TreasuryDirect 1099 Form for 2006 Available

Yesterday an email from TreasuryDirect arrived, informing me that the 1099 form for 2006 is available online.

2006 was the first year that our investments in Treasury bills were subject to federal income taxes. We have been buying I and EE bonds for several years, but they are exempted from both federal and state income taxes (federal income taxes will be imposed when the bonds are redeemed or reach maturity. Click here for more information on how I bonds are taxed). The taxes were from our weekly investments in 4-week T-bills since last May. After I logged in my account, it shows we have a total of $249.70 in interests since June 2006, which will be part of our annual passive incomes.

The access to my TreasuryDirect account, however, wasn't a smooth one.

It has been a while since I logged in my account and I couldn't remember exactly the password. I tried twice but didn't go through, so I clicked the Forget Password button. Then I faced a even bigger challenge: I have to answer three out of about 10 security questions. Not just any three, but exactly those three that I chose when I set up the account. If I were given those three questions, I might be able to come up the answers. But remember which three questions? I couldn't even remember a password!

Again, I tried several times with different combinations that I thought were possible, again all the attempts were rejected and eventually I got a screen, saying I have to call a CSR at TreasuryDirect for help.

On one hand, these enhanced security features can prevent unauthorized access to my account (and now it seems everybody is doing this), but on the other remembering all the questions and answers isn't an easy job. I use Firefox and every time I enter a new password, the browser asks me if I want the browser to remember it. I usually choose yes to save some typing. That's the convenient part. The drawback is, of course, that if I don't have to remember, I don't remember. After sometime the remembered passwords may be cleaned by the system and by that time, my memory is not fresh any more. A couple weeks ago, I also tried to access my VirtualBank account, which I haven't used for a long time (I have only about $120 in the account). All my attempts failed and I ended up getting my access suspended.

I wonder if there's any better way to manage all these user names, passwords, security questions instead of writing them all down on a piece of paper.

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