Bogleheads.org

adamthesmythe wrote: ↑Sat Apr 01, 2023 12:02 pm

Sho wrote: ↑Sat Apr 01, 2023 9:42 am Recently seeing some kids who seem to have checked most of the boxes, not getting into any decent college .

Nope, I don't buy it. I'll bet there's a reason.

+1

Someone is getting in. In fact many are getting into each college. What do you think those students did that were different from those who didn’t get in?

Take the hardest classes the HS offers. Try an AP course or two. Even if the student doesn’t do well, it’s a sign that they are up to the challenge and are better prepared than those who took easy classes in HS.

I would look at the stats that each college is required to post on their website to see the percentage of students that graduate in 4 and 6 years, with an eye out to what covid did to attendance the last four years.

I would also look at the CS courses each offers and which of those are required for the CS major. Keep in mind how often each class is taught. Some of the advanced classes might only be taught once every other year. Looking forward to something that is appealing would be my biggest decision criterion.

Although UCSB has the party reputation, I also know two grads from there who started out in well-paying tech jobs. But they also came from a wealthy family who were able to expose them to lots of opportunities as kids.

I can change my contrast and background lighting in my iphone’s settings. You can probably do it too. This also helps you conserve your battery charge if you turn down the “lights”.

One thing to keep in mind on the internet is that we each observe “nighttime” at different times depending on what time zone we live in around the world. I can also define this “night shift” in my iphone’s settings.

If you don’t convert and the markets don’t crash, your IRAs will be $3M when your RMDs start with a required withdrawal of $120,000. But when you are eligible for QCDs after age 70.5, you can only donate $100K per year, per person.

If you are married and the IRAs are for two people, you will be fine, but if you will file as Single (or one spouse dies while waiting), you need a back-up plan, such as doing Roth conversions now.

Remember that your IRA balance will continue to grow, even while taking RMDs, as long as the yearly growth is more than the yearly withdrawals. And the RMD percentage to withdraw increases each year as you age.

We lived in our first house 2 years but moved when we found out we lived next door to the neighbors from *ell.

We’ve been in the current house 46 years, before prop 13 was even passed. Now we can’t move until one of us dies since the capital gains would be horrendous even after the $500k exclusion. But most of our family and friends live near by, so there’s no reason to move.

Please be careful with your terminolgy. Nothing looks like a problem yet, but you aren’t consistent in what you say: Met with Fidelity rep in person at local office. Easy peasy, a phone call and some papers signed and all was rolled over into my existing small traditional Fidelity IRA . The “Rollover IRA” in the thread title caught my attention and that’s where rollovers from employer plans should go. But you then rolled over to a Traditional IRA? What the heck do i do with a paper check? Dont want to cash it, its nontaxable and belongs in my IRA. The check is not automatically nontaxable. It depends what account the money goes into. For example, if you deposited into your (Taxable) checking account, it would lose it’s tax-deferred status a...

If the ex-wife’s taxes will be too high because of having to withdraw from both accounts in a short period of time, she can consider disclaiming part of the inheritance (before it goes to her). She has no choice in who would get the disclaimed amount but it would go to listed contingent beneficiaries. If none were listed, state law would define the beneficiaries.

I just wanted to suggest an alternate.

Kelly, Were the inherited assets given a step-up in value as of date of death? That means the custodian that was holding the deceased’s assets should have set the cost basis to be the market value as of date of death. So the Walmart shares that were sold (and not yet sold) will likely have a smaller gain reported on your tax return. In fact, after the cost basis for the inherited assets is corrected (if still needed), it might make sense to sell all of it (with smaller gains and losses) so it can be invested in what makes sense for you, instead of for the deceased. And you/your tax preparer may need to override the wrong cost basis when you report the sales on your taxes. I’ll look this up for you. Did you inherit anything besides WalMart? ...

As such, in both 2021 and 2022 tax years she made a contribution ($6,000 each time) to an empty "Traditional IRA" and did a backdoor roth, completely forgetting and ignoring the old ira rollover sitting in an adjacent account. I would also go back a few more years (before 2021) to make sure she didn’t contribute to a Traditional or Roth IRA when ineligible. In any year you had to do a Backdoor Roth, she should have done the same, since you both share the same AGI when filing MFJ. But if she didn’t start making IRA contributions until 2021, then you don’t need to go back further. Why not take the positive outlook on this, which is that for each year she needs to amend the tax return and pay some taxes, that means more basis is rem...

You should do this by phone so it gets completed before April 15. If there is any confusion on the submitted form, you might not have time to have a problem corrected. The custodian is responsible for calculating the amount to be removed once you tell them the amount of the contribution you made . I assume you know that gains or losses in the account (rather than in the fund you invested in) also need to be taken into account. But most people do not understand how you calculate it. Assuming no other money went into or out of the IRA since the contribution was made, look at the value of the IRA on the day the contribution was added in. Divide that amount into the contribution amount to see what percentage the contribution was compared to the...

Something doesn’t compute with the numbers you have. I think you need to get better numbers for her. Look at her tax returns. She probably has some capital gains or dividends or interest there. And I agree with someone above that she probably has more than $60k after tax income each year that is just “evaporating”. Next, look at her pay stubs/ receipts for a few months to see what her withholdings are, how much is withheld for taxes, and her take-home amount. I would also look at a year’s worth of investment statements, credit card bills, and checking account statements. Start with a blank spreadsheet of typical budget categories (taxes, savings, housing, utilities, food, clothing, pets, transportation, vacation, donations, gifts, etc.) Add...

Many people here like to avoid putting bonds or other "low paying" investments in Roth IRA because the earnings in Roth IRA are tax free if you wait long enough. So many people here would not put a CD in Roth IRA. But that was when interest rates were so low that TINA was born. Things have changed with 5%+ interest rates. No, things haven’t changed, except for temporarily having a higher fixed rate for the CD. The theory behind Tax-efficient Fund Placement remains the same. This wiki page is pretty complex, but basically it says the Roths should hold the assets that are expected to grow the fastest, which is usually stock funds. Tax-deferred should hold your bonds (and CDs) to slow down the growth of the account (and future RMDs)...

It doesn’t really matter if shares in Taxable are covered or uncovered. Some day when they are sold, they will just be reported on different pages of the capital gains groupings on your tax return, but the tax owed will be the same. The cost basis is all you really need to care about, so you can determine your gain or loss (as well as if you had owned those shares in taxable for a year or not). And as far as cost basis, it is irrelevant in tax-deferred and Roth accounts since it is only the value that is withdrawn that matters, as far as tax reporting. The IRS doesn't care how long you held an asset in these accounts, how much you originally paid, or even what asset you had. Your tracking of the cost basis in these accounts is just for your...

I think if they were willing to increase the rate during the two-year term, they would have advertised that at the time the CD was opened.

You can always ask the bank what the early withdrawal penalty is for that CD. Calculate the penalty in terms of dollars and ask the board what they think.

But, be forewarned, because even if you can get a better rate now, what will the organization do in another 6 months if the rates increase again?

Peter Foley wrote: ↑Sat Mar 25, 2023 4:04 pm I set up a checking account to go with my IRA at Schwab. I've had no trouble writing checks to charities and having them characterized as QCD's.

Is your checking account titled as an IRA? If not, you are first withdrawing to a Taxable checking account, then making a charitable donation that can be included in your deductions, if you itemize.

PinotGris wrote: ↑Sat Mar 25, 2023 2:39 pm I have been doing the QCD distributions for the last 2 years without a problem until now. I send out the checks about now and around Oct/Nov we take our RMD distributions and withhold tax at the time. Have I lost that ability because I switched to the Brokerage?

We’ve done QCDs from brokerage IRA accounts. But the first time we did QCDs, we had to call them to do it. On the second time we called, they notified us that we can do it ourself without notifying them.

Possibly, they are confirming you are over 70.5 before they “flip the DIY switch”.

ehh wrote: ↑Wed Mar 22, 2023 8:55 pm

celia wrote: ↑Wed Mar 22, 2023 8:46 pm

rbslos36 wrote: ↑Wed Mar 22, 2023 6:58 pm Next year at age 70, I will begin social security. My full retirement age (PIA-Primary Insurance Amount) is $3221.

Since you waited until age 70, your monthly amount will increase by 8% for each year you waited past full retirement age, which is probably 67 or close to it.

Your wife will then be eligible to collect half of yours, assuming it is more than her benefit.

Spousal benefit is up to one half of the workers primary insurance amount. Delayed retirement credits do not increase spousal benefits.

You’re right! I was thinking about survivor’s benefits. But in that case, the spouse can take the whole amount the deceased was getting, as long as it was more than their own benefit.

I helped my 79 year old father setup an online acct at Bank A to take advantage of better interest rate than his existing account at Bank B (.01%). After Bank A was setup added Bank B as an external account and setup a transfer to take $ from Bank B to fund new acct at Bank A. . . . I am going with him on Monday to Bank B branch and hoping they can help. Any advice appreciated! You didn’t say which bank you used to initiate the transfer, but that’s the bank you should contact. The other bank may not know anything about the transfer. Assuming this is a large amount--would a wire prevent this from happening? I would have requested a paper check. OP, You didn’t say how each account was titled. If either or both are trust accounts, you first n...

rbslos36 wrote: ↑Wed Mar 22, 2023 6:58 pm Next year at age 70, I will begin social security. My full retirement age (PIA-Primary Insurance Amount) is $3221.

Since you waited until age 70, your monthly amount will increase by 8% for each year you waited past full retirement age, which is probably 67 or close to it.

Your wife will then be eligible to collect half of yours, assuming it is more than her benefit.

I would just convert the pre-tax $5,500 amount with the post-tax $5,500. Then you can keep using the IRA for future Backdoor Roths.
This assumes you roll the rest of the pre-tax to a solo 401k this year.

aboose wrote: ↑Thu Mar 16, 2023 8:15 pm Thanks for the replies guys, maybe I'll give it a test run.

I had the impression your ACH transfer was taking too long which caused you to make the original post and so I almost laughed when I saw you hadn’t yet put in the request. The transfer is on “hold” until you make it happen!

All of our pensions and 85% of our SS could be considered Taxable Income, I guess. The part we don’t need for living expenses is invested.

And we don’t have to work anymore.

I don’t get the point of comparing. Neither is right or wrong. It is what it is.

I have already told the major offenders of sending numerous solicitations that . . . Good luck with that . . . It can easily cost them more than $1,000 to change their procedures. And what if every donor made their own “rules”? I wouldn’t be surprised if they just stopped mailing you because you make their life “complicated”. I was the treasurer of a small local non-profit. It was hard to just get any members to be officers each year as none of us were paid and most were retirees. We didn’t have any fundraising but just operated off of member dues and donations. If you dictated how anyone should do their “job”, they would either ignore you or quit. Please consider the other side of the situation. Do you want your favorite charities to clos...

I could move all my bond fund investments to my IRA but if I did that my AA would be out of whack for my comfort level. It is easy to keep the same Asset Allocation as you have now! Say you have $50k of bond funds in Taxable. Sell $50k of a stock fund in tax-deferred and replace it with $50k of the bond fund. At the same time, sell $50k of the bond fund in Taxable and replace it with the same stock fund you sold in tax-deferred. You will end up with the same AA you started with PLUS your portfolio will be more tax-efficient. The interest from bonds doesn’t have any favorable tax rates and neither do withdrawals from tax-deferred. So they might as well be together in tax-deferred where withdrawals will be taxed as ordinary income eventually...

I found this, which seems pretty clear cut, assuming it is accurate (beware of what you read online, even on Bogleheads :wink: ): What are the Rules? Unlike most tax-related rules, the rules for QCDs are fairly straightforward: You must be age 70½ or older. The QCD must be made from a traditional IRA, Roth IRA , or individual retirement annuity, but not from a simplified employee pension, a simple retirement account , or an inherited IRA . . . Source: https://www.robertprussocpa.com/qualified-charitable-distributions-from-iras/ This doesn’t sound right. You can’t contribute from a Roth IRA because the money needs to be money that would otherwise be taxed and Roth distributions aren’t taxed (unless you are under 59.5 or the Roth hasn’t been...

The most important things to consider are: * What the tax rates could be when one of you dies and the other has to still take all the RMDs while filing as Single. The space in each tax bracket is half as much for Singles compared to the space MFJ has. That’s why the Single taxpayer can be pushed into higher tax brackets later on. * Consider all the tax-deferred accounts that each of you own and think of the joint total values instead of just your IRA. How much do those accounts grow in total each year, not counting new contributions? As long as the accounts grow more than what is withdrawn each year, the balance will continue to grow. * Consider your Asset Allocation, in particular what is in tax-deferred. If you have any stock funds or ind...

I don’t understand your scenario: I moved money from a Roth IRA at TD Ameritrade for a brokerage bonus. I was not able to get a commitment from the receiving firm to reimburse transfer fees, and so ended up doing several partial transfers (no fee) until balance was $0.41. You wanted the new custodian to pay for your transfer fees to them so you could also get a bonus from them? That sounds quite bold unless you are transferring millions! But apparently, you found a work-around. I then withdrew the remaining $0.41 to my checking account as "Distribution Type: Premature (with exception)" and re-contributed to my Vanguard Roth IRA as funds coming from another Roth IRA (this required mailing a personal check as Vanguard wouldn't let m...

Fair point on Continuation of benefits already being received.... But if this were true: 1) Why is there a need for even mentioning A (40 credits) as per first scenario since you won't be drawing SS unless u had 40 credits to begin with You could be collecting SS as a spouse or widow(er) even if you had 0 credits yourself. (I’m not sure if this applies to alien spouses, though, even if they live within the US.) 2) Why is the OR scenario even provided for living in US for 10 years? (B in my post). What purpose does it serve? You could have lived outside the US while working for an American company and having to pay into SS. Wondering if this is just a consequence of language, sentence of structure possibly being confusing in the doc The sen...

quantAndHold wrote: ↑Sun Mar 19, 2023 2:20 pm I like doing it myself because it forces me to learn our tax laws and how they relate to our situation, which helps me make better financial decisions. One thing that has helped is that my financial life changes slowly enough that in any given year, there might only be one or two things that are new and have to be researched.

+1
This is why I suggest to my younger relatives to start doing their own taxes from the time they get their first job. They indirectly learn along the way that buying real estate, tax-deferring or converting, having a side business, or donating could change their taxes.

This year I am using FreeTaxUSA. After adding my $1300 of dividend income, my tax goes up by $500. That means my dividends are getting taxed at near 40%! I don't think that is correct. Everything I read online indicates dividends should get taxed at max 20% or so (and for my income should be 15%). It's beyond frustrating to spend all evening reading up and trying to figure out why I'm getting taxed so high on the dividends. Now I think I will need to pay for TurboTax, in order to compare the results for dividends. Or take to someone to prepare. There is always something it seems, so yes I hate this and it's hard. Way harder than it should be. Only qualified dividends are taxed at 0%, 15%, or 20% (depending on income). Non-qualified dividen...

5) The tutorial I found online for reporting Backdoor Roth doesn't match the software steps. That’s why tutorials are needed. If you moved through the software in the same direction as the questions were asked, you’ll find that reporting the IRA withdrawal (that was the Roth conversion) doesn’t yet know that the contribution is non-deductible because that is reported later. That is why it is recommended to report the steps in the same order as they happened. This will make you jump around in the software. 1. Made contribution and it was non-deductible 2. Took an IRA withdrawal and it was converted to Roth. Some people have to first recharacterize a Roth contribution because they weren’t expecting a high income for the year. Since that need...

tcrez wrote: ↑Mon Mar 20, 2023 3:09 am I’ve read about various insurance and guardrails to prevent your broker from losing your stock, but what if they lost or got wrong the records of who owned what.

Your broker doesn’t hold your records, the brokerage company (Vanguard, Fidelity, etc) does and all transactions are backed up as soon as they are made.

You can usually also enter new transactions even in the middle of the night except when the computer is down for maintenance. (That is easily seen on January 1 each year as they do their year end processing and set up for the next year.)

The statements your advisor gave you or mailed to you were for a particular point in time in the past.

I’m not sure how actionable this post is. We follow the golden advice of bogleheads and we do not discuss personal finances with friends or family. Nothing good will come of it. I doubt this is part of the Bogleheads philosophy. I refer to Bogleheads openly with friends and family often and even send them links to Bogleheads posts that may be of interest to something we’ve talked about recently. In a way, I’m an ambassador for Bogleheads.org. That being said, I came from modest means. I was -200,000 net worth starting off fresh from grad school. If the discontented folks didn’t go to college, let alone get an advanced degree, that alone is enough to separate you somewhat. But if you and your discontented friend still had the same wages aft...

If you are Single and have over $500k in tax-deferred or Married with over a million (jointly) in tax-deferred, you probably want to do Roth conversions first to reduce future RMDs. Taxwise, the Inherited IRA is just another tax-deferred account except that the withdrawals can’t be converted.

In another year, you’ll both be over 70.5. You could then give the Inherited IRA withdrawals to charities using QCDs and save the space in your current tax brackets for your own Roth conversions (assuming you already have the larger IRA balances).

As far as what the money should be invested in, just consider it part of your portfolio and invest according to your investment plan.

Stinky wrote: ↑Sat Mar 18, 2023 10:58 am

berg wrote: ↑Sat Mar 18, 2023 8:23 am My first post was about navigating the backdoor Roth for the first time, now our Roths have $155k and $100k in them.

Going from $290k to $3 million of net worth in 10 years - that's just awesome. Congratulations!

In all fairness, you appeared to have a high income 10 years ago when you started such that you had to do a Backdoor Roth. Not everyone can grow the rest of their portfolio so fast since they don’t have the “extra” income that you have.

So far, I haven’t seen anything showing whole life is better than. . .

VanguardInvestor1972 wrote: ↑Sun Mar 19, 2023 5:51 pm . . . "buy term and invest the rest".

Certainly in California, there are social service agencies who will intervene and arrange for court appointed guardianship, even in the absence of any person known to the conservatee going to court on the conservatee's behalf. Of course, social services must be alerted, and that could be done by anyone, or a facility such as a hospital. We called social services for a friend who married late in life and who was complaining that his wife was spending his money and giving a lot to her “church”. She also monitored him so he couldn’t leave the house very often. When social services came, he answered the door and said everything was fine. He didn’t want to rock the boat and asked if we were the ones who called in. I’m seriously considering pick...

The problem is that someone first needs to recognize that you need help or are slowly losing cognitive functions in case you don’t recognize it yourself. Cognitive loss can be very gradual that the people you see often don’t recognize it. We had this case with an aunt for which I was the successor trustee. I asked her one day to pick up our kids from school and to take them to her condo (DH and I both had somewhere to go) and she couldn’t find her way home. The kids told me about this and I just asked if she was driving safely. She was. But this was a red flag I hadn’t noticed. Another one was when she said she would write checks for her bills but not mail them right away. She said she wanted to double check them a few days later. That’s wh...

So you can’t donate QCDs to third-party charities using Charity Navigator? That’s my bottom-line question. No. They aren’t in the business of forwarding mail. They are in the business of rating charities. (I wasn’t even aware they could collect and forward Taxable money.) There’s too much risk in forwarding your QCD on your behalf. When something goes wrong you would blame them and they’re not even charging you for it. Why should they do that for you and assume the risk of potential problems? (I would say the same for Donations from Taxable accounts.) I assume they are taking on the role of generating an acknowledgement letter for you at the end, especially if you give to several charities at the same time. This is very different than forw...

We’ve been using Charity Navigator (CN) to make our donations, because we like the anonymity. I’m interested in any experiences that posters here have had with using it to make QCDs. Sure, you can send them a QCD check, but they will know who you are and your address. Since they are a charity, they will acknowledge the donation and probably let you know it will be used for their data collection and maintenance of their website. We haven’t done any QCDs in any form yet, so I’m unfamiliar with the process. Ask the custodian to send you a check from your IRA made out to the charity. It will be mailed to you. Write on the attached “receipt” to not add you to any mailing lists (preferably using red ink). (All our recipients honored this.). Make...

KyleAAA wrote: ↑Thu Mar 16, 2023 11:52 am

celia wrote: No money to re-pave the road? OK, you get dirt paths. Not much spent on schools? OK, you’ll have mediocre schools with no enrichment and large class sizes. No fire department? Hopefully there is a volunteer fire department!

But OP doesn't necessarily have to be the one to pay for those things.

Even if you don’t have kids, you probably want your community to have decent schools. I cringe when I see graffiti and the swear words are misspelled!

And I want other voters to learn how to be informed before they vote.

Capricorn212 wrote: ↑Wed Mar 15, 2023 2:48 pm Thank you very much for your thoughtful words. Three of the siblings are and have been united/agreement/harmony on this. But this is maybe time to just bite the bullet and move on. And, not have a victory that costs us even more money.

I’m in my 70s now and have seen all kinds of financial situations, even with trusts. I find that those who don’t act “fairly” also end up being the loser when life is “unfair” to them. And I find that the more I give to charity, the more money I end up with. Part of that is from not needing to pay taxes on QCDs, but unexpected money also comes my way.

So, to me, life has a way of balancing itself out.

You can share this with 2 of your siblings. You know which ones!

Promise me to answer my questions when I get the tax 2022 from my tax man. Some how my tax man doesn’t like me to ask question. Honestly, this sentence makes me think that you should get a new tax preparer. What exactly are you paying for if not to go over the tax return with you first before filing? This is NOT to say that we (Bogleheads) will not be willing to help you ... We are, but it just sounds like you aren't getting the value for your money I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the tax preparer and OP likely doesn’t need a more expensive CPA. The tax preparer probably doesn’t have problems answering questions about the tax return. But if the questions are about future tax planning, that should cost extra. And the tax preparer ...

If there will be any delay because you're working through the trust succession stuff, I would contact the broker and inform them so they can lock access to the account. Nobody should be able to do anything with the assets until either the executor is appointed and can provide the appropriate credentials, or the beneficiaries can provide the death certificate, or the successor trustee is in place. The executor is not involved in the trust at all. But you should call the custodian to report the death so they can freeze the account and ask them what you need to do because of death. They will likely have you fill out a form for changing the trustee. And you may need to send in some pages of the trust if the trust was ever amended. You will als...

US withholding is 22% on bonus/supplemental income up to $1M. >$1M it’s 37%. https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/for-small-business-week-backup-withholding-rate-now-24-percent-bonuses-22-percent-workers-urged-to-do-a-paycheck-checkup I was just justifying why they withheld 44% . (This link was for small business employers.) RetiredNurse , I’m sorry I confused you. And if you are a nurse who worked with COVID patients, you really deserve this retirement. Thank you (and your fellow medics) for keeping the rest of us healthy or we wouldn’t be here to help each other! Since you are now retired, you and your tax preparer might need to figure out if you need to do Roth conversions now. Once RMDs (Required Minimum Distributions) begin from your tax-defe...

States with no income tax need to get revenue somehow, if those affect you the savings may not be as much as you think. Property, sales, gasoline taxes are common. If you’re renting and not commuting maybe it doesn’t impact you much. +1. This is worth thinking about. How do the states without state income tax pay for the things the other states spend their income tax on? Without a state income tax, they probably have higher property tax, sales tax, gas tax, taxes on utilities and phone service, toll roads, library patron fees to check out books…. Everything has to be paid for somehow or it won’t exist. No money to re-pave the road? OK, you get dirt paths. Not much spent on schools? OK, you’ll have mediocre schools with no enrichment and la...

If you read the statement several times (as I did), you will notice this is in regard to Treasury bond rollovers, which you have now opted out of. You checked your statements as suggested and everything looks fine.

So there’s nothing else to do or worry about. The message makes perfect sense for your situation. Their software might have been ready to do another rollover but the money was not available so it sent this poorly worded message to you instead.

In case you wonder why they withheld $4,000 for taxes, it is because they looked up in the charts what taxes would be owed for someone who earned $9,000 in a single pay period and had worked for a whole year at that rate. Dividing the yearly taxes into pay periods gives you the $4,000.

Now that a good chunk of taxes has been paid for 2023, have you figured out how much of additional Roth conversions that tax would cover?

When you get done with your 2022 tax return, this would be an interesting problem to solve using the same software and projected income sources for this year!

dagsboro wrote: ↑Wed Mar 15, 2023 6:01 am By the way is there any VG mutual fund at all, like Vanguard Total Bond Index, that is problematic to convert ?

I’m not aware of problems with any particular mutual fund.

But your settings for each account will need to be reset. Beneficiaries might carry over, but things like how to identify your shares when selling (FIFO vs Spec ID), where your dividends should go, and automatic withdrawals probably need to be reset and linked up to your bank again. After all, we are talking about “new” accounts here.

Although I don’t know what tax rate we’ll be in in retirement, I assume it will be lower. I say this because our biggest expenses (besides tax) will be gone. Mortgage, student loans, childcare. These things alone are nearly 40% of our income, so my assumption is we won’t need our full income in retirement. Maybe only half, or 60%. Maybe that’s a wrong assumption. I thought the same thing. We retired right after the mortgage was paid off, all the kids had finished college, and our retirement accounts had “enough”. Frankly those things were about half of our expenses. But I couldn’t figure out why we were paying more in taxes then. It finally occurred to me that we were itemizing while working but took the standard deduction in retirement si...