A first-person account revisits a weeks-long effort to track a late mother’s tax refund—and the reality of spending eight hours on hold with the IRS telephone system. The episode, along with other ongoing personal-finance features, underscores how hard it can
Good morning—and for many people, “Good morning” comes with a cost when the call you need can’t get answered.
In a personal-finance update. Daniel de Visé says he spent eight hours on hold with the IRS telephone system as he tracked his late mother’s tax refund. He had written a rare first-person account last week about the experience. and the follow-up is blunt: the episode did not go well enough to write about only once.
De Visé frames the hold time as part of a larger search for answers tied to family money. while also describing how he ended up writing a column specifically because things didn’t resolve smoothly. The core detail—eight hours trying to reach the IRS—lands like a warning about time. frustration. and the practical uncertainty that can follow when tax processes feel out of reach.
The same newsletter dispatch also turns to two other personal-finance questions. starting with a different kind of uncertainty: whether a “lottery curse” is real. De Visé says he has long wondered if winning millions inevitably leads to losing it all or experiencing other misfortune. To investigate. he tracked the fortunes of more than 30 real lottery winners over more than a decade. reporting what he found.
The newsletter then points readers toward additional coverage, including a story from Jessica Guynn that asks whether remote work is making people lonelier.
Behind the variety of topics. one through-line is hard to miss: when people are waiting—whether for a tax refund. for proof that “luck” comes with a price. or for answers about how lifestyle changes affect mental health—the delay itself becomes part of the story. In de Visé’s case, that delay was measured in hours on a phone line that wouldn’t connect.
IRS tax refund telephone hold personal finance late mother lottery curse remote work loneliness Daily Money