wts experience?.

  if you were a good jw and followed the wts advice you could well be finding yourself facing middle or even old age without much or anything put aside in retirement savings.

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  Simon

  Wow, things change fast in less than 10 years. Peer-to-peer lending was quite good for us for a good while, but it was clear some of the companies were in trouble when the economy took a downturn around Covid so I got out of them before things went bad and defaults ticked up.

  We've done quite well with our investments and built up quite a decent nest-egg for retirement. So you can start late, and you can catch up and can get ahead if you put your mind to it and are disciplined. Most people don't, even without the "excuse" that they were brought up believing that growing old wasn't going to be a thing.

  Of all the things there are to learn about investing I think the most valuable to me has been that prices are often a measure of psychological views of a stock as much as the real finances of the company. When things look good, prices can go up with the euphoria and amplified out of all proportion (why there is so much "hype"), and when things look bad everyone wants to sell. Knowing this, the Rothschilds quote that "the time to buy is when there's blood in the streets (even if it's your own)" makes sense, repeated by Warren Buffet as "Be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful". It doesn't mean you should buy underperforming stocks just because they are cheap but when markets take a tumble because of some world event or uncertainty, it's almost always a severe overreaction and there are bargains to be had. An example of this was Covid, when you could get some high quality stocks at bargain prices, especially Oil & Gas. It's not easy, your instinct will be screaming not to, but it's the best time to buy.

  The other thing is to let your winners ride - don't sell stocks because they are hitting their all time highs, they can always go higher. There are lots of stories of people selling stocks like Apple and Microsoft decades ago because they thought they had grown so much, but they kept going up and up and up. Some stocks are worth keeping hold of for the long-term (and investing should be long-term, most people lose money when they over-trade). But of course if the fundamental business of a company is being eroded, then it's time to reconsider and take profits. But likewise, if a stock isn't doing anything, or is underwater, consider getting rid of it - it's psychological to want to wait until it recovers so you don't "loose" but you'll always loose even if it does, because other stocks would have gone up more in that same period. Don't be afraid to kill losers and move the money to something better.

  Finally, I've changed my views on paying off debt. While in theory it's mathematically better to get 5-7% by investing while paying off 2% debt as slow as possible, the typical scenario is for a mortgage and as we've seen, things change. You can't guarantee that your mortgage renewal won't be +7% due to the clowns in charge of central banks printing phoney money. Paying off debt while it's cheap is always worthwhile IMO because it gives you future options and prevents the chance of renewal shock. We were lucky with timing to get a 1.79% rate and by overpaying we'll have it paid it off when it comes up for renewal next year. Mortgage freedom is priceless, and you'll then have your mortgage + overpayment amount to invest with less worry.

  Finally, realize that what you hear on the news about the economy, and what you hear from the government and bankers is pure lies. They are stealing your wealth with their money printing and taxes. If printing money doesn't cause inflation, why do they need taxes at all? Just print it instead ... If you consider that a 3% management fee on mutual funds take 50% of your wealth over a 25 year period, what does inflation being 2-8% for your entire lifetime do to your wealth when it applies to every penny you ever see, for 70+ years? For similar reasons, I don't think the traditional 60 / 40 split of stocks and bonds is a good idea, so I stopped bothering with bonds, which has been a good option (gold and bitcoin are possibly both better options). Oh, and never get investment and retirement advice from anyone who sells investment and retirement products to you, especially if they make commission on them (so steer clear of high-street banks who invariably want to recommend products that hold their own banks stock). Also, look at how much investments actually grow vs the balance just going up because you're contributing regularly. Banks are keen to focus on the increase to keep you paying in, to take their fees. I'm not a professional investor but I've done significantly better than what the "professionals" at the bank managed.

  What else? Obviously, spend carefully - especially when it comes to subscriptions. Do you really need all those streaming service and such an expensive phone data plan? Is there anything going out of your account each month that you just forgot about, for services you rarely use? Surprising how they can creep up on you and cost so much over time.

  The absolute best thing to do overall is to track your net-worth. Every account, every asset, every debt - keep a track of the balances. You don't need to track every cent of every transaction or budget for every penny you spend, that's too time-consuming and soul destroying, just record the balances on a regular basis whether that's weekly, monthly, or yearly, make it a habit and it does two things:

  It (hopefully) shows that you are making progress, because long-time-duration changes are often difficult for us to notice. When you see progress it encourages you to keep to the plan and do more, especially if you really do need to do more to hit your targets.

  It gives you early warning if things are going off track. Maybe your investments aren't growing as much as they should, or your credit card debts is trending upwards, whatever it is an early alert will make it an easier problem to solve.

  Share any tips you can think of and experiences you've had with investing!
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  2910

  It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars (continued)

  by Simon in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  uh oh, looks like the mega thread gave up the ghost, so while i investigate / fix it just continue the discussion here .... it's been a long 9 years lloyd evans / john cedars.

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  Simon

  To receive the full state pension in the UK you need to have paid thirty years worth of National Insurance contributions (a specific, earnings related tax).

  People often go out of their way to cheat on taxes or avoid paying them in someway but forget about the future implications where their lack of record of earnings and contributions can come back to bite them.

  Not that anyone should really rely on government promises when it comes to pensions, as most are really complete Ponzi schemes and largely unsustainable. Which of course makes doing your own planning for your own future all the more critical.

  I posted about Retirement Planning for ex-JWs
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  2910

  It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars (continued)

  by Simon in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  uh oh, looks like the mega thread gave up the ghost, so while i investigate / fix it just continue the discussion here .... it's been a long 9 years lloyd evans / john cedars.

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  Simon

  does he hope it will carry on until he retires?

  He appears to put zero thought and no planning into his immediate future, let alone the long-term. If money comes in, he spends it on toys, trips, hookers, and drugs. Whatever experience makes him happy right now, with no thought to saving or investing - he doesn't pay his own way now, why would he consider doing it in future?

  I don't think he has the concept of the increased reward from "delayed gratification" which is something linked to poor impulse control and lack of social competence (sound like someone?). Read this article and all the way through it's describing Lloyd: "As adults, the high delayers were less likely to have drug problems or other addictive behaviors, get divorced, or be overweight". He ticks all the boxes.

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delayed_gratification
  

  He'll be one of those types that bemoans how poor he is when he's older because he didn't work and plan for that future.
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  2910

  It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars (continued)

  by Simon in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  uh oh, looks like the mega thread gave up the ghost, so while i investigate / fix it just continue the discussion here .... it's been a long 9 years lloyd evans / john cedars.

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  Simon

  Remember when he was so *not* after a relationship, and only interested in sex, that he went out of his way to educate his wife on the correct spelling and pronunciation of the name of the woman he was seeing?

  He tells whatever lie he thinks will negate the current thing he's been caught out on. Nothing more.
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  2910

  It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars (continued)

  by Simon in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  uh oh, looks like the mega thread gave up the ghost, so while i investigate / fix it just continue the discussion here .... it's been a long 9 years lloyd evans / john cedars.

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  Simon

  Yeah, "consenting?" ... not really.

  "taking advantage of?" absolutely.

  Anyone using prostitutes is a rapist because there is always some form of coercion involved somewhere along the line.
• 
  2910

  It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars (continued)

  by Simon in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  uh oh, looks like the mega thread gave up the ghost, so while i investigate / fix it just continue the discussion here .... it's been a long 9 years lloyd evans / john cedars.

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  Simon

  When you leave a cult and are all sorts of emotional (angry, confused, sad etc) Lloyd seemed like a “great place to repair”.

  That's exactly why he hangs around exJWs - the vulnerable people leaving the WTS are easy picking for a predator to take advantage of.

  People both want to help but also need help from others, what they don't need is to be fleeced.

  No one should feel bad for being trusting and wanting to help "the cause".

  Everyone who leaves feels like they want to destroy the WatchTower. It's understandable due to the hurt they cause. But after some number of years out everyone realizes that it's simply unrealistic. What is inexcusable is to know that and be making promises that you'll bring it about, if people donate money to you. He must know it's impossible and isn't going to happen, otherwise he's even dumber than we think, so the only explanation for taking people's money is that it is a grift.