It goes without saying that medical expenses for many Americans are at an all-time high. Prescription costs are through the roof. Doctor visits and emergency room visits have gotten so expensive many who need healthcare aren’t using these services. To make matters worse, insurance rates have risen dramatically over the last few years. The result […]
Money Moves to Make in Your 30s
In today’s society, it’s easy to get complacent when it comes to your finances. Today, PF Pro contributor, Melissa Hoffman takes a look at five money moves you should make in your 30’s. Don’t put these off until it’s too late, take action now! While your twenties may have been a time of massive change […]
Medical Tourism 101
Finding cheap and affordable health care is always tough. Today, PF Pro contributor, Melissa the Sunburnt Saver tells us all about her experience with medical tourism. The cost of medical procedures in the US is often difficult to determine. As we learned from Harry’s experience, prices can vary dramatically, if you can even get an […]
My Favorite Time of The Year: Annual Enrollment
Fall is one of my favorite times of the year: the leaves start to change color, the temperature starts to drop…wait a minute, actually none of that is true since I live in California and it topped 90 degrees at the beaches last week! November is my favorite time of the year for a different […]
Getting Married Saved Me Over $4,200 In Healthcare Costs
I thought getting married would prompt a rash of wedding related articles on the blog, but to be honest, I was so wiped out by all the planning, the last thing I wanted to do was write about it. Now that I’m a few months out though, I’ve gotten over the wedding hangover and you […]
HSA’s Are Great Until You Get Sick
I’ve been a huge fan of Health Savings Accounts (HSA’s) since I started working full time 5 years ago. It didn’t take me long to realize that the HSA/HDHP combo is a great plan for young and healthy people like myself who rarely visit a doctor. Over the years, my HSA balance has grown to […]
What Is The Difference Between HMO And PPO?
Editor’s Note: Hey guys, right now I’m sitting on the edge of a volcano looking down at the amazing caldera views of Santorini. Everything they say about the views, the food, the sunset, it’s all true. Stay tuned for my honeymoon trip review when I get back and I’ll tell you guys all about it! […]
How I Got $480 Worth of Contact Lenses for $20
My parents discovered that I was blind as a bat when I was in kindergarten. I was an exceptional reader so they were always asking me to read things in books and magazines but one day they pointed to a street sign and as the story goes, I couldn’t see anything! I don’t really remember […]
Reader Question: How Should I Invest my HSA?
Editor’s Note: For those who aren’t familiar with Health Savings Accounts, I’ve written extensively on the topic before, take a look. Reader GP writes in this week asking about HSA’s: I’ve got a pretty substantial HSA balance now and I need to know how to invest it. Simple and to the point, I like those […]
My New HSA Provider: Eli Lilly Federal Credit Union
Update(4/21/14): ElfCU now charges a $24 wire transfer fee for transferring your money from ElfCU to TDA. Update(5/28/14): ElfCU now charges a $3 monthly account fee if you don’t hold at least $2,500 in the savings account. Still the best option in my opinion though. Last year I wrote an article about how to rollover […]
Annual Enrollment for 2014: My Company’s HSA vs Traditional Plan
As most of you know, a health savings account or HSA is one of my favorite investment vehicles of all time. It’s the only investment that allows for triple tax savings – the money you put in isn’t taxed, the money you take out isn’t taxed and the earnings aren’t taxed – as long as you […]
I Finally Invested My HSA Money
It’s been a while since I wrote about my new HSA rollover strategy and lots of things have happened since then. I quit my old job, got free health insurance for a couple months, got my own insurance for a month and will have employer health insurance again next week! I’ll probably go with the […]
Get 2 Free Months of Health Insurance Through COBRA
Quitting my job has turned out to be a great decision. Although I really enjoyed working for my last company, I was ready for a change and once we found out that my fiancee had gotten into med school in Irvine, we started planning for our move. Taking time off from work has allowed me […]
The Oregon Public Health Insurance Experiment: Does Medicaid Work?
Whether you’re rich or poor, access to high quality healthcare is something that’s important to all of us. Since it can literally be a ‘life or death’ matter, there is always great debate over the topic and when it comes to health insurance. Generally, we know which side’s for what: Democrats want to see everyone […]
How I Spend My VSP Vision Care Insurance
I’ve been wearing glasses since the first grade and when I made the switch to contacts in middle school my bills skyrocketed. Luckily, I had my mom there to pay for all my appointments and lenses so I never knew just how expensive everything was. Now that I’ve been on my own for a few […]
Preventative Care with a HSA: Free Physicals and Lab Work
Although HSA’s generally tend to have high deductibles, one great benefit is that preventative care is covered 100% for almost all HDHP plans. A recent industry survey found that over 80% of HSA plans provided first-dollar coverage for preventive care. This was true of virtually all HSA plans offered by large employers and over 95% […]
My New HSA Strategy – Rollovers and Trustee Transfers
Since my company was acquired by an even larger one last year, 2013 will be our first full year under the new administration. That means a whole lot of changes to our benefits and one of those will be to our HSA provider. Although the HDHP insurance portion will still be served by Aetna, our […]
Annual Enrollment Time: How Much Can an HSA Save You?
Here’s my original HSA article from last year: Health Savings Accounts Explained. Ok it’s annual enrollment time again for those of us in traditional workplaces and I’m here to tell you exactly how much a HSA can benefit you. Most large companies are starting to offer HSA’s to their employees for one main reason: it […]
Save Money on Your Flu Shot This Winter
Ever since I started working in a cubicle environment, I feel like I get sick much more frequently than I used to. Although we have unlimited sick days at work, I don’t like to use them unless I’m truly sick and can’t get out of bed. For all the minor coughs and colds, I’ll still […]
Reader Question: Health Savings Account Explained
Reader JY writes in, “I was wondering if you have written anything regarding the Health Savings Account and high deductible health insurance plans. I have recently signed up for this through my new employer as the idea sounded really great. Previously I was paying for one of the more expensive plans, the Kaiser HMO. Now […]