A subject that is very important to me is the matter of women educating themselves about financial empowerment. Not in the women’s liberation sense, but more of a matter of being responsible about your choices. It seems as though the stereotypical expectations are that women may or may not go to college, possibly establish a career, get married and live largely dependent on their husband while raising kids and enjoying a somewhat “easy” lifestyle. Going between committee meetings, appointments with stylists and personal shoppers, and having the nanny or housekeeper do the heavy lifting does sound pretty pleasant. But the question that always leaves these women stumped is: What will you do if you husband’s income disappears from your life? Whether it be by death, divorce, or job-loss, many women are unprepared to face this possibility. And it’s not just a shot in the dark. The statistical rates for divorce are well-known and also the mortality rate differences between men and women. We are also keenly aware of the economic situation that is going on which greatly affects our job market.

So this is why I was excited about a presentation put on by a financial services company called Primerica. The title of the event was “Women’s Empowerment Night” and promised, along with food and door prizes, to educate women on some of the options they had available to them and how to make smart choices with money. I have been meaning to write on this subject for a long time, but it’s complicated and involved and requires heavy research, so I hoped this presentation would help me get the ball rolling. In some ways, I was right. But in many others, I left disappointed.

Now, I’m not completely naive. I knew there would be some product pushing and agents cleverly positioned throughout the room to answer any and all questions. This was a company sponsored event, after all. However, the information that I “learned” that concerned my finances was so minimal and basic that a simple sentence or two can sum it up. The presentation was split into thirds. The first third was an introduction on the company’s history and operations. All of this was also neatly summarized on a handout and is also available on the web. I did my homework beforehand and had already read this information. The second third was a quick summary of what Primerica services can do for a family in debt, with an example of the “Jones” family and their credit debt plus a mortgage. This is the only part where financial education was even mentioned, and it consisted of: “Consolidate your debts with us and we’ll help you invest what you are now saving on your monthly debt reduction payments”. (Most of that information was equivalent to what they offer on their website, you can judge its usefulness for yourself.) The final third was a large spiel on recruitment.

Yes, recruitment. The company is looking to cash in on the retiring baby boomer generation and grow from 35 Houston locations to 300 in the next couple of years. After a somewhat interesting discussion about the differences between employees, self-employed, business owners, and investors, contact information sheets were passed out so you could either nominate yourself for a career with Primerica or some unsuspecting friend or relative. Of course, there was a run down of what type of commissions you could expect to earn if you decided to join up and the presenter, Regional VP for that particular location, was very frank about the type of money that she earned through Primerica. Of course, we have no way of knowing if she was being honest or not, but according to her, her family nets $30 000 a month from her and her husband’s work through Primerica. This left me a little unsettled because I was still waiting for the education part.

After the recruitment presentation, there was a chance to win some nice door prizes from vendors like Victoria’s Secret, Godiva, and Bath and Body Works. This is sort of beside the point, but it really irritated me how they set this up. First of all, agents were included in the draw. I thought it made sense to only have the invited guests in the draw, but okay. Then it comes out that agents would have more entries in the draw because they each got an additional entry for each guest they invited. So you can imagine how it went. Most of these very nice prizes went to agents. I guess in my opinion it made the whole presentation really scammy. It doesn’t seem to me like education was the primary goal. Of course, it doesn’t hurt to offer prizes to get people in the door for information that is important and necessary (albeit possibly a boring choice for a Friday night activity), but it seemed as though the prizes were more incentives for the agents to invite as many women as they could in order to win prizes. And the whole point or bringing these people in? To either convince them to purchase Primerica’s financial services (from the agent who invited you, of course), or that Primerica is a great employment opportunity.

I hope to be able to address personally some of these education issues that I think are extremely relevant, but until then I recommend the following books:

  • Women & Money: Owning the Power to Control Your Destiny - Suze Orman
    • This book is a great primer with an ACTION plan (things you can actually do!) to plan your finances better. This book is a wonderful starting place to get to a place where you feel financially secure, whether you are single or married. It was available for free on Oprah’s website for awhile, so if we managed to snag it then READ IT. Buy it, get it from the library, just get your hands on it if you are suffering from debt, or unable to save for retirement.
  • The Feminine Mistake: Are We Giving Up Too Much? - Leslie Bennetts
    • While the Suze book is about doing, this book is about what’s already happening out there. It paints a pretty bleak picture of the financial state of women. I thought it was really eye-opening and it got me convinced that more education for women is needed. This book was truly a wake-up call for me, and it may be for you too.

I hope to write more on this subject in the future. This subject is so important but so easily passed over in favor of things that are more immediately pressing. If you don’t have a plan now for your financial well-being, you need to start something before it is too late. You can’t decide at age 40 that you need 2 million dollars in your retirement fund. I hope any women reading this will take a few minutes to reflect on it, and any men reading will encourage their wives and girlfriends to do the same.