re: Anybody else using their HSA as a retirement vehicle?

quote:

---

I decided to go with Medishare. But thats a whole different topic I guess.

---

I’d be interested in reading a thread about your experience with this. I talked to a rep on the phone long ago, and didn’t feel comfortable with it. I asked him details on how it would cover large medical expenses like cancer or open-heart surgery and he simply said the costs would be shared. I asked for in depth percentages of my out of pocket and he couldn’t give specifics.

quote:

---

Any recommendations for a place that will let me invest or pay more interest?

---

Fidelity

quote:

---

I’d be interested in reading a thread about your experience with this.

---

Here’s a link that you might find helpful. I know people who’ve joined Samaritan and CHM. The feedback I’ve heard has been positive with both. I looked at CHM when I was planning my retirement (well prior to Medicare age). I decided to go with a HDHP that I can deduct as a business expense and also have an HSA, which one cannot fund with the health sharing plans.

But check out the link and see if one of these plans would suit your needs, and if you’d be eligible.

Health Sharing Plans

I learned about this only recently. I still have plenty of years to go before retirement at least.

Guy in a video I watched did the math, and just tucking money away in your HSA and paying out of pocket for medical expenses gives a huge return. This of course only works if you can afford to be without that money.

quote:

---

Penalty free but not tax free at age 65 non-medical expenses from what I understand. Still a great benefit. Using it as much as possible.

---

Given that most end of life expenses tend to be medical, it’s best to reserve it for that.

But it is nice to know and I load up my HSA knowing I’m not locking the money for medical expenses only.

quote:

---

I have refused to use any HSA funds for medical expenses since I learned this fact.

---

Epic pro tip: there is no expiration for reimbursement. Keep your documentation, let the money stay invested. But if something comes up and you need the money, you can reimburse yourself for old expenses, even if the actual money is going to paying general bills as you are between jobs or something.

You can use your current cash flow for those doctor visits and let your HSA grow.

I am retired now (I turn 59 in July). I only got an HSA option the last two years I was working. I have HDHP now and will still contribute to the HSA until I go on Medicare when I am 65. There are some rumblings that Congress wants to allow HSA contributions passed age 65, so I am hopping I can keep doing that.

I am hoping to accumulate enough assets in the HSA to at least have a little flexibility in how I handle my medical expenses when I get older. I pay all the out of pocket costs right now, and hope to accumulate as much in the HSA as I can, and hopefully not touch it until I am in my later years.

If you are younger, based on what I have seen my own parents go through, I would say you should place the same importance on funding and not spending from the HSA as you do on funding 401K up to the company match. HSA is probably more valuable than a Roth IRA if you have to make a choice between the two, but probably only if you delay spending from the HSA until you are much older.

Flip side of that argument is that if you check out early, the Roth is definitely better, because your beneficiaries will not be taxed. If you live a long time, or your wife does, the HSA will probably be more useful to you.

quote:

---

Given that most end of life expenses tend to be medical, it’s best to reserve it for that.

---

That’s how I look at it. I’m not touching it and saving it for “retirement”, but my assumption is that ultimately it’ll go towards medical related care.