Thank you to all who have served and protected our country. God bless the veterans on this day after Veterans Day, the public holiday being recognized today. I'll be heading to the high school tomorrow monring for the annual program. This year it is at the high school. DD2's choir and orchestra are both providing music as is the concert band. She is proud to have this honor her senior year.
The end of the year is only 7 weeks away. Our open enrollment period at work ends on Thursday. The last few years, we have really not had good luck seeing a primary doctor. Mine was never available, and DH and DD2 haven't gone enough to establish a regular doctor, though DH has an irregular visit (supposed to be regular) with his heart doctor. We made the decision to change plans and clinic to level one. The new clinic we chose actually has a better rating than our previous one in several key areas that were of importance to us. The biggest benefit is the office co-payment is $25 compared to $85, and the per person cap and family cap is 1/3rd of what it would have been if we stayed at our level three clinic. I checked my rheumatologist and I can still use her, but the level three co-payment will click in and my out of pocket deductible will go up, but overall, the savings is a lot. I decreased my pretax medical account to only cover the max out of pocket.
Since I ended up not having the additional throat procedure, I have a sizable balance in my medical account. While I can roll forward $500, I am going to try and get another eye exam in, and get new glasses. I'm not due until next summer, but if I do early and buy early, I can extend the duration between my next ones before we have out of pocket costs. Other changes I made, and all together these will balance out and I should have a net $0 change, is to increase my optional life to $150,000, as they allowed the additional $25,000 this year, and the small policy on DH from $15,000 to the new max of $20,000. I also increased my long term disability pay out should the worse happen, by $400 to get to the maximum allowance of 60% of my current salary. It cost very little per month to do so and the piece of mind is worth it.
We'll have to decide in the next month or so if we will top off DH's 401K to the maximum $24,000. I think it makes sense to do that more so than fully fund the Roth in the spring if we need to make a choice. It all depends on what his end of year earnings come to-he could meet it just through the deduction percentage he has, but he is not there yet. It feels like I made good, though subtle changes to protect us all in case of illness or worse. I hate the process but necessary to ensure my family is protected.
Sunday, November 11, 2018
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We made changes as well to our HSA, but to increase to reduce our taxable income, which will be a big benefit. We will do the max in both 401Ks, plus my husband is eligible for a catch up contribution due to his age. The cash flow pinch can be challenging, but reducing our income is really beneficial when it comes to tax time.
ReplyDeleteCan't believe there are so few weeks left in the year!
Being able to increase to 24K pretax has really helped my tax situation, since DH has a large amount that isn't taxed through his corporate perks incentives. IT's such a balancing act to get it right.
DeleteSmart choices - sometimes you need to look at every facet of your life to save money/spend money if it will save money in the end. We self insure (other than our basic healthcare which is $75 a month for the two of us) for all prescriptions/vision/dental. We have no disability insurance, if we didn't have the amount of assets we do we would likely buy it but if necessary we could retire early/use those assets. When you have younger kids it is very important to think about the whole picture.
ReplyDeleteOnce our daughter is through with college, we can look to see if we need as much life insurance as we have, but since we are handling the payments to our private plan and the deductions from our checks, just fine now, we probably will keep them. Who knows, it might help out a future generation and I would like to do that. My long term disability alos provides health insurance support, so very essential to carry something, even if we felt we could handle the loss of an income. Health care in the US is hurting too many people, yet, no one has figured out a plan that helps everyone.
DeleteOne of DS' classes in his dual enrollment program (a PE class, no less) required him to hypothetically enroll in a health insurance plan, and write about the process. Great assignment!
ReplyDeleteThat is a great assignment! What an awesome, real world practice experience.
Delete7 weeks - yikes! thank you for reminding me/us.
ReplyDeleteLike you I need to get some things in order before year's end.
I feel like it is all a little like gambling, We all have to pick and guess what benefits we will utilize/need the most, and put more funds towards them, but minimize risk in other areas. Of course, if I guess wrong and I under played, or over played, then I'm out money-potentially big money over the rest of my life. too much pressure!
DeleteWe hav to have the big discussion about how much to put in the work flex plan for the year. Details!
ReplyDeleteThe flex account can be really big for decreasing out of pocket costs in the immediate, and potentially tax implications over the year, but its a use it or lose it situation as well. Vegas casinos
DeleteWe had a Alex account for a few years before hub's retired and I liked it. Out here in Idaho we are so behind on these kind of things.
ReplyDelete