Posts by GrreatTeacher

20

Can we stick to topics that we came that we came to this forum in the first place?

by James Jack in

i don’t care about politics, books you are reading, movies and tv programs you’re watching, etc..

GrreatTeacher

James Jack, this post just makes me sad. This is a long, roundabout way to let me know you have no advice to give me about my kitchen remodel.

After being on this site for years, I have watched it change. The many positive threads have diminished and controversial threads have predominated.

I've looked back at my own posts and have frankly not liked what I've seen. I've had a grumpy, "you kids get off my lawn!" tone that doesn't really represent who I am.

In my real life, none of this kind of stuff ever gets talked about. Certainly never religion and politics. I'm known as friendly, funny and easy to get along with. Would people here know that with the recent tone of conversation? Maybe not.

The only way to amend that is to outpost negative comments with positive. I've chosen to do that by posting some personal purchase/finance threads recently, including my recent kitchen remodeling post as well as my recent auto purchase thread. I don't know why talking about the practicalities of buying a car has been appreciated, but asking for advice on remodeling a kitchen has been so controversial.

In my mind, living a successful ex JW life is one of the biggest challenges to be faced. With little exposure to the world, exJWs might not know how to buy a car, buy a house or manage financials. Some people don't know how to leave home, get a job, or rent an apartment. We're all at different places, yet we can all help each other. I'm sure some people here have a half million dollar net worth or more, while others have half a dollar to get through until the end of the month.

I'm not sure whether you're the guy who lived an approved life of JW poverty and think any talk of home ownership is out of the picture and therefore a moot subject, or you own your home, have remodeled it to perfection so as to not overimprove or underimprove, and therefore believe it's a stupid subject because "everybody knows that!"

If you're the latter, that's rather stingy, but if you're the former, I would say there are a lot of people here who know about homebuying and how it's key to building wealth, which, after all, just means security. Living in your primary investment vehicle is usually an excellent financial goal, and there is a lot of crowd wisdom here that many people would be more than willing to share and many would be more than willing to take.

I have often thought about starting a series of posts on practical information for living a good life after the JWs. Maybe topics like: moving out of your parents' house, finding a job, finding an apartment, buying a house, renovating a house, opening a checking/savings account, planning for retirement, investments, etc. Depending on your age leaving the JWs any of those topics might possibly be appropriate.

I, personally, have been out all of my adult life and am interested in my house as a primary investment vehicle, retirement investing, and career planning until retirement. I am thankful that, through the years, I've had lots of people willing to share what they know very unselfishly because they, as well as myself, want everyone to live their best exJW life.

In all kindness and charity,

GT

15

What is your most favorite politically incorrect film

by mickbobcat in

since all the leftist idiots are trying to cancel films they don't like i am buying some dvds of my fav.

pi films.

my favorite top pick is animal house.

GrreatTeacher

White Chicks is freaking hilarious. Definitely recommend, 5 out of 5 stars.

Rumor is that the Wayans brothers were raised JW.

6

Interesting place for a KH. My thoughts

by joe134cd in

yesterday i happened to be driving through a rural town where i made an observation.

first let me describe this town.

it’s almost a shadow of its former self.

GrreatTeacher

Interesting. The Mormons might be better at shifting money from central to individual congregations.

The JWs have pretty much left finances up to individual congregations. If the congregation can't afford to repay a remodel, they won't do it.

When folks are poor and hopeless, these kinds of religions can appeal. I have often seen poor areas fill up with storefront churches unaffiliated with larger denominations. The Ebenezer Tabernacle of the Rising Salvation Circus and similar do brisk business in poor neighborhoods. They'll drag their podiums right out to the street corner and preach to passersby.

If that's the only person who has spoken to you with kindness recently, you might go inside. Especially if you're cold.

20

Watchtower Society's progression of Pirate Black Beard after his resurrection

by RULES & REGULATIONS in

good news from god!.

lesson 6. .

what hope is there for the dead?.

GrreatTeacher

Also, it never shows the bottom half of the ladies so it's an open question whether they will need to wear skirts or not.

Good call. Wouldn't want to stumble anyone.🤯

6

A MYSTERIOUS (maybe romantic) LETTER arrives!

by Terry in

jw
friends

mysterious romantic letter?.

my story begins at noon with the letter-carrier dropping off a mystery envelope.

(for my grandson severin (he was out walking his chihuahua.).

GrreatTeacher

I love the internet address in the letter starting with HPPS:

Pienso que Lucia tiene mas an~os que su nieto.

(Don't know how to insert the ~ properly.)

28

GameStop - Great Seeing Short-Selling Hedge Funds Get Beaten Up

by Simon in

in case you haven't seen what's happened with gamestop and redditors.. these are the people who drive companies like blockbuster out of business and put people out of work.. but maybe the people have more power after all .... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9toogruq7me.

GrreatTeacher

Honestly, I learned a lot about this from my teenage/young adult son.

He had been playing with stocks on Robinhood being introduced to it by the guys at work.

(Remember when coworkers would go together on lottery tickets? How things have changed!)

He dumped $100 into some stocks to see what would happen. OK I'm with you. But then he told me that they check the damn app on their phones all day long!

Also, they checked various Twitter accounts and other social media all day long and they watched the sometimes instantaneous changes in stock value. Someone could just mention something cryptic like, "TGIF, enjoying my Coca Cola!" and they would watch Coke stock twitch.

He was not on WSB, but he says he understood how quickly something like that could take off. The thing is that the collective wisdom of social media is not really stock market wisdom. It's just a bunch of people, some probably educated, but others idiots, who have managed to, in effect, distill the speed of high school gossip down to nearly instantaneous.

There is power there, and some GenZers get off on it. I asked my son about the pyramid scheme idea, and didn't they realize that only the ones in the beginning will make money, etc.

You know what he said? For some of them, yes they do know, but THAT'S NOT THE POINT. He said they don't care if they destabilize the stock market because their generation has been screwed. GenX has their retirement money in the stock market, but GenZ won't have a retirement because wages haven't kept up with expenses, college tuition has exceeded the rate of inflation, the jobs they are going to get won't have pensions, and Social Security will probably crash and burn before they get any.

I don't feel like my son is super angry like this, but I was surprised about the level of anger that GenZ has toward GenX and Boomers. And, by the way, there is not much distinction between the two, having heard an, "Okay, boomer!" directed my way once or twice and I am smack in the middle of GenX.

So, it's just a big old game to them. They revel in beating Wall Street, but they also disdain the middle class who has their retirement money invested in the stock market, and don't mind if they screw them, too.

20

Profanity on Surrey Kingdom Hall

by lssjr in

if it is a non-jw who did this as a result of their pandemic campaign (letter-writing and telephone calls), jehovah’s witnesses really need to check themselves.

they have been directed by their new york headquarters (since last year shortly after the start of the pandemic) to send letters to only people they know.

people don’t like receiving unwanted, unrequested, unsolicited letters and phone calls, especially from jehovah’s witnesses.. if it is a former member who received a letter as a result letter-writing pandemic campaign- most former members do not like being harassed by active jehovah’s witnesses and have been directed by their new york headquarters to send letters to and call only people they know.. .

GrreatTeacher

Didn't the hall have security cameras? I thought most of them did?

Wasn't vandalism, specifically broken windows, the reason that they stopped building halls with windows and the window-free version became popular?

I guess they didn't realize that people could still spray paint the place up.

I've always wondered why they really built windowless boxes. It certainly kills the resale value. Maybe they weren't worried about that back in the 80s and 90s.

28

GameStop - Great Seeing Short-Selling Hedge Funds Get Beaten Up

by Simon in

in case you haven't seen what's happened with gamestop and redditors.. these are the people who drive companies like blockbuster out of business and put people out of work.. but maybe the people have more power after all .... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9toogruq7me.

GrreatTeacher

It's hard not to get caught up in a housing bubble. If you've been planning on buying a home, saving hard for a downpayment and watching rising home prices pushing you out of the market, you're very tempted to buy before it's "too late." and you can't afford to. Without any experience, you might not recognize a bubble or know that what goes up must come down and wait to buy until then.

We were actually looking to move up to a larger home when the housing bubble hit. The house we had bought 10 years earlier for $120,000 was now worth $325,000! Great time to sell, right? Except we'd have to pay a hugely inflated price for our next, larger house, too!

Our solution was to add onto our house. We already owned the land and the house was situated on the lot so that even doubling the size of our house left plenty of yard left. It was a standard 1980s 1200 square foot rancher and we basically an addition the same size directly behind it. That way we were only paying for construction, not land.

We weren't the only ones adding on at the same time and construction companies were charging the amount of the difference between current value and completed value. Except this was inflated along with the entire market and we knew the actual market value of wages hadn't gone up. We looked and looked and finally found a guy who lived in the neighborhood who did construction on the side and who told us his labor rates. So, we did the addition for Time and Materials. He charged us for any materials he bought and he charged us $45 an hour for himself and $19 for his assistants. He bid out electrical, roofing and basic plumbing and did the rest himself. My husband did phones and data and I painted. We got 1200 square feet for $100,000. This was less than it would've cost us to move up to a bigger house of the same size!

So, the bubble burst and every house was suddenly worth less. Did we lose money? Counting our original house price plus the addition, we had $220,000 in a house that, after the "correction" was still worth about $320,000. So, yeah, we were up about $100,000! The market has gone up since then and it's worth more now, but we were doing really well even right after the crash.

Some of the people who sold and bought during the bubble were upside down on their new house after the crash. Unfortunately that led to quite a few foreclosures in our neighborhood some of which were bought by investors as rentals including the houses on either side of us. They have kept the properties decent looking, however. They are in high demand and command rather high monthly rental rates. ($1600 - $2000).

Anyhow, be able to recognize a bubble. Sometimes houses just appreciate but it's usually in response to something. Population increase putting pressure on supply or local investment in the area like schools, parks or conservation easements. But, if housing prices are greater than the equation of Land + Cost of Construction, it might just be a bubble, so wait to buy until the bubble pops. The only exception might be retirees who can sell high and move down to a smaller house or even a vacation home they've bought previously. Then "Sell high!" might be the rule to follow!

I hope nobody here got caught in the bubble because we watched a lot of people crash and burn in our area. And they weren't speculators, this was their primary home.

64

Havent gone to the kingdom hall in ten years but may have to go back...

by Joliette in

made a big mistake of talking about being raised as a jehovah's witness to some old friends and family.

people have told me that i am still a jws even though i've never been baptized.

i'm in school for social services, dealing with student loan debt, and a lot of other debt.

GrreatTeacher

Juliette, I'm sorry I haven't checked in in a few days and I missed your post.

Disclaimer: I am not a doctor. However, you sound like you are suffering from depression, bigtime. My clue? One of the symptoms is Hopelessness and your posts just screams hopelessness. Everything you're saying can be summed up by: everything's terrible and it always will be (unless I grab at this crazy straw and go back to the JWs.)

Full disclosure: I have suffered from depression since forever and when it acts up, it's sneaky. There are a million problems that I have that are just terrible! And are emergencies! And need to be solved with some drastic action! Now!

No, that's the depression talking. Depression that is acting up and untreated makes the normal stresses of life seem impossible. But, in reality all of those things have been there and will continue to be there and you have been dealing with them before.

But, it's the illness, the depression, that makes it feel hopeless and you desperate. Get the medical help for your illness and you WILL be able to cope with those problems. Seem it's not the problems, it's your illness making it difficult to cope right now.

Have you ever been diagnosed with depression? If so, it appears you are not in remission right now and need to see a doctor. If not, you need to see a doctor. You do not appear to be well right now. Your distress is obvious.

Your only problem is how to see a doctor. Do you have insurance? Do you have a primary care physician? If not, call your local health department and ask how to access care. They might have clinics available or limited walk ins or references for insurance programs for low income.

Worse comes to worse, urgent care usually charges about $80.

See, it's your health that matters. All the other problems get solved more efficiently after you are healthy.

I get it. I'm late 40s and still have student loan debt. I realize you don't get Social Security if you're in default. I am and I am unemployed right now and have struggled with underemployment. I left the JWs at 19, but it has affected me mentally and I have struggled with depression, even getting a diagnosis of Bipolar2 that will always be with me. It sucks. These problems are always there and I can cope with them when I am in remission and mentally healthy, but the depression can sneak up and make life feel impossible. That's a lie. It's not. That's the depression talking.

Please PM me if you want to talk. I live in the US, too, so I have learned my way around the educational and healthcare worlds. I might be able to help and provide support. 😊

44

Covid lung damage worse than from heavy smoking

by FatFreek 2005 in

we've probably all heard it, "i wish i could get the covid and that way it would be behind me", as if it were some annoying rite of passage.

"sure, i'll lose my senses of smell and taste for awhile, i'll lose my strength for awhile", etc.. what else could be the reasoning for ignoring the social distancing to attend maskless parties and similar large group gatherings?.

however, looking at the following xray images of certain lungs may help impress some folks into thinking that there are more serious happenings in the attack progression of this virus.

GrreatTeacher

My thought is that it's necessary to root out government failures while not giving up on governing altogether.

Down that road lies anarchy.