Never pass up an opportunity to share with people. I hadn't heard from a long time friend of mine in quite a while. We touched based on facebook because she wanted to share an opportunity to help disadvantaged children with the next school year's curriculum before summer ended. I was open to the opportunity so we set a time to meet and discuss the details.
In her home we hashed out the plan. Everything started to fall into place and it was fun catching up with her again. We started talking about the importance of education and our personal experiences with our alma mater. Being longhorns, we knew the value of attending a university with prestige and the difficulty of achieving success disadvantaged student have as first generation college students. The curriculum it seemed was not the major issue for our challenges in college in comparison to our financial disposition. "I did well in classes, it was just hard to figure out how to pay tuition and still survive." She knew exactly what I had said and had lived that experience herself.
"I had to finish my last undergraduate semester pregnant. Now that I'm working on my master's it is still difficult to find a decent job." I agreed that the job market was not promising for college graduates. "I'm a licensed professional helping people with their finances. When I graduated with a degree in film, I never imaged I would find work in finance." My story is the story of many. I feel I had a plan that aligned with my interests in media. However, I believe God positioned me to offer solutions with integrity in this bleak financial climate. "I didn't think I could do it but God has showed me His plan. Now,I feel I can impact many with a rich opportunity in a time of drought." She smiled at me, but there was a trace of sadness in her eyes. I had that same look too when I battled with debt and student loans.
"Wow, that is great I have a financial planner too!" She explained to me adding that she wasn't able to roll over her retirement from her last employer and lost a good sum of money.
I offered a way to be back on track to retire well and protect her current income so that if anything were to happen her precious two year old daughter would be taken care of. She showed me her life insurance policy her other agent had advised her to purchase. "I bought this plan so that I won't end up life my father, he had a life insurance plan and savings. He lost his savings and at his age he is now uninsurable. I don't want that to be me."
I assured her that I would look over her policy and inform her if she was on the right track to accomplish the two things she bought the plan for. To have income protection and savings for retirement.
I reported back to her the next day. Believe it or not after five hours of fineprint breakdown, I was sad to inform my friend she had bought a plan that would take her down the same path her father went down.
"What was done to your father was wrong, it was sad you had to witness it. What is happening to you now is wrong, but the good news is very clear. Now that we've seen these two wrongs it is a blessing that we have time to make this right!" I wanted to make it clear that she had better options. The plan I presented enabled her to save 450% on premium which was a monetary value of saving $25,000. Not only was she over paying, she was under insured. To counter her debt and protect her income she needed more coverage. The 450% discount was on a larger amount of coverage.
Next we looked at her retirement plan. Instead of her plan to save $40,000 by age 45. I put together a plan that would secure close to $400,000 if she only contributed the savings on premium and nothing more.
"I am sad that I couldn't sit down with your father and work with him, but I'm glad that I am able to sit here with you." I wanted my friend to know that even though there were two wrongs, both of those wrongs helped us to make it right. I am now going to sit down with my friend's mother and brother. What I learned: I can't deny my passion for media studies. I can study media for the rest of my life, but my friend's future would have been entirely different if I didn't trust the call on my life to make a true difference and believe in myself to also bless people financially.
