HSA Questions - General HSA Discussion

1. You're only taxed if you pull out the money for a nonqualified expense.
2. No, in fact that's one of the nice things about an HSA.
3. I have no idea since I've never had that kind of work done.

Sort of off topic, but since you have the correct answers to your questions already, who holds your HSA? And are you pleased with the investment choices?

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Sort of off topic, but since you have the correct answers to your questions already, who holds your HSA? And are you pleased with the investment choices?

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HSA Bank with TD Ameritrade custodial account here. Love it.

I guess I'll throw my dumb HSA question in here as well. I have had one for about a year now and I am 100% cash. If I have a major, unexpected medical expense, I do not want to risk the market being down and losing money. When people talk about growing their account tax free, is this generally after a nice cash nest egg has been built up?

I've only got about $1200 in it so far, but I can't imagine investing any of it until I have at least $5k.. maybe $10k.

I'm not sure if it's a Federal rule, but most plans that I'm aware of only allow you to make investments once you exceed a certain balance.

Ok... after checking mine out it does look like $2k is the minimum balance before I can invest. Regardless, I plan to maintain a much larger cash balance than that before I begin investing any of it.

Do you have a plan that qualifies you to have an HSA? I believe most anyone is eligible for an FSA (flexible spending account). But you have to be enrolled in a qualifying high deductible health plan to be eligible for an HSA. If you're planning on having kids, either product would likely work for you. But the FSA has an annual "use it or lose it" provision that makes it unsuitable as a savings vehicle. Plus, the HSA is portable. Like my 401k, it leaves with me when I leave.

I've been maxing out my HSA since we got a HD plan and I see it more as a savings/retirement vehicle for now. The only issue that I have is that with a $4,000 deductible, I'm only allowed to place $3,350 (until 55, I believe) in the HSA - including the company contribution. Dang gubment rules!

I also don't care for Optum Bank. But there's nothing that I can do about that right now. HSA Bank and TD Ameritrade is what I wish that we had too. I'm jealous of Tiger D and Southernlite..

Boob jobs aren't allowable expenses because it's a cosmetic procedure.

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I've been maxing out my HSA since we got a HD plan and I see it more as a savings/retirement vehicle for now. The only issue that I have is that with a $4,000 deductible, I'm only allowed to place $3,350 (until 55, I believe) in the HSA - including the company contribution. Dang gubment rules!

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are you married? should be double that if you're married

because my company contributes $3k to my HSA and then I put in about $2k myself

Mine is done through "Health Equity Inc." There are about 60 mutual funds to choose from. The "Standard Funds" as they call them suck. The lowest expense ratio is 0.57% and they are all actively managed mutual funds (about 30 to choose from). There is also "Investor Choice" available. These are better (ex. Vanguard Index funds with <0.1% expense ratio). There are about 20 of these. But, because they are not in the "Standard" list, they tack on 0.33%/month expense fee which jacks up the expense ratio equivalent to one of the crappy actively managed funds. End rant.

tldr - I limit what I put in my HSA and hold it as cash.