The Money Mustache Community
Learning, Sharing, and Teaching => Ask a Mustachian => Topic started by: unitsinc on March 19, 2013, 04:28:01 PM
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I searched a bit on the forum and couldn't find exactly what I was looking for, but if it is out there, feel free to point me in the right direction.
But, I was looking into starting an HSA and obviously a requirement is an HDHP.
I've got a few questions about both.
My employer doesn't offer any of the above, so I'd have to go third party.
Does anyone have any recommendations for a good HDHP? I'm single. 27. In good health with no recurring expenses. I've never looked into insurance of any kind really, so I'm not sure what may make one stand out better than another.
I've done a bit of research and it looks like HSAbank has some of the cheapest HSA account fees, so I was likely gonna go with them. If anyone knows of anything better, please let me know.
Once I set it up, I can get my HR department to direct deposit into the account for the tax benefits.
So once I have it in my account, how do I got about investing it? That seems to be the part I don't grasp. Can I just log into my HSA, buy ~$3000 worth of stocks? Indexes? Can I do anything related to Vanguard?
Thanks for reading and thanks for the help.
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for a HDHP, check ehealthinsurance.com. Plans and premiums are going to vary greatly between states, so see what's available for you.
HSA Bank is what I use. You can also directly contribute the maximum annual contribution instead of just doing small direct deposit payments. This will save you the monthly fees for having a small balance and gets more money in there earlier. But be warned that if you don't pro-rate your contribution you have to stay in a HDHP until December 1 of the following year (2014), or you'll owe a bunch of tax and penalties.
I haven't gotten my balance quite high enough to start investing, but as I understand it there are two options, the better of which is to link to a TD Ameritrade account. You'll pay per trade and can invest in anything, including Vanguard ETFs. TD also offers commision-free trades of certain ETFs, I'm told, so as long as they're reasonable in terms of expense ratio and holdings those are probably the better bet. HSA Bank will charge a monthly fee for investing if your cash balance is below $5000; it's still worth it to invest that money instead of letting it sit there, but it effectively raises your expense ratios.
If you haven't already, you should consider http://hsaadministrators.info/ as another option. It has its pluses and minuses.