The Cosmic Avenger
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Last year was our first year with an HSA, and we started exactly mid-year, July 1, so we didn't have to worry about the limit. This year we're trying to max out our contribution, and I was surprised to discover that, unlike 401(k)s, the employer contribution DOES count towards the limit.
So how have you handled this? Do you overcontribute and deal with the additional income tax later? Do you make an additional one-time contribution right at the end of the year? (I'm not sure that those will be pre-tax, though, and part of the point for me is maximizing our pre-tax deductions.)
And, just to complicate things, our HI plan has Rally Rewards, and if you do things like do a cost comparison or watch videos on health issues, you can get additional contributions to your HSA. I didn't even account for that when I planned our HSA contributions...although I did at least know to account for the employer contribution!
Anything I haven't thought of that you had wish you knew when you first started your HSA?
We're planning on not spending the funds even for our Medicare bridge years if we can help it, as we should be able to pay OOP, and then we have a nice pad against any emergency care or anything like that.
We will be saving all receipts, as I do realize we will need them to access the money later.
So how have you handled this? Do you overcontribute and deal with the additional income tax later? Do you make an additional one-time contribution right at the end of the year? (I'm not sure that those will be pre-tax, though, and part of the point for me is maximizing our pre-tax deductions.)
And, just to complicate things, our HI plan has Rally Rewards, and if you do things like do a cost comparison or watch videos on health issues, you can get additional contributions to your HSA. I didn't even account for that when I planned our HSA contributions...although I did at least know to account for the employer contribution!
Anything I haven't thought of that you had wish you knew when you first started your HSA?
We're planning on not spending the funds even for our Medicare bridge years if we can help it, as we should be able to pay OOP, and then we have a nice pad against any emergency care or anything like that.
We will be saving all receipts, as I do realize we will need them to access the money later.