{"id":3838,"date":"2011-08-10T01:10:34","date_gmt":"2011-08-10T08:10:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.krunk4ever.com\/blog\/?p=3838"},"modified":"2011-08-10T11:10:56","modified_gmt":"2011-08-10T18:10:56","slug":"health-savings-account","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.krunk4ever.com\/blog\/2011\/08\/10\/health-savings-account\/","title":{"rendered":"Health Savings Account"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"caduceusSo during benefits election last year at Microsoft, I had opted to try their new HSA (Health Savings Account) health insurance plan. Given that I hardly ever used my health insurance, having a tax-deductible\/tax-free account that I can keep around for later use for health-related expenses made sense. There was also the fact that the $1,500 amount that Microsoft contributed to my HSA pretty much covered the entire deductible, meaning at most I’d have to shell out ~$100 and have the exact same medical benefits that the original premium plan.<\/p>\n

After leaving Microsoft and looking back, it turned out to be a much better decision than I had originally anticipated. I got to keep the money they had already contributed to my account and instead of paying close to $1000\/mo for premium health insurance, I only have to pay $289\/mo (which includes both dental and vision). The fact that I’m still on a HDHP (high-deductible health plan) means I still qualify to contribute to my HSA.<\/p>\n

So one of the downside is that UMB<\/a> (the bank where my HSA is located) charges a $5.50 monthly fee. When I worked at Microsoft, they took care of the fee. This fee has been slowly eating away at my savings. I finally got off my lazy ass and inquired if there was a way to waive the fee (e.g. minimum balance or monthly deposits). Unfortunately, the UMB rep I spoke with said there wasn’t any way to waive the fee.<\/p>\n

I also found out that the yearly contribution limit is $3,050 for individuals and unlike our 401K, the $1,500 that Microsoft contributed counts towards that limit. That means for 2011, I can still contribute $1,550. The limit goes up to $3,100 for 2012.<\/p>\n

I then asked what the procedures for transferring my HSA account to another bank was and it turned out to be rather simple. I need to get the Trustee to Trustee transfer form from the bank I want to transfer to and submit it to UMB. There’s a small fee of $15 to transfer, but it sounds simple enough.<\/p>\n

I started researching on HSA providers and found that most charge a monthly or annual fee and hardly anyone waives them, though most of them were cheaper than UMB (usually ranging between $2-3\/mo or $25\/yr). The best one I’ve found so far is US Bank<\/a> which has a monthly fee of $2.50 but can be waived if the account balance is $2,500 or more.<\/p>\n

Another thing I’ve been looking for are accounts which let me invest the savings (stock market\/mutual funds). I did find a couple, but still am researching on which one is the best.<\/p>\n

If anyone has any advice or recommendations, I’m all ears. (^_^x)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So during benefits election last year at Microsoft, I had opted to try their new HSA (Health Savings Account) health insurance plan. Given that I hardly ever used my health insurance, having a tax-deductible\/tax-free account that I can keep around for later use for health-related expenses made sense. There was also the fact that the … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Health Savings Account”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[13,1248],"tags":[1372,1371],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.krunk4ever.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3838"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.krunk4ever.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.krunk4ever.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.krunk4ever.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.krunk4ever.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3838"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.krunk4ever.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3838\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.krunk4ever.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.krunk4ever.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.krunk4ever.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}