Reading Documents

The reading of important documents is quite different than the newspaper. You can not read it just once, and know enough to act on it. Be it a contract, petition, proposition, law or position paper, you need to re-read it with a different mind set.

First read it like it is something you like and want, to first get a notion of what it realy says, and if it advances what you want.
Then read it like a paranoid, to see where it is out to harm and stop what you want.
Then, read it like an enemy of the document, to see where it attacks you, where it can be thwarted, stopped, or subverted to some other end, by you or them.

Then, and only then, can you decide the worth of the document. Old HFC loan contracts allowed forclosure, taking your house if one payment was a day late getting to their office, even if the mail was lost in a flood, and they did do that. California's Prop 13 was lead by the president of a landlord association, and it succeeded in shifting the property tax away from business onto home owners, who thought it was for their benefit. Many 0% interest loan contracts involke a RETROACTIVE 24% interest rate if one payment is late. We are tempted to believe what they say when it sounds like what we like, but it really helps to look at what their interest is, and if it is acceptable to you.

Want a hint? Wish your spouse will not outlive your retirement fund? Poof! They are dead. Now, why does that contract go on five pages past saying what you thought the agreement was? Read the FINE Print!