Harold Tynes

Comments

• I signed in with my existing ID.me account yesterday. No issues. I made a decision earlier this year to wind down my Treasury Direct exposure over the next few years. They are a real pain to deal with if issues arise. If heirs are involved with the transfer of bonds, expect 6+ months to resolve. Don’t want to expose my family to inept bureaucracy.

  Post: What to do about the new ID.me login requirement at TreasuryDirect

  Link to comment from September 15, 2026

• I'm two years younger than you and my grandparents had the outhouse, slop jar and Sears catalog. A coal fired stove was in the kitchen. My grandfather was a coal miner, and I remember him coming home from work covered in coal dust. After he retired from the mines, he got SS and a UMW pension. He also had Black Lung from his lifetime in the mines. My parents held the mortgage on the first house they owned. It had indoor plumbing and gas heat. My aunt lived in the house after they passed. Things have continued to improve in our world.

  Post: The Economy of Expectations

  Link to comment from September 6, 2026

• My mother in law is in a CCRC. As the residents age, those in "independent living" need more services. Same for those in assisted living. The lines get blurry between assisted and memory care. There is a shortage of beds in memory care. Aging is a continuum of constantly changing needs that may not fit easily into a category.

  Post: Percentage that “age in place”

  Link to comment from September 3, 2026

• Rick, Thanks for your look back through your decade of Roth experience. Since we are close in age I thought I would share my decade of experience. My wife and I will begin Social Security/Railroad Retirement in November. I will be 69 and 10 months, she will be 66. 10 years ago, I was employed in a W-2 job. My wife was a teacher. We had a 401k/403b but no Roth option. We had been contributing the full non-deductible amount each year to our t-IRA. My wife converted hers to Roth each year tax free. I had a previous IRA Rollover account, so I chose not to convert as it would be taxable. I also had a SEP IRA from self-employment income that I maxed with that year's earnings. Fast forward a few years and I left W-2 employment and began a series of self-employment gigs. There were gaps in the self-employment, so I used those gaps to convert portions of my rollover IRA to Roth to try to hit the top end of my tax bracket. I believe this will be the final year of those conversions, but I will take a look next year to see if any opportunities exist before I begin RMDs at 73. Will my tax planning be optimum? I don't know but it does leave me with tax diversity. What does that mean? If the tax laws regarding IRAs change, I don't have all my eggs in one tax strategy.

  Post: Traditional or Roth

  Link to comment from August 31, 2026

• Some really good thoughts here. I was pondering this topic after reading a WSJ article on the deficit. My conclusion:the typical representation of huge deficits generated from Social Security and Medicare ignores revenue from employers, employees and taxation of SS.

  Post: The Federal Debt and Social Security Payments

  Link to comment from August 22, 2026

• Here in Michigan, the state has totally messed up their tax collection system with a "system upgrade." Thousands of taxpayers, including myself, received notices of short payment on estimated taxes paid electronically or by check. Penalties and interest were accessed and refunds were not paid. This is still unresolved for the 2025 tax year.

  Post: If Retirement  is Getting Close

  Link to comment from August 19, 2026

• Bill, I will be going through a similar process later this year when my wife and I begin our Social Security and Railroad Retirement. Railroad Retirement has its own version of Medicare which is similar to others except you pay the Railroad Retirement Board quarterly and the claims are processed by a private company in Augusta, Georgia. I am told my wife will have to convert to the Railroad Retirement version of Medicare. It will be interesting to see how things settle out between SS & RR.

  Post: Preparing for SS at Age 70….. How Do I Transition to Monthly Part B Premium Deduction?

  Link to comment from August 18, 2026

• That was me.

  Post: TreasuryDirect changing login procedure to mandate ID.me later in 2026

  Link to comment from August 17, 2026

• This is the latest from Dave Enna on this change. TreasuryDirect is launching a controversial login system | Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities

  Post: TreasuryDirect changing login procedure to mandate ID.me later in 2026

  Link to comment from August 17, 2026

• Dave Enna at Tipswatch.com has promised more on this on Tuesday. He is my go to for TIPS/I bonds and Treasury Direct. My current strategy is to wind down my I Bond holdings at Treasury Direct. They do not give me confidence that my heirs could sort through the maze. I keep my TIPS in brokerage accounts. I have ID.me already through SS.

  Post: TreasuryDirect changing login procedure to mandate ID.me later in 2026

  Link to comment from August 16, 2026