Don’t be afraid to admit the fact that every time you look at a tax form, the first thing you think of is that you’re reading a document straight out of another solar system, some ancient alien language discovered by no one else but you, making you probably the most important person on the world to have discovered an ancient alien race (not really, but you get the picture). The same could go for such documents as credit card applications, insurance policies, and credit reports. Somehow they all look just like gibberish to us!

The scary thing is this: the ambiguous language used in these forms and documents were intentional! Seriously? Yes. Fine print and confusing language has often been used while presenting an attractive intentioned offer to draw the attention of the reader directly to where the company wants the reader to go. Sneaky.

Thankfully, you can nail all that gibberish to the wall. It’s called the WonderMark Awards. It’s a ceremony celebrating the most unclear language used in all kinds of documents held annually at the Center for Plain Language (yes, there is such a place). Imagine how funny it would be if there was a cash advance store giving out payday loans with unclear documentation to boot!

It’s an interesting award ceremony to help hail the activity of personal finance in our country. We definitely want to understand our finances better. Why do people insist on using gibberish? It may just come down to the lawyers who get paid to write the stuff. If we could understand it, we might realize we don’t need them and they’d be out of a job!