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I am a retired IT executive with 44 years of experience in IT. I am originally from Virginia and have lived in North Carolina the past 60 years. I am a widower who was married for 57 years to my late wife, Judy. We have 2 children and 3 grandchildren. I volunteer with my church and serve on the board of 2 retiree associations, one of which has more than 50,000 members. I still enjoy golf, travel and taking care of our home and 2 acres of land.
Comments
You are right. The only thing that matters is the price today and how this fits in your AA. What you paid for it is irrelevant to your decision.
Post: Taking a Loss?
Link to comment from July 29, 2026
I agree Howard and have been a buyer of TIPS for some time. 2% or 3% real return is a solid return for my fixed income allocation. It takes the guessing about inflation off the table.
Post: Treasury Inflation Protected Securities (TIPS) are a Generational Bargain Right Now
Link to comment from July 28, 2026
Thanks John for a great article. Very inciteful and counter to what many advocate. I fall in the middle level. I was not smart enough to do Roth conversions before retiring or in my early retirement years. We had 90% of investments in TIRAs. Fortunately, I wised up and did enough Roth conversions to get our TIRA down to 12%, incurring IRMAA premiums and sometimes higher marginal tax rates. Sadly, my wife passed last year. As a single taxpayer this year, I will pay the first tier of IRMAA. I will not complain but my SS and pension still cause me to pay the IRMAA premium. I use my QCDs to cover my RMDs, but there are no other options I know of to reduce the widow tax. Even though I consider myself financially savvy, I did not appreciate the impact the "widow tax" has on the survivor. Hopefully, others can learn from your article.
Post: Widow Tax
Link to comment from July 26, 2026
That is a good question Mark. I have never been faced with that dilemma. I am pretty frugal and there are not many places to cut. I am a widower and prepare most of my meals myself. My gym membership is $10 a month. I used to have a more expensive gym membership, about $85 a month. It did not offer much more to me and was a much longer drive. That was an easy change. My most obvious expense would be cable TV at $269 a month. I have been too lazy to explore streaming alternatives, but if necessary, that would be my first change. Hopefully, I will not be faced with that dilemma in the future.
Post: One Person’s Luxury, Another’s Necessity
Link to comment from July 22, 2026
An excerpt from a WSJ article, " This is a country (Argentina) where adoration of the national team is so fervent that many fans build their financial planning around the World Cup, taking out loans to buy tickets every four years. It’s also the country with the most psychologists per capita in the world. These facts are perhaps not unrelated."
Post: FIFA Financials
Link to comment from July 20, 2026
This is a bucket list item for many fans, especially from nations passionate about their national team. A fair analogy might be super bowl tickets when your team is playing or the Masters Golf Tournament (I own series badges for this), and people will pay comparable amounts for these tickets.
Post: FIFA Financials
Link to comment from July 20, 2026
This was a major concern of mine. I had a govt pension and we both had SS. DW would get half of my pension if I passed first. When I retired at 66, 90% of our investments were in TIRAs. I gradually converted this to a Roth for myself, and when my DW passed last year, our TIRA was about 12%. We paid first or second tier IRMAA penalties and higher marginal tax rates for years to achieve this. I can use the remaining TIRA for QCDs and avoid any future taxable income for RMDs. However, I cannot avoid the change in tax rates. Regardless of what I do, I will be at least in the first IRMAA tier. I am not complaining because I am blessed to have a good pension and SS and can live a nice lifestyle. My biggest mistake was not doing Roth conversions before I took SS which could have avoided IRMAA. I thought I understood taxes very well but I was asleep on Roth conversions until I retired and started SS.
Post: Will Your Death Double Your Spouse’s Tax Bill?
Link to comment from July 17, 2026
How could failing to file a tax return more than 2 years late possibly end well? The IRS will get their money with penalties and interest. I have known people who did not file tax returns for many years. When the IRS finally discovered this omission, it was not a good experience.
Post: IRMAA & late filing of tax returns
Link to comment from July 17, 2026
Even without pension COLAs, I have always had a buffer between our actual spending and SS/pension payments. Part of that is we had a modest lifestyle and part is we have slowed down and have not taken expensive vacations in recent years. The only time I have spent any of our investment accounts was for car purchases, but my conservative investment account has increased 250% since retiring.
Post: About that inflation in retirement
Link to comment from July 14, 2026
A wise person once told me that answers were easy, but questions are hard. Every time I had a bad outcome in my professional or personal like, I could point to questions that were never asked but should have been.
Post: Better Questions
Link to comment from July 13, 2026