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# My numbers were right on Monday. Three of my words weren't.
- URL: https://inside-systems.ghost.io/my-numbers-were-right-on-monday-three-of-my-words-werent/
- Published: 2026-08-29T07:25:28.000Z
- Updated: 2026-08-31T15:10:18.000Z
- Author: Wendell Hollifield

**Where the doubling breaks, and why it almost certainly doesn't touch you.**  

![Engraved drawing of an open ledger page, one line ruled through and rewritten in the margin beside it.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/d6/f3/d6f3e6cb-1577-4ad4-879e-a14dacf1b87a/content/images/2026/08/Vintage-patent-drawing-engraving-illustration-of-an-open-ledger-book-resting-on-a-flat-surface.-One-ruled-line-is-visibly-crossed-through-with-a-single-dark-stroke--with-a-rewritten-line-suggested-in-the-margin-beside-it.-Fine-cross-hatchin.jpg) 

The Log · Saturday

No letter on Thursday. The metals piece wasn't ready and I'd rather send it late than send it thin. It goes out next Thursday.

Where I was wrong

Monday, on what happens to a household's tax bands after one of two people dies, I wrote that the joint figures are near enough double the single ones *all the way up*.

They aren't. The doubling holds through the 35% band and then stops. The top rate starts at $640,600 for one person and $768,700 for a couple — which is about one and a fifth, not two.

I'll also say plainly that it changes nothing for almost anyone reading this. You'd need taxable income north of six hundred thousand for that band to touch you. But *all the way up* was a sloppy three words and somebody would have caught it, so I'd rather it was me.

The part that mattered — that the survivor's bands roughly halve while the house costs what it always cost — stands.

![Engraved drawing of a plain wall clock face with the minute hand at the top of the hour.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/d6/f3/d6f3e6cb-1577-4ad4-879e-a14dacf1b87a/content/images/2026/08/Vintage-patent-drawing-engraving-illustration-of-a-plain-round-wall-clock-face--front-facing-and-centered--with-the-minute-hand-pointing-straight-to-the-top-of-the-hour.-Include-only-simple-clock-hands-and-minimal-mechanical-detail--with-no.jpg) 

The whole of the deadline.

Number of the week

One hour

The time the law gives a credit bureau to lift a freeze once you ask, online or by telephone. It's the answer to the only real objection to putting one on, and it's why yesterday's letter was worth the afternoon it takes.

One question, and I'd like an answer to this one. Wednesday I asked you to go and look at the top of your water heater for the plug the anode rod hangs from. Did you find it, and how old is the tank?

Hit reply. I read them.

Wendell