William Perry

Comments

• Agree and I would note that the 3 month interest penalty is already excluded in the amount shown in the detailed "current value" column when you look at the Current Holdings Summary.

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

  Link to comment from August 17, 2026

• Hello Rick, I have not used the gift box but read a good amount about them before any changes from the soon to be effective ID.me requirements kick in. My understanding of current rules and thoughts- When you made each purchase of I Bonds for your grandchildren in your Treasury Direct (TD) gift box those I Bonds are then owned by the recipient (your grandchild) at the moment of purchase. This gift is a completed present interest gift for tax purposes at the moment of purchase even though the gift has not been delivered from your gift box. As such you are not able to sell the I Bond and all you are able to do with bonds in the TD gift box is to deliver to a separate TD account for your grandchild. Typically only a parent can establish a TD account for the minor child with exceptions when the parent is not the financially responsible adult for that minor. Further, to open a TD minor account, the parent must have their own TD account to then link the minor's account before you can deliver the I Bonds you hold in your gift box. I have no idea how this will work when the ID.me login rules become effective and I assume such rules may very well change over the 30 year life of any given I bond. I think if I was in your situation the course I would follow is to ask your adult children with a grandchild for whom I have bought I Bonds to open their own TD account and then add a "minor-linked account" and then deliver the I bonds to your grandchildren's TD accounts with all actions before the ID.me login mandate becomes effective. A very short time frame. I do own some I Bonds that I have mentally earmarked for a grandchild (I legally own them) and plan to deal with my gift later. Like you and many others I have had other life events that have previously compelled me to establish a ID.me account. I have not yet decided if I will continue buying I bonds. I make better decisions when I have had time to take a few walks, think and read. There is of course many other savings options such as to use 529 education accounts, the new 530A accounts or establishing a separate traditional IRA or Roth IRA account for your grandchildren if the choices for beneficiary under your broker rules permits allowing the naming of different beneficiaries for the same type of account. My broker currently does not. Five years ago my son-in-law opened a highly rated 529 plan for my grandson that my son-in-law controls and I make a small monthly gift through the Ugift program and hopefully I will not have any future responsibility for the account which likely will be paid out after I am no longer around. I also hope my grandson has some nice thoughts about me when he is walking to his first college class. I hope my thoughts helps. Best, Bill

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

  Link to comment from August 17, 2026

• An excellent, as usual, article by David Enna that was published this morning. There is a great comment on this article from Harold which may be you that reads - "This is not an investment structure I would force my heirs to deal with." I concur.

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

  Link to comment from August 17, 2026

• There does not appear to be a good alternative currently. It could be that doing nothing may be a valid choice.

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

  Link to comment from August 16, 2026

• With assistance from the ID.me help center screen and AI here is my layman's understanding of the answer(s) to your question- During life - The grantor or active trustee of a revocable living trust (RLT) verifies their own personal identity using their own Social Security number, driver’s license, or passport. After death - The successor trustee must create or use their own personal ID.me account to verify their personal identity. I do not currently have a RLT and if I add one in the future it will likely have the sole purpose to hold title to our home as my state does not currently allow a transfer on death provision in deeds. Currently, I expect a future sale of our home prior to the death of myself and/or spouse. Treasury Direct has a reputation of clunky and untimely response to anything outside of routine transactions and thus I have not considered a RLT a place I would want to hold I bonds just to get a higher annual purchase limit for I bonds. I do not plan to test that reputation to find out if it is true for me. I use my broker for everything related to TIPS investments.

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

  Link to comment from August 16, 2026

• I had the same situation about eight years ago. My experience was that I paid my last three month invoice when due in full. When they started withholding my Medicare premium I was overpaid by two months and they somewhat quickly refunded the duplicate payment by direct deposit direct to my bank account without additional action on my part. That was eight years ago, I do not know if anything has changed. The most important factor for me was keeping the part B insurance in place and avoid any potential hiccups in regards to my part D and supplemental Medigap policy. Hope this helps.

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

  Link to comment from August 15, 2026

• Thanks for posting Harold. Jason Zweig's article that you posted a link to above reinforces my decision to buy a broad index rather than a compilation of funds which represent narrower segments of the index broken into value, growth, etc. The thought expressed in the article that if you have decided use multiple narrow segments then avoiding mixing funds from different providers can help avoid pitfalls from "overlaps in exposures, or gaps in exposures, that you don’t realize that you have" is one that I had not previously considered. Mr. Zweig also honored Jonathan Clements in his WSJ article titled "Saying Goodbye to the WSJ’s Jonathan Clements" as well as being a friend who spoke at the Jonathan's funeral service.

  Post: Can a Value fund also be a Growth fund?

  Link to comment from August 13, 2026

• I enjoyed reading your informative Humble Dollar article John. Thank you for posting. After reading your article and the many comments I was thinking back upon my final working years as a tax preparer and the problems clients were having regarding the rule changes on inherited IRAs. Instead of writing a comment or forum post on Humble Dollar I happily found your excellent article titled "The Inherited IRA 10-Year Rule: RMDs and Tax Impact in 2026" on your website. In that article you addressed many changes from the first SECURE Act and how it impacts those who have or will inherit either a traditional or Roth IRA. Another thank you, I recommend reading your article. I did have a few other thoughts on these topics. A short summary of my thoughts of other matters to consider follows- Many spousal beneficiaries inheriting a IRA may be past their own full retirement age. Unfortunately sometimes a knowledgeable preparer or advisor are first engaged past the time that RMDs should have been distributed and sometimes where RMDs have not been taken for multiple years. The preparer has now been recommend to the client as a result of a letter from the IRS addressed to the widow(er) years after the death of a spouse. Plan on a lot of time to resolve the issues, have necessary distributions made, file all needed amended returns and request abatement of the penalty(s) with the appropriate form and expect to include a long statement of the reasonable cause to reduce the penalty from the 25% level to the 10% level or even a complete abatement. When thinking about the ten year requirement planning for non-spouse beneficiaries to empty the inherited IRA I have seen still working beneficiaries with earned income who had room to increase 401(k) and/or IRA contributions and then schedule out receiving inherited IRA distributions while simultaneously increasing their contributions for ten years thus effectively extending the inherited deferrals in their own retirement accounts for the beneficiaries life plus 10 years while keeping their cash flow and taxable income approximately the same. Getting your primary and contingent beneficiary designations as you want them is crucial to achieve your goals for passing your IRAs as you intend them to be distributed. I believe this should be a formal every year best practice and again every time there is a major life event. If there are multiple beneficiaries of your IRA the beneficiaries need to under the requirements as explained in IRS Pub 590-B related to separate accounts - "A single IRA can be split into separate accounts or shares for each beneficiary. These separate accounts or shares can be established at any time, either before or after the owner's required beginning date. Generally, these separate accounts or shares are combined for purposes of determining the required minimum distribution. However, these separate accounts or shares won't be combined for required minimum distribution purposes after the death of the IRA owner if the separate accounts or shares are established by the end of the year following the year of the IRA owner's death." If the decedent was still working past age 70.5 and still contributing to a traditional IRA there are potential limitations on QCD's. Per IRS Pub 590-B(2025)- Offset of QCDs by amounts contributed after age701/2. Beginning in tax years after December 31, 2019, the amount of QCDs that you can exclude from income is reduced by the excess of the aggregate amount of IRA contributions you deducted for the taxable year and any prior year that you were age 701/2 or older over the amount of the IRA contributions that were used to reduce the excludable amount of QCDs in all earlier years. Again, thanks John for your article. Best, Bill

  Post: Roth Conversions and Taxes

  Link to comment from August 11, 2026

• Interesting question Robert that sent me down a rabbit hole. Using the CMS 271 page report with a transmittal letter of June 9, 2026 titled "THE 2026 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE BOARDS OF TRUSTEES OF THE FEDERAL HOSPITAL INSURANCE AND FEDERAL SUPPLEMENTARY MEDICAL INSURANCE (SMI) TRUST FUNDS" the best answer I can find appears to be that the IRMAA contributions are not broken out from the approximate 22% of total revenues that come from beneficiary premiums. Page 13 reads in part - For SMI, government contributions represent the largest source of income. These contributions covered about 75 percent of program costs in 2025. Also, beneficiaries pay monthly premiums for Parts B and D. Those premiums financed roughly 22 percent of the total cost in 2025... 

  Post: Short term and long term Social Security planning

  Link to comment from August 9, 2026

• Rob Berger had a YouTube video published 3 years ago titled "Avantis All Equity Market ETF (ticker: AVGE) Pros and Cons" where he discussed this fund which was new as it started in 2022 and he also made some comparisons with VT. I interpret Rod Berger's main concern about AVGE was the fact that as the fund was new that the newness alone was then disqualifying for him to include in his holdings. AVGE is also a fund of funds, is actively managed, tilts toward value, tilts towards US and uses a mathematical formula to look at past profitability to help fund management project which investments will be profitable in the future. That may parallel your investing thinking but I have gone with VT, for better or worse, which tracks the appropriate world equity index. A couple of key numbers and considerations - Expense ratios (net current) - AVGE 0.23%, VT 0.06% YTD gain per Morningstar 8/6/2025 to 8/7/2026 - AVGE +28.71%, VT +23.32% The VT fund at 6/30/2026 was about 80 times the size of AVGE The AVGE has a large Bid/Ask Spread which likely is caused because it is a "fund of funds" that trades underlying small-cap and value-tilted global equities and because of lower daily trading volume compared to a much larger fund like VT.

  Post: Jonathan’s Parting Thoughts: No. 8

  Link to comment from August 8, 2026