Hsa Explained (The Ultimate Tax Loophole!)

Healthcare everybody's favorite topic. Just kidding – but getting your own health insurance and figuring out how to use HSAs is all part of adulting, so whether you like it or not it's good to understand what HSAs are because they are an amazing way to reduce your healthcare costs and save for retirement. So if you want to learn how h essays work and how to open one for yourself then keep watching! Hey and before we get started go ahead and hit that subscribe button my channel is all about money and investing for beginners and I know it's gonna help you learn a ton so make sure to subscribe and hit the notification valve for new videos every week HSA stands for health savings account and it's a type of investment account that goes hand-in-hand with your health insurance so it's not a substitute for health insurance but it goes with your health insurance anyone who has an HSA qualified plan can open an HSA hsa-qualified plans are generally the ones with high deductibles or HD HP's since health insurance can be quite expensive many people get these high deductible health plans because they have really affordable monthly premiums but of course they do come with higher out-of-pocket expenses so HSAs are meant to help you with those out-of-pocket expenses HSAs offer some major tax benefits all your contributions are tax free and any growth on your investments within the HSA are also tax-free and withdrawals are tax-free so it's three ways to get tax benefits you actually get more tax benefits with an HSA then you get with IRAs because you don't pay taxes on the money you contribute and you don't pay taxes on the money you withdraw either with IRAs it's one or the other so it definitely makes sense to consider holding investments within an HSA to save a ton of money on taxes you use your HSA just like a checking account to pay for your health related expenses this is my HSA card it looks just like a debit card and anytime I have to pay a copay for a doctor's visit or get new contacts glasses or pay for a tooth cleaning I just swipe my HSA card I use my HSA a lot especially for things that aren't actually covered by my health insurance like my health insurance doesn't cover acupuncture or chiropractor adjustments and I get these kind of things pretty often and usually I have to pay for those things out of pocket so using my to say to pay for it helps a lot since at least it's with tax-free money I hear that you can even use your HSA for massages as long as you have a doctor's note so I'll have to try that sometime HSAs are also a great way to save for retirement because when you turn 65 you can start using the money for whatever you want not just medical expenses and it's all gonna be tax-free so who doesn't want tax-free income in retirement it's almost too good to be true and whenever there's a chance for tax-free anything I'm all over it you can also invest your HSA money in the stock market as well as other investments like bonds and and whatever else and that way the money in your HSA can keep working for you and keep growing until you have to spend it I keep my HSA at fidelity and I invest half of it into high growth index funds and then the other half into a money market fund that pays about 2% interest and then whenever I'm anticipating a health-related expense which isn't that often because I'm pretty young and healthy then I'll sell some shares in the money market fund a few days ahead in order to have cash to pay for the expense if you're self-employed like me getting health insurance on your own can be super expensive so I think having a high deductible health plan with in with an HSA is a really good workaround to avoid expensive monthly insurance premiums while also having a cost-effective way to pay for out-of-pocket expenses and if you're not self-employed and you happen to have an employer and a health insurance plan that offers an HSA then you should definitely take advantage of it and I do know that some employers even offer a match for every dollar or amount that you put into your HSA so that's definitely money you don't want to leave on the table if you liked this video please give it a thumbs up and if you have any questions at all about HSAs or about money and investing in general let me know in the comments and I'll be sure to get back to you if you want to learn about some other ways to save money on taxes then check out these videos right here and if you're new to my channel be sure to hit that subscribe button for new money and investing videos every week always remember to go after your