Tuesday, December 23, 2014

December Financials...The $24K Savings Challenge

We are just waiting on the electric bill to come in but other than that all our expenses are accounted for in December and paid up.

I have a pretty accurate guestimate on the income left to come in for the month so I sat down to do a rough end of month calculation.
We should end the month with a spare $2,000(or a bit more)to put into my Savings Challenge.

I am torn whether to apply all this spare $ to savings however.

Let me explain......

Our high deductible insurance resets on Jan. 1st.
This means we pay all insurance related expenses out of pocket until we hit that $4K mark for 2015 and then our insurance benefits and co-pays kick in.

I take some very expensive medications.
The "U&C"(aka usual and comparable market cost)for one is almost $500 a month another is almost $400 a month(without any insurance drug benefit, which doesn't kick in onto after we hit our $4K deductible).
I have to refill these each month.

We will carry over a bit more than $1K in our Health Savings Account into 2015 after all the December co-pays/co-insurance charges are paid.

By mid-February of 2015, with these drugs(plus others and a dr. appointment and labs in February)our HSA will be depleted from paying our OOP costs.  (This isn't counting any charges our Daughter-who is still on our plan-has incurred in the first 2 months of 2015.)  Each payday means we add under $200 to this HSA so we will need to come up with $ for OOPs fairly soon into 2015.

I think I am going to take most of the excess cash saved in December from our income and hold it for paying medical OOPs instead of funneling it into my 2014 Savings Challenge.

It's really not a big issue, whether I put this excess income into a savings fund or keep it in the checking account to pay medical costs.

Either way the costs need to be paid, whether from our excess Dec. income or, if we wait a few months to pay those medical bills, with new 2015 income.
One way we pay them immediately, the other we wait until the funds in the HSA build back up.

I feel better if we pay them on time however and using the excess Dec. income is probably what I'll do.
So my 2014 Savings Challenge total won't be much more than what it was in November.

If it stays at it's November tally of $26,353.19 that's still a goodly amount for us to have put into savings during the year.  8-)

Sluggy

4 comments:

  1. Affordable care strikes again! I maxed out my HSA and more with just dental work. I'm hoping for a few years break from another $6k implant.
    The joy's of doing stupid things with the courage of alcohol!

    Grats on the savings, that's more than most people could save in 5 years.

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  2. You always do well on the savings. Merry Christmas - I hope you and your family have a really nice holiday together - and that since you cook they clean up!

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  3. That IS a high deductible! Wowzers! But you always have a good plan in place :) The fact that you've beaten your savings goals and have extra $$ to put towards your health costs is awesome!! You've had a great year financially!

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  4. Is the high deductible plan the only one available to you? We have that available through my work, but now way do we want to pay that kind of money out of pocket. I pay a higher premium for a lower deductible plan, but we come out ahead due to Hubby's medical expenses, And since he starts PT again on Monday, we know we will have considerable expenses from the get go.

    Of course, he is worth it.

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