Back in those days, such persons were taken as authority figures giving authoritative advice, but now many years later, I realize they are not the same as general authorities. Later I would also be exposed to Joseph Fielding Smith’s point that anything not found in the scriptures can be taken as a man’s own opinion.

I can agree with Gramps’ point that there is no scripture that thou shalt pay tithing except when on subsistence income. I would say it makes sense if it is aid being provided by parents or children who are members of the church and have already tithed family money being given as assistance.

I can also appreciate Gramps’ point that if he have already tithed money we have paid into social security, we don’t have to tithe it again when we take it out. This agrees with my Institute teacher. The same argument would also apply to pensions if we already tithed the money that we paid into the pension fund.

Where it gets difficult for me is in considering the increase. When I look at the amounts I paid into my pension fund, I find it considerably less than the amount I would collect over a lifetime of retirement. But I have read articles by financial experts who say that in government pension plans, the amount of money you collect from it is a loss, generally around 35%, rather than a gain, and that social security is even worse at about a 50% loss.

I don’t have the financial expertise to evaluate these claims. I understand they factor things in such as inflation and the corresponding devaluation of the dollar, but if it includes things such as how much you would have made if you had been able to have the money in a better performing private financial instrument such as a mutual fund, then the calculation becomes speculative, even if based on conservative estimates; and fund performance itself is an increase, at least as far as it outstrips inflation.

So if my funds are losing money rather than being an increase to me, I don’t want to tithe it, but if the basis of this estimate is inaccurate, I don’t want to avoid tithing. It seems Gramps has wisely left this as an exercise for the reader as it is certainly a difficult calculation. Perhaps the best thing is to rate each year’s past contribution to the funds in terms of today’s dollars, and see how many years have actually been tithed in advance.

I wonder if the Handbook has guidance on this.