Monday, March 31, 2008

Just a thought...

Agents from other companies don't like how Primerica is just randomly recruiting people. The way I see it, any one can be good as any of these so-called financial experts out there. With proper training and education, a Primerica representative can be good as any financial agents out there and ten times better than any life insurance agent. That is the agent does go to training and complete the licensing process. Thats my opinion anyway. When I first started, I knew very little about finances. The only thing I know was bank accounts and some general idea about credit cards. Now I know everything about life insurance, mortgages, mutual funds, annuities, and investment accounts (such as IRAs, 529 plans, Coverdell, custodial accounts, etc.). Things that an average American really don't know too much about.

Anyway, why is that other companies don't recruit the way Primerica recruits? My theory is that other companies don't like sharing profits among their agents. In other companies, there is one agent doing all the work and he/she gets paid a nice commission and the company makes money too. But the problem is that the agent has to constantly work and find clients to make money. Eventually, this agent will either max out his/her time or burn out.

Monday, March 24, 2008

A difference between financial rep and insurance salesman

This is in my own words and is not taken from a dictionary, but base on my experience as a Primerica representative.

A financial representative is someone who takes a look at the client's finances and gathers information for a financial analysis. He/she would look at what areas the client can spend less on so that the client can achieve realistic goals. For example, if a client was spending $1000/year on life insurance and the financial representative can offer life insurance that costs $500/year for the same coverage, that would save the client $500/year or $42/month. If the client was spending $2000/month on debt payments and the financial representative can offer a debt program that would cost $1800/month, that would save the client $200/month. That's an extra $242/month savings. The financial representative would then figure out how the client can use the $242 savings effectively. A portion would be applied toward the debt payment and the rest would be invested in one or more saving vehicles (IRAs, college plans, money markets, etc.) This is what a Primerica representative does for clients. The goal of a financial representative is to help the client increase the net worth over time. A majority of my clients don't spend a penny more after I sit down with them. If they are already spending whatever amount they spend a month, my goal is not to have them spend a penny more. Of course, there are some situations where clients do need to save more money and the client would need to cut spending on certain areas (such as entertainment or cable or magazines subscriptions) in order to reach whatever goals they have.

An insurance salesman is someone who tries to figure out what is the client's income and from there, figure out what the client can afford. The primary purpose of the salesman is to sell the product, even if it's not suitable for that client to buy it. Its even worse when the salesman doesn't even own that product him or herself. Why is that majority of life insurance people that sell whole life or universal life or variable life don't own these products themselves, but own term insurance or no life insurance at all? I tell you why. They know that those products are crappy to own and that term insurance is the best life insurance product out there.

Insurance salesman really don't have the same passion as a financial representative. Insurance people are more focus about the commissions. Financial representatives are more focus on helping the client achieve his or her financial goals.

Friday, March 21, 2008

Life takes Visa..

it sure does! Visa or any credit cards put you into debt. For how long? That's depends on how fast the person pays it off. The way I use credit cards is that I pay off the full balance every month. For many others, people make minimum payment on their cards. So they have a left over balance remaining. You would think that interest will be charged on the remaining balace. That is totally untrue. Companies charge interest on the average daily balance of your credit card. If you borrowed $1000 today and pay $500 of it next month, interest is not calculated on the remaining balance (the $500). It is actually $1000 plus any other new purchases you made with the card.

You can do an internet search, "how is interest calculated on credit cards?" (remove quotation marks when you type or paste it in the search box), to learn more on how companies calculate the interest on your credit cards.

Thursday, March 20, 2008

A little bit of rain....

and the entire highway becomes a nightmare... why is traffic so slow on rainy days? Even when it drizzles, traffic comes to a near stand still.