Your first real signature?

[JoeWras]

I listened to a snippet of a radio program yesterday which was imploring parents to get their young teens an account and invest in a little bit of a mutual fund or ETF, just to get them to understanding the language and process of investing. Good advice.

This sparked a memory. My first "real" legal signature.

What was yours? W-4 at that first job? Driver's license? Juvenile court?

I remember mine well because I was so nervous.

I was about 9 years old. Cursive writing was still on my mind, having just learned it. Of course we practiced our "signature," but that was for letters to aunt Marie.

One day, Dad and Mom announce that I'm going to learn to invest in the stock market, taking half of my savings as part of the process, with them investing another half. (I had a passbook savings account, but I didn't have to sign anything for that.)

I had to sign some brokerage form, even though this was a UGMA. It is just one of those things you remember, looking at that terrible signature on this very adult form.

Do you remember?

BTW: that little event was the best financial decision my parents ever made. I spent the rest of the 70s tracking that stock, graphing the S&P, and just paying attention. The stock did terrible during most of the 70s (an early fracking company, of all things), but in the late 70s, it shot up about 300% and we sold in oil crisis #2. I was a mid teen by then and much more aware. I carried the investing habit with me directly to my first days at work, when I had a chance to sign up for a 401k.

 

[big-papa]

I listened to a snippet of a radio program yesterday which was imploring parents to get their young teens an account and invest in a little bit of a mutual fund or ETF, just to get them to understanding the language and process of investing. Good advice.

This sparked a memory. My first "real" legal signature.

What was yours? W-4 at that first job? Driver's license? Juvenile court?

I remember mine well because I was so nervous.

I was about 9 years old. Cursive writing was still on my mind, having just learned it. Of course we practiced our "signature," but that was for letters to aunt Marie.

One day, Dad and Mom announce that I'm going to learn to invest in the stock market, taking half of my savings as part of the process, with them investing another half. (I had a passbook savings account, but I didn't have to sign anything for that.)

I had to sign some brokerage form, even though this was a UGMA. It is just one of those things you remember, looking at that terrible signature on this very adult form.

Do you remember?

BTW: that little event was the best financial decision my parents ever made. I spent the rest of the 70s tracking that stock, graphing the S&P, and just paying attention. The stock did terrible during most of the 70s (an early fracking company, of all things), but in the late 70s, it shot up about 300% and we sold in oil crisis #2. I was a mid teen by then and much more aware. I carried the investing habit with me directly to my first days at work, when I had a chance to sign up for a 401k.

My Social Security Card. Still have it. Looks exactly like an 11 year old's signature.

 

[Ronstar]

My ss card. Looks real nice cursive. Hand writing stayed nice until I started working, where I signed many letters, drawings, etc. Then it became a scribbled mess. Still a scribbled mess. Haven't written anything cursive for 50 years.

 

[Car-Guy]

I'm really not sure but it was probably my SS card or first paycheck when I was around 14. Back then I signed my full name, (first, middle and last name)... Over the years I dropped my middle name. Now when I sign something, it's my first initial, second initial and last name. I figure in another ten years I'll just be making my mark.... At least that might be legible.

 

[razztazz]

Age 9. Opened a savings account at a local bank. The lady at the desk I transacted through was "Miss" Cavanaugh. Funny, the details you remember.

 

[TripleLindy]

My ss card. Looks real nice cursive. Hand writing stayed nice until I started working, where I signed many letters, drawings, etc. Then it became a scribbled mess. Still a scribbled mess. Haven't written anything cursive for 50 years.

This is me to a T. I still have my original SS card that I signed when in the 4th grade. My signature today is completely undecipherable.

 

[pacergal]

probably my savings account, I started that during my pre teen babysitting years.

 

[audreyh1]

My ss card. Looks real nice cursive. Hand writing stayed nice until I started working, where I signed many letters, drawings, etc. Then it became a scribbled mess. Still a scribbled mess. Haven't written anything cursive for 50 years.

Yep, that’s what I remember.

Then the government trained me to sign first name, middle initial, last name. I stuck with that.

 

[aja8888]

No recollection of first signature. Maybe on a real paycheck after high school.

 

[Trailwalker]

I would have been about 12. My parents had me open a savings account when I purchased a paper route from an older kid.

 

[REWahoo]

Like may others have reported, it was my SS card. I signed with my nickname (think "Jimmy" instead of James) and I was worried when I signed up for Medicare and SS it could be an issue and I would have to correct it. Nope, all SS my and Medicare transactions are with Jimmy to this day.

 

[scrabbler1]

I learned how to write script around the 4th grade. My handwriting was terrible, including my script lettering being too large. Either way, I would have signed my name at some point in the 4th grade (9-10 years old).

As soon as teachers stopped requiring script, which wasn't too long after the 4th grade, I switched to printing, where my handwriting was similarly terrible. The only time I can remember writing script since then, other than signatures, was one summer as a day camp counselor when the kids, during an arts and crafts class, asked me to write their names in script in big letters so they could paint around them. I still knew how to write script so I got it done for them.

As for first signing my name on a legal document, it might have been on passbook saving account withdrawal slips I recall filling out once in a while when I was a kid. I still have my SS card and it has a full signature, including my middle name. I only use my middle initial for some legal documents as an adult, such as drivers license and tax returns.

 

[Popeye]

For me it was my first library card. It must have been about age 7. I still have it around here somewhere and now I’ll have to dig it out. Of course it wasn’t pretty and made my name look like “Gorp” which my brother proceeded to call me for years after.

 

[Out-to-Lunch]

My Social Security Card. Still have it. Looks exactly like an 11 year old's signature.

Ditto.

 

[jollystomper]

It was in grade school, during 3rd grade. That is when we were taught cursive writing. I also had a Christmas Club account, I remember going to the bank with my mother and writing my name in cursive for the first time on the deposit slips.

 

[swakyaby]

Social security card. Signed when I used a pink Libby pen, in loopy handwriting with a circle to dot the “i”.

 

[Calico]

Probably my first savings account book around age 10.

Social security card was at age 14; still have it.

 

[Luvdogs]

Not mine but my daughters signature-
We went to get her drivers permit.
She has a long first name plus she writes really "big and squiggly." She went to sign her name and could only fit her first name on it, not her last.
The guy there said that's fine and off she went with her most important official identification at the time--and it only had her first name for the signature.

 

[Gumby]

Probably some document related to becoming a US citizen when I was 11 years old, but I can't really recall. My signature has greatly deteriorated over the years.

 

[Walt34]

Social Security card when I was 13. My mother applied for SS cards for my older sister, myself, and my younger sister at the same office on the same day so we all had consecutive SS numbers. Being the middle kid, my SS # is also the middle one.

 

[W2R]

I have no idea!

Passport?
Library card?
Savings account passbook?

I guess that for some reason, using my very first real signature wasn't much of a big deal to me at the time, although it should have been. I don't even remember how old I was, much less what the document was.

 

[Sunset]

I think it was my first savings account at a bank, as they were offering a free ski pass to open an account.

I would have been just over 12 at the time.

 

[JoeWras]

Now I have to dig up my SS card. I don't think I ever signed it!

 

[rk911]

likely my SS card around age 13-14. a close second would likely be my first paycheck from pushing an ice cream bicycle cart all over town one summer. $13 as i recall. i used it to buy an am/fm clock radio for my room.

 

[braumeister]

Almost certainly my library card at age 8. Then I opened a "Christmas Club" savings account (remember them?) at a local bank at age 12. Didn't get a SS card until I was 18, so that was a nonevent.