Did You Know? Your Most Prized Possession

FYI: Your most prized possession is not your house, your stocks and bonds, your vintage car, your bank account. You, in fact, own just as much as the folks you feel have it all together and are financially secure.

Unfortunately, what most folks do not realize is that the most valuable possession any of us have, (which ALL of us have) is, in fact, our SIGNATURE.

Your SIGNATURE.

If you were asked to name the most valuable possession you have, almost none of you would have thought to say your signature. Most of us fail to realize the significance of our signature and how we alter our lives when we sign documents, totally changing the course which our lives will follow.

Consider: Your signature is required to validate:

• A marriage license
• A divorce decree
• Accepting a mortgage
• Agreement to build a house
• The co-signing of a loan
• A surgical procedure
• An abortion authorization
• A birth certificate
• The authenticity of your will
• The beneficiary on your life insurance policy
• Acceptance of a lien against your home when you refinance/take out an equity line
• Your acknowledgment of baptism
• Accepting a plea agreement
• The truthfulness of your tax returns
• The responsibility for a minor’s actions
• Your willingness to grant an adoption
• Your granting the power of attorney for another to act on your behalf
• Signing documents to authorize Madoff to invest your money
  

I could go on and on but I am sure that you would agree that your signature on any of the above mentioned documents all signify agreement with a life changing activity. It is simply a short step in thought process to see that if you withheld your signature, then the pendulum would have swung in a different direction. Consequently, your power to change the outcome hinges on whether or not you allowed the activity or prevented it: and that power is as simple as whether or not you signed the necessary documents.

How Should This Impact Your Behavior?

First, it should shake you up pretty seriously. Really. Think about how casually most of us sign things without thinking about the long terms implications. My personal commitment, since I realized this several years ago, is that I will NEVER sign important papers which require a signature to be valid the first time I see them. The ONLY reasonable exception in my opinion is in order to get medical attention, in an emergency. Since I have high blood pressure as well as a possibly fatal allergic reaction to bee stings, I would sign papers without even reading them for treatment of either one of those conditions.

For any other situation, I need to see the papers a day or two in advance so I have a chance to read over them. Then I can ask questions, do some research if I feel I need to, seek out the counsel of someone I trust and make an unrushed, educated decision about whether or not this is something I clearly want to do.

This is turning out to be a very long blog but I need to share this.

DON’T DO IT. Several years ago, just out of the blue, I started coughing up blood while on a vacation with my children. They were terrified and I was pretty scared myself. I had not even been sick. I spent a week in isolation in an out-of-state hospital while they checked for everything, including TB.

Since these little coughing spells occurred several times during that week, the consensus of the specialists there was that it was best to remove a lung in order to avoid a possible lung embolism and the likelihood of death. I REFUSED to sign and agree to the surgery because they could not tell me how the blood got into the lung in the first place and it appeared they wanted to remove a LUNG as a precautionary measure. That’s pretty serious, based on a hunch. I steadfastly refused, against their continued pressure to sign and agree to the surgery.

Five months later, two more little blood coughing spells, two exploratory surgeries and lots of tests and X-rays they finally did a thyroid scan. I had previously had thyroid surgery but who would have thought the stupid thing would regenerate and cause havoc again? We didn’t, but it had. Turns out my thyroid was totally out of control and causing bleeding, which pooled in my lung, leading to the coughing fits. Now we had an explanation which made sense.

I quickly granted permission for a second thyroid surgery (this time TOTAL removal of the pesky little gland). My family had not understood my refusal to have the lung surgery, but I will forever be grateful that I made a decision based on my strong conviction that I need to UNDERSTAND why I am doing something before I do it and that it cannot happen until I have signed papers granting permission.

My refusal to agree to the wrong surgery saved my LUNG.

Never forget: your most prized possession is in fact your scraggly signature. If it is significant enough to require a signature then it is significant enough to take some time to consider.

Check out the post for tomorrow to get the "definition" of Signature.

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(Please E-mail Heather at homeownershipmatters@gmail.com with any questions, comments or concerns you might have! We appreciate all comments and feedback, so please don't be shy.)