Posts by GrreatTeacher

This is the first year my son's girlfriend is coming with us. Everyone has met her before, but this is the first year she is coming with us to Thanksgiving dinner.

Christmas is at our house for my husband's side of the family. We have dinner at about 3pm and then open presents. There's always a silly rule. Once the rule was that any clothing gifts had to be immediately worn. We ended up with a few overstuffed marshmallow people. After that, we play card games and it breaks up early enough so everyone can get up for work the next day.

Now, my brother and sister are also xJWs, and we've never had really strong Christmas traditions, so we just wing it. We usually meet at my sister's on or close to New Year's and we have dinner and exchange gifts. We have dinner though it's not a traditional Christmas dinner, just something good. I try my best to make sure the nieces and nephews get fun toys that they can play with together that day. On Easter I have always been the Easter bunny and made the baskets. My sister's in laws live out of state and my brother's wife's family don't speak to them much as they are active JWs. So, we're all they have. And I married into a Catholic family with many, many traditions that I have absorbed, so I try to make it fun for them.

I'm actually ready to pull the Xmas tree out of the attic now and get started on decorations. I don't have the energy to do it all on the day after Thanksgiving anymore. I'm already well along on my Christmas shopping for a change. Supply chain delays and all that. Disappointed children are not acceptable on Christmas.

12

JWN poster/forum member Jada known as 'serenitynow' passed away...

by Joliette in

found out on fb friday .

not sure if anyone else found out, but i take long breaks from the exjws movement.

had to do a serious search for her name, because she wasnt as active on jwn anymore...not sure how she passed but her sister said (according to another ex jws) that she had been sick for a while.. i met her once here in milwaukee, had a great time hanging out with her.

GrreatTeacher

Oh no! I always loved her princess avatar.

6

The Eyes Of Tammy Faye

by smiddy3 in

i just watched this movie today and still not sure what to make of it .. did / do these people really believe what they preached ?

on the one hand i would say they did ,however on the other hand they knew religion was a gold mine for them .. and their lifestyle how they live reflected that .. and i can see the gb of the wt in it for the same reasons but they do it without all of the theatrics that these televangelists seem to thrive on.. i look forward to your thoughts on the movie..

GrreatTeacher

They both believe it's true, and know deep down it's not.

The mind is a fabulously versatile thing in the service of maintaining comfort and privilege.

12

Removing GB arragment.

by asp59 in

you think they abouth to remove gb arragment?

more and more with gb talks, they seem to be saying goodbye to congregations.

maeby its part of downsize.

GrreatTeacher

Punky, I love George Carlin.

One of the funniest things he did was narrate Thomas the Tank Engine videos in the early 2000s.

Whenever someone new walked into the house when they were playing (which was incessantly) I would invariably hear, "IS THAT GEORGE CARLIN?!?"

Yes, it was George Carlin narrating the exciting adventures of cartoon trains on the fictitious island of Sodor. Lessons were learned. Bad trains caused confusion and delay while good trains were cheerful workers.

The funniest part was when he started swearing, "Cinders and ashes!"

44

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.

GrreatTeacher

Fisherman, you're onto something when you talk about risk.

When you're 25 and investing for retirement you have plenty of time to make up for it if you lose money, so you make riskier investments in the hopes of greater reward.

If you're 60 and plan on retiring soon, you have to go much more conservative because you don't have enough time to make up for it if something goes wrong because you'll need it within a few years.

You should decrease investments in stocks and increase bonds and "cash" investments as you get closer to retirement. You need to be more liquid the shorter the timeline.

* The above does not constitute actual financial advice. Always consult a financial advisor about your individual circumstances.

44

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.

GrreatTeacher

Magnum, we have owned two stripped out white work trucks and they have been excellent investments. We ran a stripped out white 1998 Ford Ranger until my husband wrecked it. It had 130,000 miles and would've gone a lot longer.

We then bought a used white 2006 Dodge Ram that is so stripped out it doesn't even have carpet. It has rubber floors so you can squirt the dirt out. It has 180,000 miles and is ending its useful life. It needs a whole new front end and that would cost more than it's worth. It's only used for dump runs.

Have you tried looking for You Tube videos for cruise control installations? You can find videos on almost anything. When the ignition on the truck got stuck I found a You Tube video that showed how to fix it.

PS. You want to know the dumbest way to wreck a truck? My husband dropped his morning coffee thermos and it rolled under the brake and clutch. He couldn't stop because the brake was jammed and he hit the side wall of a very tall bridge going about 70 mph. That stopped him and destroyed the truck in the process. He ping ponged off one side of the bridge and then the other before he finally smashed on the drivers side. I got a 6 am phone call that started with, "I'm okay, but. . ." and that's when you know everything is not okay! He nearly flipped the truck over the side of the bridge and died.

44

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.

GrreatTeacher

I didn't get a personal finance class until college. It was an elective I chose and was very useful.

At the high school level, the closest I've seen is an elective class labeled something like "Living on your Own," but this was directed to the lower half of the intelligence spectrum and was not very comprehensive.

I guess it is expected that the upper half of the intelligence spectrum will get the information about exponential growth in mathematics class and extrapolate to personal finance from there.

But, yeah, either have family who can teach you or get it in university is about how it stands right now. That doesn't help the half that probably needs it the most.

44

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.

GrreatTeacher

Also, I read a study a few years ago that found money does indeed buy happiness, but only up to $75,000 annually. After that, happiness doesn't increase at all with additional income.

I'll have to see if I can find it now.

44

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.

GrreatTeacher

Our friends thought we were crazy when we put $250 a month away for retirement when we were in our early twenties. As a consequence, we didn't always have spare cash to do the fun stuff like concerts or trips with them.

And we were the first to have bought a house out of our friend group. I was 21 and my husband was 24. I found a first time buyers' program with hardly any money down required. My first mortgage payment was actually a few bucks less than my rent had been! We told our friends and some of them took our advice and bought homes as well. Never really learned whether anybody took our saving for retirement advice, and whoever said it's hard to imagine the power of compound interest if the rewards are 20 years away absolutely hit the nail on the head!

So, hang out with people who are doing well financially and you will pick up some good information! Hang around people who are living the life you want.

Also, personal finance has never been part of the high school curriculum, even though it should be! You have to be rabidly curious. I was 20 years old hanging out at the public library reading Forbes magazine. It did NOT make me cool. Not like all those kids going to concerts on the weekend. But, damn it, we're crossing the 50 hurdle and are looking good for retirement. We're on our 2nd house. We have a college aged son and should have college expenses (mine included! Thanks JWs for my late college experience!) and our house paid off well in time for retirement at 62 or 65. We should be able to reduce expenses and so our net retirement income should be about the same as our current income.

Get a finance guy if you don't splurge on anything else. The younger you do it the better.