I had my tree guy over the other day to ask him to prune some rather large limbs of my enormous silver maple because they are growing right into an equally large hemlock about 25 feet away. So much so that you can see how the crown of the hemlock has begun growing tilted to get away from the encroaching maple branches, which are stealing the light.

Since they are both native trees, I want to keep them both. It will cost me $900 to have the pruning done, and believe me, there are many outfits that would charge double that. Treework is not cheap. But it's also dangerous work.

There goes the tax refund.

So, I got my air quality monitor a few weeks back. It measures about 6 or 7 different things. Everything has remained in the green/healthy/normal range except for one thing: my VOC count...whenever I cook something on the stovetop, it shoots up to a sometimes unhealthy range, even when I'm running the exhaust fan. You usually think of VOCs when it comes to furniture outgassing or painting something, but you can also create them when heating food, even just boiling water to steam veggies, releasing gases like aldehydes, benzene, and fatty acid.

Which is a little alarming; truth be told I rarely used my exhaust fan in the past, but while i have started to since getting the AQ monitor, it doesn't seem to reduce the VOCs at all.  Truth be told, I have NEVER attempted to replace the grease filter on the range hood; I didn't know you were supposed to! And anyway, the grease filter does not trap VOCs; to do that, you need a charcoal filter, so I've just ordered some "cut-to-size" choarcoal filters since I can't seem to find any that fit my particular Broan hood. They fit behind the grease filter and should be pretty easy to install. I will be VERY curious to see how and if using these filters lowers the VOCs based on my air quality monitor readings. 

I'll make note how the exact level of VOCs generated by simering water for 10 minutes before, and then after inserting the charcoal filter.

If they do work, I will add range hood filters to my current list of filters in this house that need regular replacement. This includes my furnace, the furnace humidifier, my bedroom air purifier and the heat pump hot water heater (this one is just a rinse and then reusable).  It's a lot to keep track of!

One filter in the hood could last me a year, as I really don't do that much cooking these days, and I try to do as much as possible in the microwave, which I've noticed doesn't spoke the VOC readings on the AQ monitor. I rarely use the big oven anymore, maybe a few times a year. I do cook things on the stovetop, mainly to steam veggies or fry an egg but always try to avoid cooking anything at high temperatures, especially oils and meat.

Since both my tax refunds arrived in my non-interest bearing checking account today, I decided to double my principal-only payment on the car loan to $500.

I came across an interesting different way to determine your spending in retirement if your goal is to die with zero (or as close to zero as possible). It's super simple. At the start of each year, you take your current portfolio balance and divide by your remaining life expectancy based on life expectancy tables. 

Say you have $1 million at age 65. Using this strategy, you'd have 22.9 years left so you would spend $44,668 that year. The next year, you'd again take your current portfolio balance and divide it by your gradually declining life expectancy.  Assuming the stock market was more or less stable, what ends up happening is that you get to spend more and more money the older you get (life expectancy dwindles), and that seems contrary to what most people want to do: spend more in their younger "go go" years and wind down as they get older. 

Most retirement income strategies like the 4% rule are designed to ensure you never run out of money, and in fact for many people, they end up with a bigger balance than when they first retired. But they're dead. So for those for whom leaving massive amounts of money to heirs is not that important, this strategy is designed to maximize your spending while you're alive without running out before you die.

Here's a 16-minute video on it if your'e interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OosIaxPC9Ak

Because your withdrawals in any given year are based on your actual portfolio value at the start of the year, stock market fluctuations may cause your withdrawal amounts to fluctuate, of course, but when you factor in Social Security income, well, they tend to smooth out any differences in withdrawal rates from one year to the next.

So using this formula and my own portfolio value, I could withdraw this year $56,454, but add to that an additional $12,500 of annuity income so my annual income this year could be about $69,000, not including about $5k in dividends and cap gains I usually have from some taxable mutual funds. Which is pretty close to what I'm withdrawing now under my somewhat loosened but still stay-in-the-12%-tax-bracket strategy I'm using.

However, since my 93 year old father is still living, I've been using age 95 as my longevity age, so that would mean another 29 years, so my annual withdrawals this year using this formula would be $42,827 + my annuity = $55,327. It doesn't matter; I'm going to stick to my current strategy for the next few years.

Sometimes as a caretaker to my father, I get kind of wrapped up with staying on top of more practical things like medical appointments and spend less quality time on supporting my father from an emotional and mental point of view. Yesterday I was thinking about that, so I swung by his place unannounced with an order of Chinese food, which we both enjoy from time to time. 

We had an extended visit that I know he enjoyed, and I was in the right frame of mind to not feel rushed or pressed for time, and just let him talk about whatever topics popped into his head. The day before, I'd gotten a call (which I missed) from the service that responds when he presses a button around his neck. It's supposed to be for any medical emergencies and when he pushes that button, the service will automatically call my sister, then me, then my brother. The reason why my father pushed the button is because my sister was supposed to bring him his dinner at a certain time, and a fair amount of time had passed and she hadn't shown up. He was worried she had some sort of weather-related accident, so he asked the responder on the phone to call 911, although he didn't know where my sister was anyway.

My sister was fine but got mad at him for doing that and now isn't talking to him. Clearly my sister has a problem expressing herself when anger is involved. When I texted her from where I live and asked her if dad was ok, she responded some time later by texting "Yes." No further explanation. Things are so strained between us that I didn't try to get more information from her, I just resolved to go see my father the next day. 

I ended up doing some impromptu tax planning for 2026 after doing my net worth statement.

My goal is to stay in the 12% tax bracket this year, as I did last year, which means an income of $50,400 or less in 2026. In 2025, my AGI was about $71,000 but my total taxable income was about $46,500. That included a $10,000 Roth conversion I paid taxes on like it was "income," but which I really didn't get to enjoy as income.

So basically, I think I will skip doing any Roth conversions this year and increase my income by about $7500 to give myself a little extra spending power while still getting taxed at 12%.

Changes are afoot in a very good way when it comes to state taxes.  They have been phasing out state taxes on all forms of retirement income...pensions and annuities, traditional IRA distributions and Social Security...for those with an AGI of $75,000 or less, and I plan to remain in that category!

So there will be NO state tax on both my traditional IRA distributions and my annuity in 2026.  I thought about changing my state witholding election for the annuity, which is now about $80 a month for state taxes, but my state tax refund for last year was just $289, so I think I'd better leave it as is.

So with no state income taxes for retirees in this income range, the only state taxes I'm paying are about $8,000 a year on my property and another $400 on my vehicle. 

I'm just going to get used to this nice, low-tax place I'm in, and then in about 4 years, I'm going to start collecting Social Security and I think these good old days will seem like a rosy dream, and welcome to 22% federal taxation, and the return of state taxes as well since SS will bump up my income quite a bit, unless I try to reduce it, which I don't think I want to do.  But it's quite a big jump to go from paying 12% tax to 22% tax. Nearly double. I'm not sure there's any way around it if I actually want to enjoy my savings. Have to pay the piper at some point.

And when I have to start RMDs at 72, I foresee putting a lot of those distributions, unspent, back into taxable mutual fund accounts. Either that or find someone to start taking some exotic vacations with. Which would be my preference, to be sure.

Speaking of taxes, both my refunds have been approved but neither has shown up in my checking account yet. 

I changed my asset allocation to 70% stocks/30% bonds. It may seem fairly aggressive for someone in their 60s, but don't forget I have the guaranteed lifetime annuity (and later, SS), so I feel these act like ballast in my portfolio and allow me to be a bit more aggressive with my remaining funds. The stock allocation had been 65% before.

For a week or so now I've been pressing more than I weigh with the back extension, at 150 lbs. Which is more than what some men I see do...ha!

Some of my other weights:
Chest press: 105 lbs
Leg curl: 80 lbs
Hip abduction: 105 lbs
Hip adduction: 115 lbs
Row: 135 lbs
Incline pull: 130 lbs
Modified Romanian deadlift: 75 lbs
Lat pulldown: 60 lbs

My least favorite is the Romanian deadlift one because I'm bringing the weight down close to the floor and then using my core and butt to raise it, and I find that very hard to do. My favorite machine isn't even listed  here because I forget what it's called, but you hold onto these handles and raise and lower your entire body. 

It's about 11 degrees now and falling. Will be -30 degrees with the wind overnight!

I spent a few hours beefing up my rather poor water pipe insulation in the basement. Some of it is quite close to the outer wall, and that's what I focused on. However, like Goldilocks, I discovered that 1" diameter foam insulation leaves a bit of a gap while 1/2" diameter foam insulation is very snug and hard to close completely. 

I ruefully thought oh, it figures, I didn't get the 3/4" inch (my pipes are all different diameters!), but then upon researching I learned that 1" diameter foam on a 3/4" pipe actually provides better insulation, as long as you use insulation tape (which I have) to seal the 2 ends. So I think I got most of it along the wall; some of the copper pipe can be viewed with a flashlight but is nearly impossible to reach due to ductwork and other pipes in the way. It may not look pretty with all my cuts to fit around stuff, but hopefully will do the job. I still have some leftover foam, but not too much. 

I mean I've been here 30 years and never had frozen pipes, and there must've been prior times when it got this cold. And the wind chill is not a factor in my unheated basement so without the wind chill, it will be -2 degrees overnight. Note to self: Buy a few more 100 watt incandecent light bulbs; I use 2 in the basement but one burnt out. These really come in handy at times like this as they throw off a lot of heat.

I debated whether I should go out now to shovel the few inches of snow on the driveway, solely because Amazon has informed me they are delivering something today. If I don't shovel, they'll likely leave the package at the bottom of the driveway where anyone could grab it. However, I'm home and monitoring my email, so as soon as I get notification, I'll just run out to get it and come back in. 

Nah, I just went out and shoveled it.

I've read that it's only necessary to have one faucet dripping, and to chose the one that's furthest from where the water enters your house to ensure that slowly dripping water passes through all the pipes. But I have all faucets dripping anyway; it should drip at about 1 drip per second. 

Temps wll be plummeting tomorrow afternoon with lows each night this weekend below zero, and high winds will make it even colder. I don't plan to go anywhere, but I did run out today to spend about $75 at Lowe's on water pipe insulation in the basement. Not the foam kind, but the better quality stuff; I don't know what it's made of. I also got a large roll of insulation tape for hard to get to spots.

When I got my new heat pump hot water heater in January I guess 2 years ago now, we agreed he would move the location of the heater, necessitating new copper pipe. Insulating the pipe (there are many spots even with the older pipe with no insulation) should have been top of mind for me sooner than this, but it just wasn't.  The last few years we've enjoyed relatively mild winters. Some of those pipes are quite close, like inches, to the outer wall, so I don't want to take any chances.  I keep reading posts from people on my town's Facebook page who have frozen pipes and are freaking out.

I will do it in the morning, prioritizing the pipes closest to the back wall. They mostly run parallel to the back wall but the water comes in from the front wall from the utility provider. There's still a lot of snow on the back patio, and I imagine that must act like an insulator in and of itself, but still.... I measured the circumference of various different pipes (to determine diameter) and found 3 different sizes! The guy at the store said my largest pipe measurement must be wrong because most pipe diameters aren't that big.  So I took home 18 feet each of the 2 smaller sizes and hope they are enough. It may not be. I think I'll put a thermometer down there, too, just to monitor how cold it gets in that spot. I really don't know.

Otherwise, I made a big pot of lentil soup a few days ago as well as some date brownies, and I just did a big grocery spend at BJs today (spend $150 and get $15 back), so I'm good with food here for a while. 

I won't say the driveway is completely shoveled, but I did finally shovel enough so I can turn the car around at the top of the driveway so I don't have to back down it; I also shoveled a path to my oil fill-up tank, just in case.  It will make it easier to shovel the 1-3" we're expecting tomorrow.

I checked my oil level and there's still a little more than a half tank in there so I should be able to get into early March with that. I may ratchet up the indoor temp all weekend given the very low outdoor temps, which I don't really like to do becus I honestly sleep better at night with cooler temps, but you do what you gotta do. The other thing (maybe a tip for those not used to this kind of weather) is keeping all the cabinet doors open on your sinks to expose the pipes to the warmer air, along with allowing a very slow drip from each faucet. Yeah, I've been doing all these things for the past week or so. I will put a large plastic container to catch the drips in the sinks and will use it to refill my bird bath or water houseplants, so nothing goes to waste. 

I think I spent as much time troubleshooting rejected tax return filings as I did filling out the tax return.

After the first rejection, I rechecked all my numbers and thought perhaps it was a glitch in the system, so I resubmitted after finding nothing wrong. It was rejected again. Then I discovered the special table you refer to if you were born before 1961. I'd glossed over this before because I was on auto-pilot, I guess, and this is the first time I've been able to check off that box. I KNEW about the senior standard deduction but didn't realize this is where it's accounted for. I fixed it and redid my Qualified Dividends and Cap Gains Tax Worksheet. I filed a 3rd time.  It was rejected again this morning. I was really stymied so I wrote to the IRS and was prepared to wait 2 days for their reply. After that, I discovered that the little chart I'd used to get my senior deduction was from 2024. I had just pulled it online. Embarrassing mistake. So this morning I refiled for the 4th time. I'm afraid to say I'm "confident" it will be accepted this time, but....

If it's accepted, I'll be getting a $1,039 refund vs the $760 I thought I was getting with the first tax return submission.

Good times!

Update: It was accepted. Hallelulah!

I worked all day on my taxes today. I like to get it done as early as possible so it's not hanging over my head.

It went relatively smoothly until I got to Line 7A Capital gain or loss. I had the cap gains reported on my Form 1099-DIV, which happens every year, but last year I also took about $13K from taxable brokerage funds, and for the life of me I couldn't figure out whether I needed to File Schedule D, Form 8949 or both. Each time I looked at different instructions on one form or the other they seemed to say something a little different. In the end, I chose to file Form 8949 because the Form 1099-B I got from my brokerage said "Long-term transactions for which basis is reported to the IRS - report on Form 8949." What confused me was that on the same form under the Gain or loss column, it says in parentheses (not reported to the IRS).

And I decided to also File Schedule D because the 1040 instructions said if you sold a capital asset like a stock, you must file both Schedule D and Form 8949, with 2 exceptions. It's the 2 exceptions I kept tripping over til my brain was fried, but it seemed to me that neither exception applied to me.

I decided to see if itemizing on Schedule A would be better than taking the standard $15K deduction. My itemized deductions, even with my high property taxes, came to $9,500, so not really close. I reported a $10K Roth conversion and made sure to claim the new senior deduction as well as the car loan interest deduction.

In the end, it appears I'll get a refund of about $750. And my total taxable income came to just about $150 more than the top of the 12% bracket; this was my goal, to stay in the 12% bracket, so job well done.

I will scan everything tomorrow, I guess, and at least check my math. I plan to file on paper through snail mail rather than use a free tax service. I'll mail it certified. I don't like using them; the one time I tried, I didn't like how they ask you questions and just automate stuff for you. I like to read the IRS instructions for myself. Call me a masochist.