. . . covering a period of several years.

I paid on my gross income and, to the best of my recollection, the tithing total came to about $150,000.

That would maybe buy one of those "700 Club"-type of LDS temple Celestial Room chandeliers--or perhaps cover a fraction of Monson's downtown condo.

What I could have done with that money, stolen from me through the lies of a cult founded by a convicted conman. Oh, well . . .

How about with you folks?



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 04/18/2012 08:34PM by steve benson.

I saw the light and quit paying tithing shortly after graduating from BYU. So I only lost the tithing money from my initial lower wage jobs.

Plus I was on a full-tuition scholarship the whole time I was at BYU, so I think I might have come out ahead.

As I started working, I also started having doubts about the church. I kept saving my tithing and kept an envelop, but couldn't bring myself to hand it over. When I finally quit, I was happy I had kept those thousand plus dollars.

I just estimated that I would have given nearly $100k away to the LDS Church. My monthly donation would equal what I have left over as my discretionary money. I would have nothing for clothes, vacation or unexpected expenses if I paid on my gross.

The LDS Church does not need my money as much as I do.

It cost us $1,650. I wish we had purchased a copier for our home use instead.

I have a brother giving them $20,000 a year, and he doesn't even like being a Mormon at all. He goes just to keep from going to hell. What a waste, I wish he knew the truth.

Can you help him?

Hate to burst his bubble, but he IS in hell.

I only give him little bits of info. His wife would leave him I’m sure if he left the church, so I tell him that I’ll tell him more when his kids are out of the house.

I do tell him that it’s such a waste to have to go to church, and hate it. Have a time consuming calling, and hate it. But feel like its real so you have to keep doing it, when really you don’t have to. It’s all made up.

I'm just a few years past 40. I figure over my time in the church I've paid close to $100k in tithing. Probably more, but I'm guestimating low. My family has definitely suffered because of all the money we gave away. If I had taken that same amount of money and invested it over the same period of time my life would be very different. I could have paid for my kids college, & retired comfortably. We could have taken vacations together.

Instead, we went through bankruptcy, & when we needed help there was none to be found. We were told that if we failed to continue paying tithing while we were getting back on our feet we would not be worthy members.

If there were any way to sue and get my money back, I'd be first in line. I hope someday to get the tattoo that says "Sucker" removed from my forehead. Oh well...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/18/2012 09:02PM by theoutlander.

If only we could sue them for misrepresentation and get a refund.

Oh. my. hell.

Your post could have been written by me, it is exactly the same with my immediate family.

The church is always there with a hand out to collect your $$$$$, or to beat you with the guilt stick in the other hand behind their back.

But if you need a hand up, or any help with financial situations, EVEN AFTER giving almost a hundred thou, guess what...crickets... plus, we were lectured on being more financially-effing-frugal, like we were 5 year old children.

Im so glad im done..

Carry on, great thread

It really is terrible and at retirement it may cause much sadness.

One of the best things I ever did from a financial standpoint was quit paying tithing. I'm still recovering from how much it hurt me. Once I stopped paying it became possible to start socking money away for the future. When I paid, I just didn't have a dime to save. I probably gave TSCC close to $100,000.00 before I wised up.

Did I tell you how happy I am now? In mormon terms I am now extremely BLESSED.

I quit shortly after a mission and still a student.

I can't make myself add it up. It will make me sick.

I did try to estimate what my parents, siblings, aunts and uncles are paying a year. It's well over a million a year. That's only a guess. I have a big family.

Over their life time, if you add in my cousins, millions and millions. It could have changed the lives of everyone in my family if that money had been put to better use.

I have posted multiple times about the right way to pay tithing. Each year, calculate the amount that you "should" (according to LDSinc.) pay in tithing, and then put that money into an IRA (to the maximum limit) and any excess into a savings account. Accumulate that money over your working lifetime. After you retire, use the money for your own living expenses and vacation expenses. When you reach age 85, if there is any excess money left in your accounts and IF you are still a TBM, then consider donating that money to LDSinc.

The logic behind this approach is this: TSSC promises you benefits in heaven, after you die. So you are paying money out to TSSC close to the time that you will actually die. There is no reason to pay them money during your working lifetime when it is likely that you will need that money to fund your own retirement.

The only penalty for you is that you don't get a temple recommend. Try not to shed too many tears over that one.

I quit LDSinc. at age 17. Before then I paid $50 in tithing. So that was my lifetime contribution. If I had put that same money into savings and investments it would be worth about $2000 today. But I won't cry over my lost $50, especially after reading about the big bucks paid out by others before they discovered that Joseph's Myth is a big [expletive] fraud.

If the posters on this thread who paid out big bucks to LDSinc. had simply followed the "saviorself approach to tithing", they would all have their money sitting in IRA and savings accounts, ready for them to use.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/19/2012 12:57AM by saviorself.

I love this idea, and I think technically, you could still have a recommend, too. One can send their $ straight to SLC and completely bypass local leadership, so they wouldn't know the difference (unless, I suppose, higher-ups eventually sniff you out.)

The only problem is that a true-blue Mormon would never be okay with this plan.

I'm married to a nevermo who wasn't too hot on parting with our money to give to the church. I would give the tiniest bit and was of the belief then, that god knew we couldn't afford it and wouldn't want us to take food away from our children. I worked my as* off though with tons of callings and felt this balanced the scales. Total paid over 25 years, around $1,500. And THAT much pisses me off!! I wish you all could sue for back pay!

Yeah I added it up too. Over 30,000 in ten years. Enough to not owe the 30,000 that we do in student loans right now.

The whole time I was TBM, I never missed my tithing money. It was, after all, the Lord's money. It wasn't even mine to consider it in my budget. To me, it would have been like budgeting someone elses money into my budget...so it would have been absurd to me to ask what I could have done with the money. It would be like asking what I could do with someone elses money.

And, the amount never seemed that much to me. I actually felt a sense of pride when the bishop handed me my tithing settlement printout and I'd see the cummulative amount, and that it was a hefty sum. It was kind of a miracle-of-loaves-and-fishes to me that my seemingly small tithing payments added up to SO much...and I felt blessed.

I have been slow to understand that I have been robbed. The church has been taking the money...not as a donation as they say, but by convincing me it's not even MY money...it's the church's money...to begin with.
So rather than a donation, it's a debt. And, they have the audacity to ask you if you've paid it ALL!
Literally, tithing settlement is where the bishop asks "is that all you owe?"
It's a sinister scam this church. They are a theocracy, a whole economy based on their made-up god, and naturally it's the common masses who actually financially support the church...not the ultra-rich like Marriott's and Romney's. That's because, as we find out, tithing isn't "just" 10%...it's 10% of gross, which means more like 25% or more of "disposable" income...the stuff you're supposed to be saving, investing...but I didn't.

I spend the money on magic beans.

repost for those that missed it..scenario out of happy valley

Tithing Math.. did I do this right?

So Great Grandpa died and leaves mom $100,000

GGrandpas already tithed -$10,000
Grandpa leaves Mom the balance $100,000
Mom pays tithing -$10,000
Mom gifts $90,000 to only daughter
Daughter pays $9000 tithe -$9000
daughter give $81000 to married 4 kids
4 Married kids pay tithe $ 2020 each and give -$8080
great grandkids more $$$ to tithe on -$????

so $37080 + paid to the TSCC on gramps gift that he already paid tithing on the Gross.

I wish this wasn't a true scenario but it is.All are TBM's
Pretty Slick con if you ask me. The TSCC must have more money than God.
I would imagine this scenario is repeated more often than not
in the Morg.

I paid tithing for over 30 years.


I don't even want to THINK about how much money I shoveled into that bottomless pit!

When I left on my mission I was earning a nice salary of around $25,000. That was a decent amount for a 19 year old kid in 1975!

I figured I lost $50,000 just missing the two years of pay. I also lost a bunch of seniority which took years to gain back after my mission.

I was a pilot btw, & aviation took a bit of a hiring nose dive right after that. Senority meant everything.

I don't even want to think about tithing on top of that!

...at age 19 in 1975?

The thing that disgusts me now is the $50/month we paid when we were BYU married students and living off the $500/month we got from the GI Bill. Well, that and financial aid, which we paid tithing on too.

This was early 80s when rent was about $175/mo. We had 2 little kids and that $50 was of so much more need than $500 would be to me today. It was the difference of my kids eating healthy food once in awhile or macaroni and cheese every day. It would have bought us student health insurance instead of going without. It sickens me to think I took valuable resources away from my children--and a "family oriented" church let me do that.

If I had all the tithing money you all have paid over the years, I could affort to BUY happy valley. But, unfortunately, I'd still move out of the place. In fact, if I owned happy valley and hell, I'd rent out happy valley and live in hell.

I have no idea how much my parents paid in tithing. I do know we were dirt poor. So many nights we fed our family of six popcorn for dinner, or spaghetti with no sauce. Well I never paid one cent in tithing, and when I was 12 or so I started skipping out right after sacrement.

Well since every person in our country neighborhood was in church I spent those post sacrement hours pilfering every orchard and vegetable garden around. Fresh apples, plums, cherrys, eggs, you name it. Never felt a shred of guilt.

I never made it to priest, but I swear if I had ever been put in charge of collecting tithing some of that money would have been put to good use.

but haven't paid in over 20 years now. I got an inheritance this past year and it was so nice not to have to deduct tithing. Only one sibling is TBM and we don't speak. I get kind of a kick out of the fact she more than likely paid tithing on her inheritance.

When I finally got a job and was able to actually start paying tithing, I officially only gave them twenty bucks. Anytime I pulled out tithing from my checks, it would go in an envelope...and I would constantly forget to take it into the church. When my doubts got to the high point and I was traveling to see family, I had all that extra money and realized I didn't feel bad spending 'sacred' tithing money.

It was awesome.

Funny thing is, I am now in a better financial situation than he is.

When I sold my first house I had $34,000 equity. I didn’t buy another house at that time and rented. I had a lot of guilt knowing that I should be paying $3,400 in tithing. I didn’t want to do it, and felt a lot of guilt knowing that I should.

Then I figured out a way to logic through it and avoid most, but not all of the guilt.

I asked my bishop what he did with the money when he sold his house. He put it into his new house to make the loan lower. I said, so you didn’t pay tithing on it? He said that he didn’t think that most people did, they just put it towards the new house.

I figured that if they weren’t paying tithing on it, then just because I didn’t put it into a new home, that shouldn’t obligate me to pay it if they didn’t. So I didn’t. I’m so glad that I didn’t.

We ate spaghetti with no sauce. My mom called it polish spaghetti, which for her would have meant stupid. We wore deseret industries clothing, had nothing, and did almost nothing. No vacations, no parties, no fun other than church. That was all that mattered. Most of my friends lived the same way, and as kids we didn't question it. Today I do not speak to my tbm family, only the ones who have left.

I had the same experience many relate here: Married too young , too many kids too fast, broke all the time, and when I saw the lie my family and wifes family shunned me. Compared to tithing, how is that for a cost?

I have made a new life, and have a normal family now, but at the time, that nearly killed me, it was a far higher price than the cash.

I think the kolobians are deceived, and the morg powers that be are pond scum.

You have paid for the suits worn by the 15 Apostles at General Conference this year (but not the shoes).

No matter how much it was, it was worth it to walk away from the "investment."

When I was a young married Mormon, we paid our tithing by selling stock near the end of the year. The bishop contacted us and specifically asked us not to sell the high-tech stock but just to turn ownership of it over to the church so they could add it to their investment portfolio.

So much for needing it now for operating expenses.

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