Excellent post Simon. You have done this community a great service if they will only read it and try to do at least some of the suggestions you make.
I want to add that the consistent thing I see most people do wrong regarding savings (and ultimately, retirement) is not living beneath ones means. Everyone has a "means" because everyone has a different income amount and a different family situation (married / single, kids / no kids). But my casual observation is most people will buy the house or car that the bank says they can afford. Well, that's usually right AT their means, not beneath it. It is no sin to live at ones means... but this doesn't easily translate into being able to save. Most banks and realtors, etc. will encourage you to spend as much as their calculations will tell them you CAN spend. Then, most people get excited about that and buy the best car or house or rent the best apartment, etc. that they can. These BIG monthly expenditures are then set in stone for many months or even years and play the biggest part in a budget calculation later. So their budget starts out with a premise that these things HAVE to be this high. Often they do not. This is only because people do not really want to live beneath their means.
Another mistake many make is not taking advantage of their company's 401k match. I've heard from friends that say "Well, my company match is really poor. They only match 50% up to x thousands of dollars... so I don't participate". I ask them what they do with the money that they are not putting into the 401k and they will say "well, I invest it". So, I ask them this, "what investment do you have that guarantees 50% earnings?" Even if your company has a "poor" 50% or 25% match, that is guaranteed! Why not get this "free" money? On top of that, the money you put into the 401k to get the free money match is tax deferred, so you won't pay taxes on it until you retire and begin to withdraw it, probably at a lower tax rate. Not utilizing a company match, at least to the fullest amount your company will give, is silly. You can't get easier money.
Brock Talon
JoinedPosts by Brock Talon
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Retirement Planning for ex-JW's
by Simon inthis 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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Brock Talon
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What Written & Unwritten Rules Do Jehovah's Witnesses Have?
by minimus injws should "not go beyond what is written".. please list examples of how they do not follow that bible instruction..
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Brock Talon
My top 20 list of the things you can't do as a JW:
#20 - Can't watch Rated R movies. (Even some PG-13 are not allowable if they are "violent" or "demonic")
#19 - Can't watch cartoons that are "demonic" like Casper or the Smurfs.
#18 - Men can't wear beards. (Women can though, if they have a hormone problem... seen this from time to time actually...)
#17 - Can't listen to "music that debases". (Really, did early day Christians worry about singing evil "Roman songs"?)
#16 - Can't miss meetings, even if your employer mandates it. If so, you have to quit. (Did early day Christians do this?)
#15 - Men can't wear black or dark shirts on stage.
#13 - Men have to wear a suit or sports coat and tie to every meeting. (Do you really think early day Christians had to do the equivalent?)
#12 - Women can't wear skirts or dresses that are too far above the knee.
#11 - Women can't show ANY cleavage... ever. (Worst rule... ever)
#10 - Can't smoke... anything.
#9 - Can't vote, even for a local neighborhood issue.
#8 - Can't be a policeman, join the army, or really have any kind of secular authority in the world.
#7 - Can't date "too long" or you are not serious about marriage and won't "be used".
#6 - Can't be engaged "too long" or you are not serious about marriage and won't "be used".
#5 - Can't swear. (The Bible talks about swearing all the time and that a "good" person can in fact swear given the right circumstances.)
#4 - Can't masturbate. (In reality, pretty much EVERYONE ignores this rule, but lie about it.)
#3 - Men can't wear their hair over their ears. (Did early day Christians really care about this kind of thing?)
#2 - Can't have "worldly" friends. (Why not? How else can we win people over? By being xenophobic weirdos?)And #1 is...
Can't question an all powerful, all knowing "organization" about anything, even if they've proven to be wrong repeatedly since the time the organization was organized.
-Brock Talon -
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Generation changes chart - 3rd edition
by truthseeker ini started working on this chart 5 years ago.
i didn't think i'd have to update it again so soon.. .
linky in case image doesn't show below.
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Brock Talon
Regarding our dear departed Brother Gangas, I can almost hear again how he started his prayers:
Oh Jehovah, our Almighty, Beautiful, Celestial, Delightful, Energetic, Fantastic, Glorious, Honorable, Illustrious, Jubilant, Kind, Long Suffering, Majestic, Noble, Omniscient, Powerful... heavenly father.... -
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Generation changes chart - 3rd edition
by truthseeker ini started working on this chart 5 years ago.
i didn't think i'd have to update it again so soon.. .
linky in case image doesn't show below.
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Brock Talon
I was at Bethel when that iconic Watchtower was published, the one with Brother Gangas and other "1914 generation" anointed were printed on it. I was close to brother Gangas as well at that time, so I felt comfortable asking him about the cover, that is, what did he think about being on the cover and about the article itself.
He just smiled at me his Yoda smile and said nothing. -
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Today I got a review that left me scratching my head - what do you make of it?
by Brock Talon inas a published author on amazon, i'm used to getting negative reviews from time to time.
it goes with the territory and i'm ok with it.
writing is an art form, so no art is liked by everyone.
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Brock Talon
Mary J Blige, Thanks for that. Tell your mother that if she writes a review of my book, it will make my day. For the record, most of the experiences I have regarding my books are positive. So, it's not all bad reviews and people Facebook flaming me and saying they want to kill me. I didn't want to leave that impression. But every once in awhile I like to share with the ex-JW community the craziness I occasionally experience because I think you all will understand it the best and will usually have words of reassurance that I need too. This is so I don't regret publishing my story to the entire world. -
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Today I got a review that left me scratching my head - what do you make of it?
by Brock Talon inas a published author on amazon, i'm used to getting negative reviews from time to time.
it goes with the territory and i'm ok with it.
writing is an art form, so no art is liked by everyone.
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Brock Talon
OnTheWayOut, That was an interesting way of handling things. I suppose we each have our own way as an author. I personally try to resist the urge to comment on my book reviews at all, but I wouldn't say it was wrong to do it. I've just read in a number of places where responding to reviews, especially negative ones, can backfire on an author. By the way, three other people have already answered that review with their own comments and the reviewer didn't respond back to those people, so I doubt my responding would have served any useful purpose.
runForver, Yes. Totally. This person cannot say they were not warned.
tiki, Well, it was worth my time reading it, but probably not yours.
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Today I got a review that left me scratching my head - what do you make of it?
by Brock Talon inas a published author on amazon, i'm used to getting negative reviews from time to time.
it goes with the territory and i'm ok with it.
writing is an art form, so no art is liked by everyone.
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Brock Talon
OnTheWayOut, well, that's an idea, but I don't like to respond to reviews on Amazon. It's generally considered a bad idea by most authors. (Conventional wisdom holds that we are supposed to be above such things... so I don't break rank from that.)
Fortunately I have this forum and Facebook to do the occasional venting about the trials and tribulations of being an ex-JW book author. For example - I found that same extreme review in English this time on another book site. Boy, this woman really must hate me to post it twice under two different names...
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36
Today I got a review that left me scratching my head - what do you make of it?
by Brock Talon inas a published author on amazon, i'm used to getting negative reviews from time to time.
it goes with the territory and i'm ok with it.
writing is an art form, so no art is liked by everyone.
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Brock Talon
TD, True, dat. I was one of those people myself at one time, so I'll give this poor woman a pass.
Steve2, I really appreciate the thought. I think leaving the review up with, along with the comments some folks are making on it on Amazon is a better (**ahem**) "witness" than anything else I could do. And as I've stated before, these kinds of 1 star bash reviews seem to make the book sell better for some odd reason, so it doesn't really hurt anything in the long run.
I'm also tickled whenever anyone mentions my work in any context along side Ray Franz... a man whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.
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Today I got a review that left me scratching my head - what do you make of it?
by Brock Talon inas a published author on amazon, i'm used to getting negative reviews from time to time.
it goes with the territory and i'm ok with it.
writing is an art form, so no art is liked by everyone.
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Brock Talon
Scully, yeah. I thought all those things myself.
Kairos, ha!
Simon, My thoughts on that as well. It's like I said at the end of Journey to God's House:
Neither do they really love. Not others. Not even each other. Their so-called love is based on merit only. If you do what they like, they'll put up with you. If not, they'll drop you without hesitation and not feel a thing about it. I'm sorry to say it, but this kind of behavior is simply not love.
When I was a Witness, I was just like them too. But, I couldn't see that what I was doing was wrong. As a rule, Jehovah's Witnesses simply can't see this about themselves in the same way a person with bad body odor usually can't smell themselves.
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Today I got a review that left me scratching my head - what do you make of it?
by Brock Talon inas a published author on amazon, i'm used to getting negative reviews from time to time.
it goes with the territory and i'm ok with it.
writing is an art form, so no art is liked by everyone.
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Brock Talon
Sir82, I agree totally.
ToesUp, Yes, they just can't see the conditional relationship... usually until it's too late!
Regarding not taking the review by Beth personally, I don't.
But, what about this review I found on an Italian website (through Google Alerts). Would you take this one personally if you were me? Somebody translated my book Escape from Paradise into Italian and this person called "TheSurvivalMama" wrote this review about it (named in Italian "Fuga Dal Paradiso").
