HealthyWealth

🎉 Today is HSA Day in the USA 🎉 . I strongly recommend reading this insightful, informative article from William G. (Bill) Stuart in its entirety. Here are some of the most eye-popping stats: **As of June 30, 2024, there are about 37.6 million HSAs, growing at a compound annual rate of 12.2% over the past decade. **Total assets in HSAs have increased at a 19.3% compound annual rate, with investments growing at an impressive 33.5% annual rate, showing increased participation in long-term investment. **The proportion of HSA assets held in investments rose from 13% in 2014 to 42% in 2024, indicating a shift towards using HSAs for long-term investing. HealthyWealth #HSAInvesting #Wealthspan

I wrote a blog post last May predicting 100% growth in HSA invested assets by 2026. In light of mid-year 2024 numbers coming in - including Devenir's $8 billion upward revision for 2026 invested assets - that prediction is well on its way to coming true. The same indicators I used to make that prediction are now telling us that self-directed HSA investing is rapidly becoming the preference for HSA investors. Today those investors have only one option - they should have another. #HealthyWealth #HSAInvesting #Wealthspan #Healthspan

What is the best health insurance plan for an expectant mother? This is one of my favorite questions to answer. Instinct might tell us that we should upgrade our insurance. After all, we need to protect our growing family. In actuality, you're often better off going with the lower-cost health insurance plan. Counterintuitive, right? Let me show you the math. $18,865 = the cost of childbirth in the United States. Just so we're clear, that's the cost of a "normal" pregnancy where everything went right. Expectant mothers should expect to blow through their Out-of-Pocket (OOP) Maximum -- this is the maximum dollar amount per year that you have to pay for services covered by your health insurance plan. For 2025, the maximum OOP by law is $9,200 per individual and $18,400 per family. Here's the thing: OOPs don't vary that much across plans. The table below shows examples of individual health plans that I quoted for myself (Location: San Francisco). You'll see that the Gold Plan has an identical OOP to the Bronze Plan. $8,200 sure is a lot of money, but it stings less if you have an ICHRA Health Wallet to pay down your OOP. Let me walk you through the math. Say you receive $1000 per month from your employer through an ICHRA. The Platinum Plan will cost: $329 x 12 (payroll deduction) + 4,000 (out-of-pocket maximum) Total Cost for the Year = $7,948 The Bronze Plan will cost: $0 (payroll deduction) - $6,403.68 (Health Wallet) + 8,200 (out-of-pocket maximum) Total Cost for the Year = $1,796 Are you starting to see it? There is one complication to this math. Once born, your baby will need their own health plan and will have their own OOP. That could be another $8,200 in expense. For the baby, my advice is the opposite. Buy the plan that has the lowest OOP (usually Platinum). I price this out in the Google Sheet linked in the comments. Now, some of you might come at me and say this only applies to the individual market. But, over the past 3 years, I've helped friends & family who were covered on a group plan with picking out options. The outcome is almost always the same: buying a health plan with a lower-cost premium is always in the family's economic interest. Some exceptions to this: - The employer's health plan has a low OOP AND the employer is covering 100% of premiums - Total payroll deductions for the year + OOP of the "upgraded" plan option is LESS THAN the OOP of the lower-cost plan Sharing this all with the world in case this helps you or someone you know this Open Enrollment season!