I’ve never been a big fan of New Year’s resolutions but I do believe in taking some solid steps to secure your financial life at the beginning of each year. Today, PF Pro contributor, Melissa Hoffman, takes a look at 5 financial tune-ups that you should complete ASAP. It’s the start of the new year, which […]
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 […]
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 […]
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: Traditional PPO vs HSA Plan
Editor’s Note: For those who aren’t familiar with Health Savings Accounts, I’ve written extensively on the topic before, take a look. This question didn’t come to my inbox but instead it came through as a comment on my article about 2014 health care annual enrollment. Calculating which plan is best for you is no easy feat and […]
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 […]
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 […]