BY J.M.LEE
Flashback twenty-one years ago, Terry Johal was laid off from IBM due to the bursting of the dot com bubble. He was 50 years old then, bankrupt, and knew nothing about the financial industry.
Flashforward to 2023, Terry, now almost 70 years old, is a millionaire and not slowing down his upward propulsion. Now financially savvy, he talks about how to help people fulfill their dreams outside the box rather than the run-of-mill mediocrity of enacting one’s dream.
“Most people think they only need insurance after they die,” Terry said. “In fact, insurance involves all things we do in life. Saving money in the bank, RRSP, a Tax Free Savings Account, and when it’s time to take the money out—each one falls under different laws.”
You can also save money inside an insurance policy, contribute the money, and let the money grow. Terry reiterates that insurance is a living benefit. “We sell Life Insurance. It is a living benefit in North America that is no longer available in the UK. You can save and have insurance to protect your family if something goes wrong. An insurance benefit works both ways: the early demise of a person or if one lives too long.”
Either way, it is a benefit. By educating the consumers, they learn how beneficial an insurance policy is. Unfortunately, financial institutions don’t focus on teaching consumers how money works, just as the government does not educate us on our taxes.
“I’ve been living here in Canada for 47 years, and the government never knocked on my door to teach me how to pay the right amount of taxes,” Terry declares.
“There’s a book written by a CPA called The Ten Secrets Revenue Canada Doesn’t Want You To Know. It elaborates on the secrecy of Revenue Canada, and it taught me not to pay my taxes blindly. Most people do not know anything about leveraging in Canada. If you buy a $50,000.00 car, the leverage is $50.00 per month; buy a million dollar house with a $300,000 deposit. If your leverage is $100 a month, you can get $20,000 at 6 percent from the bank, and then invest the $20,000. This education is teaching you how to make money work for you.”
Twenty-one years ago, Terry didn’t know this either. Until his friend, Bhupinder Cheema mentioned WFG to him. There, Terry realized they offer a full-training system. There is no pre-requisites, no university degree or resume. They provide a training and self-improvement program that prepares you for your journey into entrepreneurship.
“After 21 years,” Terry said, “we have helped thousands of people. Taxi drivers, truck drivers, and about 50 percent of women in our community work part-time. They’d be happy if they could make $50,000 a year part-time, with kids at home. For example, we have a gentleman who bought an office for his wife 12 years ago, upon her starting with the company. She had not even completed her training yet, but became so successful she’s now earning $100,000 per annum. It is part of how we serve our community. Our Team Mission Statement is: ‘To help 1 million families to become millionaires.’ This is by helping them to learn how to build and preserve wealth throughout their lifetimes.”
Terry explains, “When you put money in the bank, they give you Simple Interest. When the bank lends you money, they collect Compound Interest. When they give you a mortgage, it will compound twice yearly (every 6 months). Of course, many consumers do not understand what compound means, and most can’t even calculate the mortgage payment. Hence, we will educate you so that when you borrow money from the bank, you can pay them Simple Interest and learn how to get Compound Interest when you save money. Now there are over 5,500 agents in my team within North America with WFG.” “I only have 24 hours in a day,” Terry said. “To make $4.5 million at age 69 would be unheard of. Today, we have over 100 offices across North America.”
Terry mentioned that people have all kinds of dreams, but cannot achieve them with just their own 2 hands (single-handed income) to earn an income with 8 hours to work. They only create a per-hour value, whereas, in WFG, they create more than 8 hours a day to help their associates to build an agency. To start with a small agency with 15-20 people without any overhead cost, they’ve taken the best out of the following business structures: conventional corporations, franchising, and multi – marketing.
“In franchising, the system works, but we don’t put a 2 million dollar investment in it,” Terry states. “We have an effective way—word-of-mouth advertising, which we call relationship marketing. Every person who joins our company becomes on how many people become licensed by their organization. They will serve 2-4 clients per license a year.
Tweny-one years ago, Terry lived in a basement suite behind London Drugs in Delta. Today, he lives in a penthouse overlooking that drugstore. He has a house in Panorama; White Rock; Palm Springs, California; and another in Mississauga, Ontario. Each one of those properties is worth more than a million. In the last several months, he has traveled to Mexico, California, Thailand and Hawaii.
“I am living a dream life that for most people would only happen in their dreams. It is possible to do this in our organization. Now, I make 4 million dollars a year. If I reitire today, my 4 million dollars won’t quit on me. It’s equity that will go to my children. They could use it to build it to 10 million dollars a year or more. Now my agency’s worth is approximately $20 million. It will go up because, in our system, there is a built-in predictability of growth. The Financial Industry is $109 trillion; anyone can tap into it with our system. But no matter how busy you are, always allot time for your family at least once a week. And once your dream has been fulfilled, it’s time to pay back your community. Two years ago, I returned to my village in Punjab, and we changed the sewer system. We also cleaned the water and put lights in the whole village. In the school there, we helped 500 women, and our target is to give them a new pair of shoes every year. We also donated thousands of dollars in Surrey and other parts of Canada.”
For dreamers who want to fulfill their dream, Terry can say: “I used to be bankrupt 21 years ago. If I managed to make it, why can’t you? Zig Ziglar once said: ‘You will get all you want in life if you help enough other people get what they want.’ And that’s exactly what we’re doing in WFG.”
