Real Obvious Life Lesson #1: READ THE DAMNED CONTRACT
Happy Valentine's Day to all, and because I love you so much, and wish to forestall any future heartache, I will offer an important little nugget of advice. I suppose the advice won't be particularly helpful to the audience of this blog because I don't have you all pegged for dolts, but a little reminder can't hurt.
Before you sign ANYTHING, read the whole contract. If you don't understand it, consult a lawyer or other intelligent and disinterested third party BEFORE signing.
You're over 18, your signature counts. You're past the point where you can get out of a contract on an age technicality. Therefore, before you agree to something, you need to know just exactly what it is you're agreeing to. Otherwise you will be confused and look like an idiot when you're expected to hold up your end of the agreement.
I work in a tax office, and we have a number of contracts our clients are expected to sign as their returns are prepared. I've seen probably about 60-70 clients so far, and can count on one hand the number of clients who actually read anything before signing it, even our multi-page agreements. I can also count on one hand the number of people who have specifically asked me to paraphrase the contract, and while I know the gist of the arrangement, there are too many parts for me to simply rattle off. Besides, wouldn't I have an agenda in getting you to sign regardless of what the contact says?
The other day I had a couple who came in to complete a return, and while their return was very straightforward, they were dissatisfied with the amount of their refund. While the amount of the refund was substantial (over $2K), they were told by "the mortgage guy" that they'd be getting about $8K. I showed them that mathematically they couldn't get more than about $4300 in refund, because their withholdings were lowish and they made too much to qualify for EIC. Of course this was unacceptable to them, they were going to get a second opinion, because they'd only signed that mortgage contract on the promise of getting back huge tax refunds.
(I suppose here is Real Obvious Life Lesson #2: If you don't understand the tax impact of a mortgage, you're probably better off not buying a house.)
I asked if they had shared their tax information, both in terms of earnings and withholdings with their "mortgage guy" and they admitted they had not... but he'd SAID they'd get a huge refund from owning a house and such and such. BTW, they had an interest-only loan, by their own admission, and they were going to use their tax refund to help refinance but now they can't because the refund was too small and is not what "the mortgage guy" said it was going to be. I asked them if they had considered the possibility that "the mortgage guy" had told them whatever they wanted to hear in order to get them to sign the papers. From the look on the guy's face, you could tell he'd realized he'd been had. They left, presumably to get a second opinion, but probably to beat up the mortgage guy. As they were leaving I kept one of the agreements they'd already signed, and they asked me if that agreement required them to do their taxes with me. :-) (by the way, nope.)
Read the damned contract!
Before you sign ANYTHING, read the whole contract. If you don't understand it, consult a lawyer or other intelligent and disinterested third party BEFORE signing.
You're over 18, your signature counts. You're past the point where you can get out of a contract on an age technicality. Therefore, before you agree to something, you need to know just exactly what it is you're agreeing to. Otherwise you will be confused and look like an idiot when you're expected to hold up your end of the agreement.
I work in a tax office, and we have a number of contracts our clients are expected to sign as their returns are prepared. I've seen probably about 60-70 clients so far, and can count on one hand the number of clients who actually read anything before signing it, even our multi-page agreements. I can also count on one hand the number of people who have specifically asked me to paraphrase the contract, and while I know the gist of the arrangement, there are too many parts for me to simply rattle off. Besides, wouldn't I have an agenda in getting you to sign regardless of what the contact says?
The other day I had a couple who came in to complete a return, and while their return was very straightforward, they were dissatisfied with the amount of their refund. While the amount of the refund was substantial (over $2K), they were told by "the mortgage guy" that they'd be getting about $8K. I showed them that mathematically they couldn't get more than about $4300 in refund, because their withholdings were lowish and they made too much to qualify for EIC. Of course this was unacceptable to them, they were going to get a second opinion, because they'd only signed that mortgage contract on the promise of getting back huge tax refunds.
(I suppose here is Real Obvious Life Lesson #2: If you don't understand the tax impact of a mortgage, you're probably better off not buying a house.)
I asked if they had shared their tax information, both in terms of earnings and withholdings with their "mortgage guy" and they admitted they had not... but he'd SAID they'd get a huge refund from owning a house and such and such. BTW, they had an interest-only loan, by their own admission, and they were going to use their tax refund to help refinance but now they can't because the refund was too small and is not what "the mortgage guy" said it was going to be. I asked them if they had considered the possibility that "the mortgage guy" had told them whatever they wanted to hear in order to get them to sign the papers. From the look on the guy's face, you could tell he'd realized he'd been had. They left, presumably to get a second opinion, but probably to beat up the mortgage guy. As they were leaving I kept one of the agreements they'd already signed, and they asked me if that agreement required them to do their taxes with me. :-) (by the way, nope.)
Read the damned contract!
1 Comments:
I used to be one of those "mortgage guys". I used to do crap like that to people all the time. It was terrible and I finally quit. Especially after realizing that what I was telling them wasn't even true (they trained us to say stuff like that so I stupidly thought it was true).
Now on the reading part. ha ha. So true. One day my brother and I went into a labor office to register and try to get work for the day. So anyway there was a sheet with like 10 things that we were supposed to read and initial. Well I generally like to read the things I'm signing so I precede to do that. Number said, "I have read and understand the Blah Blah Blah and Blah Blah Blah". Blah blah blah was clear that it was some sort of little booklet or something. So I go up to the lady and ask her for the document so I can read it. She looks at me with a puzzled look on her face and then looks at the paper and says hmmm a few times. Then she points at something on the wall and ask me, "is that it?". I said "No, that's whatever it said above it." So she says, "I don't know. Noone has ever asked me this before." I'm like what the heck?!?! Meanwhile my brother turned his in like nothing and he normally reads things too. Or so I thought. It was ridiculous. I did sign it but that's because it wasn't something vital. It was something on safety and the job I was applying for wasn't laborous so I went ahead and signed. But yeah I agree. It was funny and ridiculous.
Elisabet
24 yr old trying to get out of debt!
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