I understand the value of an HSA in that funds can be set aside pre-tax and then used for qualified medical expenses, can be built up in the case of a catastrophe, and can be pulled out at retirement age without penalty, but I can't find any information on when it actually makes sense to use the funds.
For example, I recently had an ultrasound and am responsible for almost $900.00 because I haven't met my deductible yet. I'm lucky that $900 isn't a ton of money to me and I can easily pay this out of pocket. Does this make sense financially? I feel like it does because even though that $900 is post tax, if I didn't spend it I would probably just be putting it into my emergency fund (that has a year's worth of expenses already) so I feel that just paying out of pocket and letting my HSA grow makes the most sense.
I looked at the wiki but didn't see any guidelines on when/how it makes sense to spend that money vs saving it.
In case it matters, I am putting 5% into my 40k, get 5% match, and my company has a true retirement plan where 4.5% of my salary goes into a retirement plan at no cost to me.
Edit:
I should add that I'm single and am putting $2600 per year into my HSA, receive $250 from my employer and am eligible for $500 in HSA incentives so am close to hitting the $3500 annual max.
Submitted April 02, 2019 at 08:29AM by Sunburn79 https://ift.tt/2JWsACE
