HSA Accounts...

[traderdon56]

This doesn't have to do with my trading, but since it is part of my overall money picture, I thought I'd ask this here.

My employer is now offering Health Savings Accounts as an alternative to our traditional health insurance.

What I'm looking for are ideas about where to grow my money. Mutual funds, ETFs and stocks are all options for this account.

The max that can be contributed each year is $5,000( in my case ). It would be funded by my employer, after buying some high deductible, low cost "catastrophic" insurance.

For those who haven't heard about HSA's, they are very much like an IRA. You contribute tax deductible funds to an account to be used for medical expenses. If there are funds left at the end of the year( Or if you choose not use them ), the remainder of the funds grow tax deferred until you take them out. And at 65, you can use them for anything, not just medical expenses.

Any and all comments on HSA's are welcomed, as I'm still learning about them.

Don-

 

[yeayo]

Interesting, I'd like to hear about how prop traders can take advantage of this.

 

[AmbushHillbilly]

Quote from yeayo:

Interesting, I'd like to hear about how prop traders can take advantage of this.

There's a lot out there on the web regarding HSA's. However, for traders there's a couple of items to note. One, the premiums for the high deductible insurance are only deductible if you have earned income (through a business or marked to market). I keep hearing how they want to change the law on this, but so far no joy. The HSA account contributions are deductible regardless, as long as they are withdrawn for medical expenses.

My family switched to an HSA this year. For us the monthly premium for standard insurance through United Healthcare was around $1100. We're now with an HSA through Assurant (Fortis) and our monthly premium is $550 and we contribute $433 to the HSA account. The HSA money stays there and grows until we withdraw it for medical expenses.

If we stay healthy we come out ahead. If we get really sick or have a major accident early on, we'll be behind. Remember, for a family you need the $5k handy if you get really sick. And if that rolls over into another calendar year there's $5K more.

Good luck.