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HSAs

  • Jun. 27th, 2009 at 9:25 AM
Living on Minimum Wage
I set up an HSA (Health Savings Account) this week.  It's a pre-tax account which can be used to pay for Medical expenses.  The cool thing about an HSA is the money you don't use stays in your account and rolls on from year to year through your retirement.  You can withdraw HSA money for any purpose, but there's an extra tax for things that are not qualifying medical expenses (so best to just use it for medical expenses).

There  is something called an FSA (Flexible Spending Arrangements).  The problem with these is that they are "use-it-or-lose-it" plans...so you just lose any money you didn't spend (sounds wonky to me).  I would avoid them.

I had to have $100 to open the HSA account, but after that the amounts I contribute are entirely up to me provided I stay within the IRS max limits ($2900 for an individual in 2008).   My current plan is to put $100 a month into the HSA.  I'll use the money for things like visits to the dentist and the eye doctor.  The IRS has a pamplet explaining them http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p969.pdf.  You do have to meet certain qualifications, mainly having a high deductible health plan (HDHP). 

I like the flexibility here, because if I have a tough month I could just not contribute to the account...or if I have a really great month, I can contribute a little extra.  If I save $1200 in one year, but only use $600.  That remaining $600 stays around for next year.

Health Insurance and savings plan is one of the few pre-tax things I think it's really worthwhile for those of us in the lower income level to look into. 

I should add that a book I was reading earlier this week, indicated that HSA/HDHP combination is probably best for younger people who are relatively healthy (thus more likely to build up savings in the plan for future years/retirement).