Primerica

Since I began my quest to reach a million, I have occasionally been side-tracked with what looked like good opprtunities to make a lot of money quickly. One of the main companies I looked into was Primerica, a subsidiary of CitiGroup.

I started with Primerica in mid 2002 after almost a year of pestering by one of their agents. For those of you who haven't heard of Primerica, you can go to www.primerica.com to check them out. I really like their mission (term life insurance---rather than the more commonly-sold, money-sucking variable life policies---mutual fund investing, and an overall financial plan), although I take issue with their inefficiency (caused by the internal structure of the company) which can be frustrating for clients and agents alike. It was an easy mission to buy into because it really has the potential to help a lot of people get on track financially and into better situations. I moved through the promotions quickly and became a Regional Leader, which is one step away from becoming a Regional Vice President, in a year and a half.

I got my investment licenses (series 60 and 63) and even my brokers license (series 22), so that I could help families set up automatic investments in a ROTH IRA after I showed them how to save money and plan for their futures.

Primerica is a great company and although I am no longer with them, I still stand behind their mission and their financial products. It did not help me with my goals, however, because it was too dependent on others. I became very frustrated trying to teach middle class Americans about life insurance and financial plans when they didn't care and didn't want to take the time to learn how not to throw away hard-earned money on cash value life insurance. After a really frustrating month, during which I had one family choose to implement my financial plan with another financial planner because I hadn't finished college yet and another family decided that they didn't care enough to save over $500 a month and several hundred thousand dollars by retirement to switch from their current plan to mine, I gave up. I could have made a good living in Primerica, maybe even the million I'm seeking, but I didn't care to stay on that path when it was becoming so miserable.

Additionally, my upline (the person that recruited me) was notorious for not telling the whole truth---usually just because he really didn't know---and it became more and more difficult to do business with him. Many times he was pushing very hard for a promotion or check or contest and would call me or members of my team the last three days of the week and try to drum up business. That was an atmosphere and the part of Primerica that I really didn't enjoy. Perhaps if I had had a different trainer, things would have been different and I would still be with the company, but probably not. I decided to take what I had learned, especially my understanding of the securites industry, and use it for my own good.

I don't regret becoming part of Primerica for a time. I learned a lot of things things that have helped me on my journey to financial independence. I also learned many important lessons in selling, in team building, and about relationships, but it was definately the school of hard knocks!

www.primerica.com