My first opportunity meeting at Primerica

It was August 2004 when I first saw the business opportunity at Primerica. It was a Saturday morning at 9AM. I got there at 8:30AM. Keep in mind, I had no clue what is going on. I just wanted a job to earn some money. I did not know that this was a business opportunity. All I know was that Primerica is a member of Citigroup and who wouldn't want to work for this gigantic company? I was 22 years old at the time and just graduated from college.

So the meeting started at 9AM. First speaker talked a little bit about Primerica. Primerica has over 100,000 representatives and been in business since 1977. They have over 6 million clients in USA, Puerto Rico, Canada, Spain, and UK. They are a member of Citigroup. Citigroup is listed on the NYSE as symbol "C". They are one of the DJIA companies. Citigroup has more than $1 trillion in assets and been ranked #1 in the Forbes Global 2000.

Then the next speaker talked about some financial concepts. Remember, I was 22 years old at the time and none of the stuff they talked about made sense to me. I don't know debt was. All I know that its bad to have and the only way to get rid of it is to pay it off. The speaker talked about the Rule of 72, which I was familiar with, but didn't know how to apply it in real life. The Rule of 72 is a mathematical formula that tells you how long it will take for your money to double given the interest rate. For example, if you get a 3% interest, it would take 24 years for your money to double. With 12% interest, it will take 6 years. How you get 12%? Simple, you invest your money into mutual funds. At that time, I had very little understanding of mutual funds. The only thing I knew about mutual funds was that it invests in many different companies. Then the speaker talked about how money works and the power of compound interest. Then he talked a little bit about life insurance, which I didn't pay any attention to.

Then another speaker came in and was tying in those financial concepts with their products. He talked about life insurance, the debt solution, and the financial needs analysis. None of it made any sense to me. I was 22 years old and single and none of this stuff did not relate to me. I don't have a family. I only have a student loan debt. And I wasn't too sure about investing.

And finally, there was one more speaker. He did a brief recap and talked about compensation and the business opportunity. This is the part that got me excited about Primerica. I joined Primerica because of the overrides and ownership. An override is the difference between my sales level and my downline's sales level. Then there was something about the $199 I didn't quite understand. They say its for the state licensing fee and the background check. I'm like, "huh?"

I knew nothing about business or know the cost of starting one because I'm not exposed to it. Most of us are taught to graduate from high school, go to college, and get a good job. Is there really such a thing as a "good job?" You work so hard to get an hourly wage, which the government taxes you on. You take home what's ever is left over and then you pay your bills. You have a boss that keeps telling you to do stuff and you may or may not like it. You have to wake up the exact same time every Mon-Fri. You eat lunch at the same time and you leave at the same time. You try everything to impress your boss because you think you will get promoted that way (sometimes it works, but most of the time, you are stuck at the same position). You may get an average salary increase of 3%, which may excite you, but really, its not even keeping up with inflation. The longer you stay at that job, the more experienced you are, but you will soon become a big liability for the company. Your salary increases over time and if your company provides health insurance, the cost of those premiums goes up as well. If you worked at the company for 20+ years, you know you are going to be replaced by someone younger and less experienced than you. Then what are you going to do after that? You are too old to work for any other corporation, so you have to work at a low end job such as Walmart, McDonald's, and so on.

I look at my parents, brother and sisters, and my relatives. They all have a job and none of them are happy about what they do. They complain about their pay, about their co-workers, about their boss, about the commute, and bunch of other stuff. I'm like, "shit, I don't want that kind of life style." They are so negative in life. So that's why I joined Primerica because I want freedom and be able to enjoy my life.

In my next blog, I will talk about some of the things people told me and what I read online about Primerica.