http://news.primerica.com/public/news/citi-announces-primerica-ipo.html Just a little FYI: Primerica is not public yet and nothing is finalize. There will be media reports about it and you should know that some of their facts may be inaccurate, so just be careful on where you get your source from. If you want to get the facts, get it from either Primerica press release or from the Securities Exchange Commission website that will have the latest report on the progress.
Here's the link of the preliminary prospectus: http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1475922/000119312509225601/ds1.htm
Just reading it shows how great this company really is. You will notice many blanks in the prospectus because this is only a preliminary document and its the first step to file for IPO. There will be several meetings to be followed between Primerica's executives and the SEC. How long will that take? I don't know and I'm not going to focus on it and wait. I'm going to keep building my business and help more families. It is what I do best and any incentives that Primerica's gives me is just an extra boost for me to work harder.
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Finally seeing positive gains on my investments
Back in January 2009, there was approximately a $2000 loss on my investments. I invested in various mutual funds through Primerica and I keep track of them on Quicken 2009 software. While $4000 is alot of money, I truly didn't lose anything since I didn't sell my investments or pull out of the market. Instead, I kept investing every single month. I maybe young and naive, but knowing how the market generally performs over time, I expect the market to rebound and see growth. During the entire time that the market was down, I was buying shares at a very low price. I am happy to report that there's now a $150 gain on my investment. Of course, the market can change in an instant, so I maybe back in the negatives again. But it doesn't matter to me what the value of my account is. It only matters when I retire in 30 to 35 years. All it matters to me right now is how many shares I can own.
To be honest, I really don't know what I'm doing when it comes to investing. But I listen to advice from others who have millions of dollars in their accounts and how they went from having nothing saved for retirement to having millions. These people I talk to were ordinary middle income people just like you and me, but did what other millionaires did to be financially independent. Here are some tips they gave me:
1) Set a long term goal. Investing is a long term strategy. Don't expect to see a huge return in one day or a month or a year.
2) Diversify your investments. Don't put all your money in one company. Invest in several companies.
3) Be discipline. Remember why you are investing and keep your eye on the prize. Don't listen to headlines. Present or past information does not predict future results.
4) Pay yourself first. Every time you get your paycheck from work, the first payment should be yourself. I personally max out my Roth IRA contributions every year and I also put money into other investments. I put away almost 30% of my monthly income into investments.
5) Use dollar cost average. By investing on a monthly basis, you will eventually lower the cost per share you own.
6) The more income you make, the more money you should put away.
7) Live below your means. Basically this mean don't try to live a life style you can barely afford by trying to show off how much money you make by buying expensive things, but have nothing in your savings. If you are funding your life with debt, you really need to sit down with a Primerica representative to help you get out of debt and do a budget for you.
I only been investing for 3 years and if I never met these people, I would of probably made some bad choices with my money. In fact, I would of kept all my money in the bank getting a lousy 0.50% interest on it and then pay tax on top of that. If investment choices were offered to me, I would of put my money in money markets and maybe bonds and get maybe 3 to 5% interest. But since I understand how Rule of 72 works and how powerful compound interest really is, I put money into more aggressive mutual funds and some conservative funds.
To be honest, I really don't know what I'm doing when it comes to investing. But I listen to advice from others who have millions of dollars in their accounts and how they went from having nothing saved for retirement to having millions. These people I talk to were ordinary middle income people just like you and me, but did what other millionaires did to be financially independent. Here are some tips they gave me:
1) Set a long term goal. Investing is a long term strategy. Don't expect to see a huge return in one day or a month or a year.
2) Diversify your investments. Don't put all your money in one company. Invest in several companies.
3) Be discipline. Remember why you are investing and keep your eye on the prize. Don't listen to headlines. Present or past information does not predict future results.
4) Pay yourself first. Every time you get your paycheck from work, the first payment should be yourself. I personally max out my Roth IRA contributions every year and I also put money into other investments. I put away almost 30% of my monthly income into investments.
5) Use dollar cost average. By investing on a monthly basis, you will eventually lower the cost per share you own.
6) The more income you make, the more money you should put away.
7) Live below your means. Basically this mean don't try to live a life style you can barely afford by trying to show off how much money you make by buying expensive things, but have nothing in your savings. If you are funding your life with debt, you really need to sit down with a Primerica representative to help you get out of debt and do a budget for you.
I only been investing for 3 years and if I never met these people, I would of probably made some bad choices with my money. In fact, I would of kept all my money in the bank getting a lousy 0.50% interest on it and then pay tax on top of that. If investment choices were offered to me, I would of put my money in money markets and maybe bonds and get maybe 3 to 5% interest. But since I understand how Rule of 72 works and how powerful compound interest really is, I put money into more aggressive mutual funds and some conservative funds.
Monday, August 31, 2009
The Insight of Primerica trips by FOX News
Here's a video from Fox News about how Primerica's trips are funded:
Citi doesn't pay for any of Primerica's expenses. Primerica pays everything and Citi just takes in a share of Primerica's profits.
Citi doesn't pay for any of Primerica's expenses. Primerica pays everything and Citi just takes in a share of Primerica's profits.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
What is Primerica all about?
I personally believe Primerica is a company that is about building and developing people to become business leaders so that they can eventually own their own business someday. In Primerica, they are not a company that is about financial services. They are a company of distributing financial products. Everybody needs what we do. We help families get the right amount of income protection, help them eliminate debt, and become financially independent. We provide a customized, confidential, and complimentary Financial Needs Analysis, which is a financial tool to help people reach their financial goals.
I listen to many successful people in this company earning million to four million dollars a year and one message I commonly hear from them is that you don't need to be an expert in finances to be successful in Primerica. You just need the commitment or dedication to fight for your future. You need to be careful who you associate yourself with. Are you associating yourself with people who are broke and unsuccessful and still talking about how high school was great? Or are you associating yourself with people who are highly successful and teaching you how to become successful? You also need to have a positive attitude. People want to work with people who are positive and excited. If you are not positive and always complaining or just in a bad mood, your attitude will affect the people around you. Another thing they say is get started now and let your trainers do the rest of the work for you until you feel confident enough to do everything by yourself. As you do more and more work, guess what? You also learn more and gain more experience and also earn more money.
There's only 2 reasons why people in Primerica don't get to work: 1) They don't understand the fundamentals or 2) They are lazy. No one in this world can change you if you are lazy. Only you can make yourself get to work. If you don't understand the fundamentals, your uplines will help you understand it.
Anyway, Primerica is a company that is about developing people to become business leaders. Guess what? They done a pretty good job with that with over 2400 reps earning 6 figures and over 60 reps earning 7 figures. I believe there's more successful people in Primerica than any other financial company. While you can make tons of money in other financial companies, do you have the same freedom as these successful Primerica reps are? All these successful Primerica reps don't have to work and still get paid. Can you do that at other companies? In Primerica, we can recruit our clients to give them the opportunity to earn extra income and build a business. What can other financial companies do if their clients have a shortfall of income to meet their financial goals? They would say you have to somehow earn more money or lower your goals. There's no one can do what Primerica can do.
I listen to many successful people in this company earning million to four million dollars a year and one message I commonly hear from them is that you don't need to be an expert in finances to be successful in Primerica. You just need the commitment or dedication to fight for your future. You need to be careful who you associate yourself with. Are you associating yourself with people who are broke and unsuccessful and still talking about how high school was great? Or are you associating yourself with people who are highly successful and teaching you how to become successful? You also need to have a positive attitude. People want to work with people who are positive and excited. If you are not positive and always complaining or just in a bad mood, your attitude will affect the people around you. Another thing they say is get started now and let your trainers do the rest of the work for you until you feel confident enough to do everything by yourself. As you do more and more work, guess what? You also learn more and gain more experience and also earn more money.
There's only 2 reasons why people in Primerica don't get to work: 1) They don't understand the fundamentals or 2) They are lazy. No one in this world can change you if you are lazy. Only you can make yourself get to work. If you don't understand the fundamentals, your uplines will help you understand it.
Anyway, Primerica is a company that is about developing people to become business leaders. Guess what? They done a pretty good job with that with over 2400 reps earning 6 figures and over 60 reps earning 7 figures. I believe there's more successful people in Primerica than any other financial company. While you can make tons of money in other financial companies, do you have the same freedom as these successful Primerica reps are? All these successful Primerica reps don't have to work and still get paid. Can you do that at other companies? In Primerica, we can recruit our clients to give them the opportunity to earn extra income and build a business. What can other financial companies do if their clients have a shortfall of income to meet their financial goals? They would say you have to somehow earn more money or lower your goals. There's no one can do what Primerica can do.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Primerica increases Metlife's Variable Annuities sales
This portion of the news report was taken from Reuters titled, "Metlife Posts $1.4 bln quarterly net loss":
While the report don't say why or how Metlife's Variable Annuities business is growing, a regional sales manager from Metlife said Primerica sells more variable annuities than Metlife's sales force. Its no shock to me. Primerica has the largest securities licensed representatives in North America. I believe Metlife's Prime Elite variable annuities is the best kind of variable annuity out there with its low fees and guaranteed features associated with it such as guaranteed growth for several years and access to hundreds of mutual funds.
I have sold a few variable annuities by either doing a 1035 exchange with a cash value life insurance policy or a 1035 exchange with a variable annuity. My parents once owned a variable universal life insurance policy. One policy with $30,000 coverage had about $8,000 in net surrender cash value and the other policy with $100,000 coverage had $15,000 in net surrender value. Their total annual premium for a total of $130,000 coverage was $2400. Both of them bought this life insurance policy when they were 40 years old.
At the time I sat down with my parents (both at age 56), I found out they were under-insured, meaning they didn't have enough coverage to cover their financial needs. I gave each of them a 20 year term with $100,000 coverage each for a total of $200,000 coverage. They had health issues and rated "non-tobacco" instead of "preferred", so their annual premium is $1621/year. If they bought the 20 year term when they were 40 years old (they were healthy back then), it would of cost them $299/year, saving them $2101/year. If they invested the difference for a period of 16 years (from age 40 to 56), they would of have about $87,000 in their account at a 10% rate of return. In their variable universal life policies, they only had about $23,000. That's almost a $64,000 difference!
After the term policy was issued, I did a 1035 exchange with their variable universal life policies and moved the cash value into a variable annuity. My parent's original retirement plan was relying on social security and government programs, if they even qualify for government assistance. I did not want my parents to retire poor and downgrade their life style. Besides opening variable annuities for them, I also open a Roth IRA for both of them. They both plan to retire at age 64, so they only had another 12 years to invest. Both of them invest $300/month into their own Roth IRA (a total of $600/month) and with a 8% return (because they are conservative investors), each of them would have about $72,600 in their retirement account for a total of $145,200. $145k is not alot of money to retire on, but at least its something. Plus, they don't pay any taxes on this and all withdrawals are tax-free because that's how a Roth IRA works.
Anyway, so their new retirement plan now includes social security, income for life from their Metlife's variable annuities, and their Roth IRA and from me who is currently earning over $90,000/year and soon to earn over $100k/year with no stop in sight. This is why I love Primerica. Helping families, building a business, having freedom, and being able to support your loved ones with no worries about money. Everyone who is in Primerica has the same opportunity, but it requires hard work, small sacrifices, and focus to achieve these goals.
MetLife said its annuities business saw a 43 percent increase in deposits in the quarter, stemming from a record $4.5 billion in variable annuity deposits.
Life insurers are seeing increased demand for annuities as Americans begin to deploy cash more actively into retirement investments.
Variable annuities are much like mutual fund investments, except they include features such as a guaranteed stream of retirement income.
But MetLife's strong balance sheet is helping it stand out against rivals.
"MetLife, unlike some of the other companies, is benefiting from a 'flight to quality,'" said Morningstar's Rambaldini.
Unlike half a dozen of its peers, MetLife never asked to be included in TARP, a federal funding program originally intended for banks, instead tapping capital markets when it needed to bolster capital.
The company's net worth, or the book value of its equity, rose about 18 percent in the quarter to roughly $25 billion.
While the report don't say why or how Metlife's Variable Annuities business is growing, a regional sales manager from Metlife said Primerica sells more variable annuities than Metlife's sales force. Its no shock to me. Primerica has the largest securities licensed representatives in North America. I believe Metlife's Prime Elite variable annuities is the best kind of variable annuity out there with its low fees and guaranteed features associated with it such as guaranteed growth for several years and access to hundreds of mutual funds.
I have sold a few variable annuities by either doing a 1035 exchange with a cash value life insurance policy or a 1035 exchange with a variable annuity. My parents once owned a variable universal life insurance policy. One policy with $30,000 coverage had about $8,000 in net surrender cash value and the other policy with $100,000 coverage had $15,000 in net surrender value. Their total annual premium for a total of $130,000 coverage was $2400. Both of them bought this life insurance policy when they were 40 years old.
At the time I sat down with my parents (both at age 56), I found out they were under-insured, meaning they didn't have enough coverage to cover their financial needs. I gave each of them a 20 year term with $100,000 coverage each for a total of $200,000 coverage. They had health issues and rated "non-tobacco" instead of "preferred", so their annual premium is $1621/year. If they bought the 20 year term when they were 40 years old (they were healthy back then), it would of cost them $299/year, saving them $2101/year. If they invested the difference for a period of 16 years (from age 40 to 56), they would of have about $87,000 in their account at a 10% rate of return. In their variable universal life policies, they only had about $23,000. That's almost a $64,000 difference!
After the term policy was issued, I did a 1035 exchange with their variable universal life policies and moved the cash value into a variable annuity. My parent's original retirement plan was relying on social security and government programs, if they even qualify for government assistance. I did not want my parents to retire poor and downgrade their life style. Besides opening variable annuities for them, I also open a Roth IRA for both of them. They both plan to retire at age 64, so they only had another 12 years to invest. Both of them invest $300/month into their own Roth IRA (a total of $600/month) and with a 8% return (because they are conservative investors), each of them would have about $72,600 in their retirement account for a total of $145,200. $145k is not alot of money to retire on, but at least its something. Plus, they don't pay any taxes on this and all withdrawals are tax-free because that's how a Roth IRA works.
Anyway, so their new retirement plan now includes social security, income for life from their Metlife's variable annuities, and their Roth IRA and from me who is currently earning over $90,000/year and soon to earn over $100k/year with no stop in sight. This is why I love Primerica. Helping families, building a business, having freedom, and being able to support your loved ones with no worries about money. Everyone who is in Primerica has the same opportunity, but it requires hard work, small sacrifices, and focus to achieve these goals.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
The good will overcome evil
I was thinking to myself and was wondering why is Primerica not affected by certain circumstances such as the recession while many other companies are taking a hard hit? The answer is simple, Primerica does the right thing for their clients. "When you do the right things, events don't overtake you. You overtake events."
For example, lets take a look at the mortgage industry. Many mortgage companies got involved in selling exotic mortgages such as Adjustable Rate Mortgages in the past few years. While it generate lots of profits for those companies for a short period of time, many of those companies are now gone or have been bail out by the government. Guess what? They are partly to blame for the economic mess that the world is in right now. At Primerica, they stood by one type of loan and that's a fixed rate loan. Of all the clients in Primerica who own Primerica's SMART loan (which stands for Save Money And Reduce Taxes) during the past 10 years, less than 0.7% of them ever foreclosed their home. Primerica's SMART loan business continues to grow while many other companies doing mortgages continue to struggle to survive.
Some of you are asking what about Citigroup? Yes they received government bailout money, but there's no connection between Primerica and Citigroup. The only connection between these two companies is that Citigroup takes some of Primerica's profits. Citigroup doesn't pay for any Primerica's expenses or any other companies that are part of Citigroup. Think of Citigroup as one big financial supermarket. A supermarket sells all kinds of stuff. But does the supermarket pay for the expenses of making those products or pay those employees or expenses of those companies? No. They earn money by selling those products. To me, its kind of a sucky deal to be part of Citigroup. There's been lots of chatter about Citi trying to sell Primerica and I hope someday that day will come true. But in a shaky economy we are in right now, I don't think any company is willing to pay about $7.5 billion to buy Primerica right now. Believe me, there's lots of companies out there that is interested in Primerica, just that its not the right time.
Now, lets take a look at the life insurance industry. Primerica is member of the "Insurance Marketplace Standards Association, a self-policing compliance group established by life insureres. In January 2000, there were 241 members. In May 2009, there were only 88 companies. It proves one thing that Primerica continues to do what is right for their consumers. Primerica lowered their rates in the year 2007 and many companies did the same. But when the going get tough and companies need to generate more money, they need to raise their rates or reduce the number of agents. At Primerica, they kept their rates the same and the sales force continues to grow. There's no company out there that can compete against Primerica.
The bottom line of my message. Good companies that do the right thing will strive and get stronger and companies that takes advantage of people will fall or be affected by economic conditions. Primerica been in business for over 30 years and the company continues to get bigger and stronger, even during rough economic times.
For example, lets take a look at the mortgage industry. Many mortgage companies got involved in selling exotic mortgages such as Adjustable Rate Mortgages in the past few years. While it generate lots of profits for those companies for a short period of time, many of those companies are now gone or have been bail out by the government. Guess what? They are partly to blame for the economic mess that the world is in right now. At Primerica, they stood by one type of loan and that's a fixed rate loan. Of all the clients in Primerica who own Primerica's SMART loan (which stands for Save Money And Reduce Taxes) during the past 10 years, less than 0.7% of them ever foreclosed their home. Primerica's SMART loan business continues to grow while many other companies doing mortgages continue to struggle to survive.
Some of you are asking what about Citigroup? Yes they received government bailout money, but there's no connection between Primerica and Citigroup. The only connection between these two companies is that Citigroup takes some of Primerica's profits. Citigroup doesn't pay for any Primerica's expenses or any other companies that are part of Citigroup. Think of Citigroup as one big financial supermarket. A supermarket sells all kinds of stuff. But does the supermarket pay for the expenses of making those products or pay those employees or expenses of those companies? No. They earn money by selling those products. To me, its kind of a sucky deal to be part of Citigroup. There's been lots of chatter about Citi trying to sell Primerica and I hope someday that day will come true. But in a shaky economy we are in right now, I don't think any company is willing to pay about $7.5 billion to buy Primerica right now. Believe me, there's lots of companies out there that is interested in Primerica, just that its not the right time.
Now, lets take a look at the life insurance industry. Primerica is member of the "Insurance Marketplace Standards Association, a self-policing compliance group established by life insureres. In January 2000, there were 241 members. In May 2009, there were only 88 companies. It proves one thing that Primerica continues to do what is right for their consumers. Primerica lowered their rates in the year 2007 and many companies did the same. But when the going get tough and companies need to generate more money, they need to raise their rates or reduce the number of agents. At Primerica, they kept their rates the same and the sales force continues to grow. There's no company out there that can compete against Primerica.
The bottom line of my message. Good companies that do the right thing will strive and get stronger and companies that takes advantage of people will fall or be affected by economic conditions. Primerica been in business for over 30 years and the company continues to get bigger and stronger, even during rough economic times.
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