Primerica Seminar

Money:

In December 1992, Kathleen and Matt Brennan were mired in $19,000 worth of credit-card debt. Both had good jobs–Kathleen was a supervising mechanical engineer at a Commonwealth Edison nuclear plant, and Matt was a risk manager with a clearinghouse at the Chicago Board of Trade. But after years of freewheeling spending early in their marriage, they had few reserves to build a college fund for their children or to save for retirement. Despite her M.B.A. from the University of Chicago, confesses Kathleen, “Most people knew me as someone who didn’t watch her finances very well.”

That’s when a friend invited the couple to a Primerica seminar. By demystifying sophisticated investment terms and strategies, the presenter introduced the Brennans to the basics of investing. For instance, a discussion of interest rates convinced Kathleen to eliminate her credit-card debt and shift the interest payments into investments. Feeling empowered, the Brennans made a commitment to drastically reduce spending and to begin investing more of their six-figure income for the future. “I even started buying generic toilet paper that felt like sandpaper to save money,” admits Kathleen. Within five months of the seminar, the couple were debt-free and building a nest egg that included term life insurance policies and mutual funds–all products sold by Primerica.