My employer gives me a set amount each month with which to purchase benefits (mostly insurances and an HSA) on top of my salary, and calls these "flexible benefit dollars." Since I was able to find cheaper health insurance coverage via my state's exchange, I am putting most of these flex dollars into my HSA and government 457b deferred compensation plan (which I am required to match out of my paychecks, which is no problem). My question is: how do I count those flexible benefit dollars to determine my savings rate? It's not a big deal, but I'm never quite sure how to determine this. It's kind of like income, but I can only "spend" it on saving, so it automatically gets saved each month. I do think of it as income in terms of looking at other jobs, because it's basically another $9,000/year that I am 'forced' to save. Am I thinking about this correctly?