http://frugalbabe.com/2008/04/29/123rd-festival-of-frugality/ A rich life without a lot of money Thu, 29 Jul 2010 17:00:09 -0600 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=abc http://frugalbabe.com/2008/04/29/123rd-festival-of-frugality/comment-page-1/#comment-20961 Frugal Babe Wed, 30 Apr 2008 15:50:14 +0000 http://frugalbabe.com/?p=319#comment-20961 Lisa, An HSA made sense for us for lots of reasons. We're both healthy and almost never need medical care. So the idea of paying for our own care before the deductible wasn't a big deal. We felt comfortable with a $3000 deductible, but wanted 100% coverage after that in case of a serious incident - our HSA provides that. My husband's knee surgery cost us $3000, but since we met the deductible, all of the bills have been paid by the insurance. So it's easy to plan financially for worst-case scenarios. Also, we wanted to be able to set up an HSA and use it as a backup retirement plan. We've maxxed it out the last two years in a row, and even though we've pulled out quite a bit of money to pay for my husband's knee and our midwife, we still have several thousand dollars in the account. Next year we'll max it out again and hopefully won't need to take any more money out. So going forward, the account will just keep growing, tax deferred. Also, by choosing an HSA qualified health insurance plan without copays for small stuff, we get some of the lowest premiums available for health insurance. We would rather pay a lower amount month after month and take our chances on not having to meet the deductible very often (taking really good care of your health helps with this), instead of paying sky-high premiums in order to have a low deductible policy. The math just makes more sense that way. Good luck with finding a policy that works for you! Lisa,
An HSA made sense for us for lots of reasons. We’re both healthy and almost never need medical care. So the idea of paying for our own care before the deductible wasn’t a big deal. We felt comfortable with a $3000 deductible, but wanted 100% coverage after that in case of a serious incident – our HSA provides that. My husband’s knee surgery cost us $3000, but since we met the deductible, all of the bills have been paid by the insurance. So it’s easy to plan financially for worst-case scenarios. Also, we wanted to be able to set up an HSA and use it as a backup retirement plan. We’ve maxxed it out the last two years in a row, and even though we’ve pulled out quite a bit of money to pay for my husband’s knee and our midwife, we still have several thousand dollars in the account. Next year we’ll max it out again and hopefully won’t need to take any more money out. So going forward, the account will just keep growing, tax deferred. Also, by choosing an HSA qualified health insurance plan without copays for small stuff, we get some of the lowest premiums available for health insurance. We would rather pay a lower amount month after month and take our chances on not having to meet the deductible very often (taking really good care of your health helps with this), instead of paying sky-high premiums in order to have a low deductible policy. The math just makes more sense that way. Good luck with finding a policy that works for you!

]]> http://frugalbabe.com/2008/04/29/123rd-festival-of-frugality/comment-page-1/#comment-20956 Lisa Wed, 30 Apr 2008 10:13:07 +0000 http://frugalbabe.com/?p=319#comment-20956 Thank you for all your inspiration! We are in the process of shopping for new medical insurance because of my husbands job change. I keep coming back to your posts on HSA's. Can you tell me why you chose an HSA over traditional insurance. I keep thinking this may be a better fit for us. Thanks! Thank you for all your inspiration! We are in the process of shopping for new medical insurance because of my husbands job change. I keep coming back to your posts on HSA’s. Can you tell me why you chose an HSA over traditional insurance. I keep thinking this may be a better fit for us.
Thanks!

]]> http://frugalbabe.com/2008/04/29/123rd-festival-of-frugality/comment-page-1/#comment-20945 Bryce Wed, 30 Apr 2008 04:22:40 +0000 http://frugalbabe.com/?p=319#comment-20945 Thanks for the link. I'm glad to hear that you and hubby are in good health and are working to keep yourselves that way. I hope all goes well with you and your baby. Thanks for the link. I’m glad to hear that you and hubby are in good health and are working to keep yourselves that way. I hope all goes well with you and your baby.

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