@HowtoMoney (11/26) Hour 2

The best of How to Money with Joel Larsgaard continued.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
KFI AM six point forty. You'relistening to How To Money on demand on
the iHeartRadio app. This is howto Money. I am your host,
Joel Larsguard and there's a lot moreto get to on the show. This
show is all about you saving andinvesting so that you can do more of
what matters. I'm obsessed about personalfinance, so you don't have to be

(00:22):
that. It is I kind of. I have a lot of other interests
too, but I eat, breathe, and sleep personal finance at least to
a certain degree. And the wholegoal is to help you make progress,
to build wealth, to worry less, and to achieve those goals that you
have not to be fretting about whetheror not you'll actually, you know,
be able to afford to buy presencethis Christmas, or whether or not you'll

(00:45):
actually ever be able to retire,Like these are things that we can make
progress on if with the right information, with the right mindset, with the
right approach. So that is thatis exactly what this show intends to do.
If you're on Facebook, by theway, don't forget to join the
How to Money Facebook pay It's oneof the loan bright spots on the internet,
you know, in a world fullof anonymous posters stirring up anger into

(01:06):
sense. These are what the socialmedia algorithms feed. The how to Money
Facebook group is eleven thousand people helpingeach other out, Folks who genuinely care
and want to help you in yourfinancial journey. It is a positive place
on the Internet, which you can'tsay about much, but there's I want
to talk about stress and using stressto your financial advantage. And it's kind

(01:30):
of like jiu jitsu right where you'reable to take the momentum of somebody else.
And I've never really done jiu jitsu. I know it's kind of hot
right now, but like where you'retaking somebody else's momentum and you're turning it
into your advantage. You're you're ableto kind of use the direction they're going
in. And I'm speaking like acomplete ignorant. Ignorant is here. I'm
not one hundred percent you're how jiujitsu works, but it seems like that's

(01:51):
what's going on. You're you're takingtheir energy, their their direction, and
you're turning it into something that isgoing to be positively beneficial for you.
And the truth is humans I havea unique ability to rise to the occasion
when things get tough, and solike, I'm just starting to get into
running, and I'm truly not verygood at it, Like I hesitate to

(02:12):
talk about it because I'm just like, I'm trying to be a runner,
but I can't call myself a runner, Like I'm mildly pathetic. But I'm
doing it right. I'm showing upregularly. I even ran on Thanksgiving morning
when I normally would have just kindof chilled. Right, And I'm not
overdoing it, but I am choosingthe hard path, right which is is
to get up, is to actuallyget out there on the trail and to

(02:37):
bust my butt for five plus milesor something like that. Like that is
that's my goal, and to dothat at least twice a week. Boy,
I'd love to get out there more, but that is kind of my
goal for right now. And doingthis, committing to this means that I'm
going to be in better shape lateron down the road, And this means
that life is going to overall beeasier over the life long haul because of

(03:00):
this continual hard choice that I'm tryingto make now to stay in shape.
And so Let's hope I can stickto it. Let's hope I'm not a
you know, one hit wonder onthis, that I'm able to actually make
a lot of progress in staying fitand healthy, because I want to play
with my kids now, but Ialso want to be able to like roll
around with my grandkids at some pointtwenty plus years down the road in a
likelihood, And so you know,hopefully this means that travel later in life,

(03:24):
hanging out with grandkids is going tobe more fulfilling. But it takes
the hard choices now, the consistenthard choices now, to ensure that kind
of ability to have have it easierlater on. And I think the easy
choice seems right in the moment,right watching Netflix versus beefing up your resume,
But then you know, consistently takingthat route is of the hard route

(03:49):
of No, I'm going to beefup my resume instead of watching Netflix.
It's going to make your life easierin the long run. It's going to
lead to the higher paying job withbetter benefits. Maybe this's more enjoyable versus
getting caught up on Squid Game beforeseason two comes out next year, Right,
and there's nothing again, I knownothing against watching a great TV show.
I loved Squid Game. I'm justsaying that this is a constant decision

(04:10):
that we're faced with, and ifwe always take the easy route then Netflix
and chill route, we're going tofind ourselves in a bind later on whether
it's financial, whether it's just abuild up of stress. And Northwestern Mutual
they did a study in twenty sixteen. They found that eighty five percent of
Americans feel anxious about their finances.And then on top of this, the
American Institute of Stress says that thenumber two cause of stress in America is

(04:32):
Yes, you guessed it, it'smoney. So people are stressed about money,
right, more than almost anything elsein life. And I'm not trying
to suggest that stress is always good, because stress can lead to physical problems,
right. Mental and physical stress canlead to cardiovascular disease, ulcers,
all sorts of things unmanageable. Stresstakes a toll on your body. It

(04:54):
can also take a toll on yourrelationships. Right. That's money problems are
one of the leading causes of divorce. Of relational stress. And when we're
overly stressed about whatever it is,whether it's work, whether it's finances,
We're more likely to take it outon the people that we love the most,
leading to mangled relationships and in manycases, consistent money. Stress can

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recavoc on your marriage of course,right, so you and the truth is
many of us because of that stresswe develop coping mechanisms like netflixing far too
much, drinking too much, orspending too much, all sorts of negative
potential habits of stress. But I'llsay this, there's also a reason that
trust exists, and if we canrespond in a healthy way, that stress

(05:42):
can trigger positive action. So forins like our cells release dopamine and adrenaline
so that we actually have a boostand energy and alertness. Right, this
is the fight or flight response,So that stress can actually give us some
of these these chemical releases that wecan put to use on our behalf.
And this is how our bodies naturallyrespond to conflict and stress, right,

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And so the best approach is tomake sure that we're using these stressors and
the way our body reacts to thestressors we're experiencing to our benefit. That
jiu jitsu like action that I wastalking about earlier, taking something that could
be negative and turning it on itshead turning it into a positive. And
so, like I think, stresscan help unveil the trouble spots, right,

(06:28):
and so finding some clarity around thebiggest money culprits that need your attention
is important. Stress can help youunveil those things, unearth them, and
then once you've kind of been ableto see, oh, this is a
trouble spot right now for me,you can create a plan to tackle those
stressors one by one. This isa mistake a lot of people make.
They get stressed because there's ten thingson their plate. They got a lot

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of plate spinning and guess what,they all come crashing down. And so,
once you've unveiled some of the troublespots, do not try to do
everything in one fell swoop. You'vegot to take it one thing at a
time. It's literally one credit cardat a time, right, paying that
off. That's what the debt snowballapproach is all about. It's saying,

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pay the minimums on all these things, get rid of one of those debts
from your life. Don't think thatyou can do it all. Rome wasn't
built in a day. You didn'tget into that debt overnight. It probably
took months maybe even years. You'renot going to get out of it overnight.
But once you have a plan,I think the plan actually relieves a
lot of stress once you know theproblem you're facing and then you have a

(07:30):
plan to tackle it. And byplan I mean okay, Like I had
a caller recently who said, Isaid, well, how much credit card
debt do you have? And theysaid, I don't know. Somewhere to
ten to fifteen thousand. Well that'sa big range. So you need to
know what it is that you're facing, and then you need to create a
plan to tackle that, and aplan so specific where you say, listen,
I can pay off this credit cardin nine months. I can have
all my credit cards paid off intwenty two months. Like I want that

(07:55):
level of clarity around what's going onwith your finances, and so yeah,
tackle your financial tough spots one byone. That involves tracking, starting to
budget. It could mean it couldmean, hey, guess what actually my
stressor is that my significant another andI, Well, we're not communicating well
about money, and so you justneed to put a regular money date on

(08:16):
the calendar for the two of youso that you can probably once a week
or once every two weeks for now. Maybe at some point once you guys
are communicating, well you can youcan break that down to once a month.
But putting that on the calendar,doing it regularly, that is going
to relieve stress too. Hey arewe on the same page? Hey,
what are the goals that we're lookingto achieve? But actually putting it on

(08:37):
the calendar and making it happen asopposed to because guess what if you don't,
it's not going to happen because it'san awkward conversation or when things haven't
been going well. Clearly you wantto avoid it. Clearly you don't want
to talk about money. But ifit's on the calendar, you'll actually probably
get around to it. So putit on there. That can de stress
things too. So yes, that'sit's unveiling the trouble spots, having a

(09:00):
plan one thing at a time.Tracking your progress, that's another part of
relieving financial stress, like knowing theprogress. You know what I was stressed
out, but look at how farI've come. That's what I'm able to
do. Like I've got, youknow, one of those Garman watches to
track my progress, and I'm like, okay, wait a second, it
still feels really hard to run fivemiles, but my goodness, I was

(09:22):
much worse at this six months ago, you know, and so it's really
good to see. Okay, Iknow it's really tough, but I'm making
progress. I'm making progress. Andanother step that I think can help reduce
stress is to get help. Soask for support. Right, friends can
be great, but you might needmore advanced help. You might need a
financial therapist or a non nonprofit budgetcounselor, and that's okay. Just don't

(09:43):
let the stress overwhelm you. Don'tlet let it be the kick in the
pants that you need to get theball rolling and involve a professional if that's
going to help you get where youneed to go. And if we're talking
about a nonprofit bug budget counselor,that's Money Management International is a great place
to turn in FCC dot org,the National Foundation for Credit Counseling. Those
are two places where you can speakto somebody if you're in deep financial trouble

(10:07):
and and they will help you comeup with the plan. Know that you
don't have to go at a loan. So if money stress is kicking your
butt, which you wouldn't be alonethere's a lot of things you can do
to tackle it. All right,coming up, way too many retirees are
making a massive mistake when they claimsocial security. I'll tell you what it
is and how to avoid it.This is how to Money. I'm Joel
Larsgard. You're listening to how toMoney with Joel Larsgard on demand from KFI

(10:31):
AM six forty. This is howto Money, the show that's all about
your personal finances. And there's alwaysmore money saving information up there at howtomoney
dot com. I want to talkabout social Security for a second, and
obviously it's kind of the you know, one of the three three legged stool.

(10:52):
It's when you're talking about how youachieve a healthy retirement. Social Security
is a big part of that hasbeen a big part of how Americans think
about and plan for retirement for alot of years. And we all know
that if the Social Security rug wereto get pulled, unlikely to happen,
that would be a big deal foranybody who's thinking about what life is going

(11:13):
to look like post work. Butthere were some new stats that came out
that were not good. That werenot good when we're talking about the long
term health of retirees, and specificallyit's about when they end up taking and
tapping those Social Security funds. Itturns out a lot of them were tapping,
tapping into the social Security portion oftheir retirement too early, and the

(11:35):
reason is they're fearful that Social Securityisn't going to exist any longer. And
so this new retirement survey finds thatfear over the future of Social Security retirees
maybe or soon to be retires theythink it's running out of money, is
causing them to sign up for thatcheck now instead of waiting, even though

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waiting whether it's one, two,three, five years, would mean a
much bigger monthly check down the road. And so I guess that begs the
question, is this fear of socialSecurity going away, of not actually getting
any check at all from the federalgovernment? Is is that justified? Like?
Is that a possibility that you optnot to take Social Security and then

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boom, it's not there for youwhen you want or need it? Well
not really, like, I don'tthink so. I mean, there is
some complicated there's a lot of complicatednuance around social Security, like changes are
going to be needed, are theyare going to need to be made?
In order to protect social security forfuture generations. If changes are not made
to how the system gets funded,especially given how big of a retiree population

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we are we have and how thereis we're not producing enough babies, enough
future workers to ensure that the systemremains solvent given the change, given the
shift in population dynamic, and soyes, things need to change, and

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if changes aren't made, benefits aregoing to have to be cut at some
point. It is kind of insome ways like a ticking time mom.
We have less than a decade reallyto make these hard choices that need to
be made before cuts are going tohave to be made no matter what.
And sadly, even though politicians theysee the problem lurking, they haven't done
anything to address it, which meansmore drastic action is going to be is

(13:28):
going to be necessary at some point. So when you take longer to address
a physical ailment you have, let'ssay, you likely are compounding the problem,
meaning it's going to take even moreto remedy it in the future.
Right, if you've got a kneepain and you don't pay attention to it
and then it turns into wait asecond, that's now lower back pain too,
that you're just you're creating a biggerissue, whereas if you had nipped

(13:50):
it in the bud, it wouldhave been easier to solve. The same
as true with Social Security. Itneeds you know, I wish our politicians
felt more of a fire under theirbutts actually do something about this, but
they don't. Nobody wants to actuallybe the person to increase the retirement age,
or to reduce benefits a little bit, or to you know, make
more people pay into the Social Securitysystem. But at least one of those,

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if not all, three of thosethings need to happen to keep it
solvent in the way that it isnow. But I'm also confident that something
will get done because social Security isa really popular benefit. Like, nobody
wants social Security to go away,And especially if you're let's say, late
thirties, early forties, late forties, You're like, I've been paying into
it for a long time. Youbetter not take my benefit away. Nobody

(14:37):
wants to see it gone. AndI mean, even if let's say it
was gone and we had that money, we could invest that money for ourselves,
we might do better for ourselves thanif we were just making on Social
Security. We could talk about thattoo, But basically, you know,
if you're in good health, thebest thing for you to do is to
wait longer to take Social Security.Most of the time necessarily want to bank

(15:00):
on the fact that you could worklonger. But if you've been able to
put away a solid nest egg,and social security is just a portion of
kind of what you're able to bringin for a healthy retirement, the longer
you can delay taking it, thebetter off you're going to be the bigger
that check gets right. And atage seventy, when you reach that maximum
payout amount, that's the ideal agefor many folks to actually claim that Social

(15:22):
Security benefits. So I'd mentioned,yeah, there are some fears about the
future of Social Security, and there'sa reticence. I mean, the gridlock
in Washington, the politics in Washingtonare basically broken. But still it's better.
If you're in your sixties and you'retrying to figure out when you're going
to claim social Security, it's worthlooking into and running the numbers. And

(15:46):
there's a software you can pay forcalled maximize mysocial security dot com. It's
really effective and for a small fee, you can figure out when is best
for you to claim. But ifwe're generalizing here, for the most part,
delaying until seventy is going to bebest for giving you those guaranteed increases
every year in the amount you're goingto get. And then, especially if

(16:07):
you're healthy, it's a waiting toclaim social Security will make a big difference
in how much money you have tospend in retirement. So seeing these stats
about retirees being fearful tapping social Securityearly, for most folks, that's not
the best route to go. Allright, coming up, I hope you
didn't overdo it on Black Friday,but if you did, making some returns
might be in order. But it'snot as easy or as free as it

(16:30):
used to be. I'll talk aboutnavigating the fraught world of making returns these
days. Next, this is howto Money. I'm Joel Larsgard. You're
listening to How to Money with JoelLarsgard on demand from KFI AM six forty.
This is how to Money. I'myour host, Joel Larsgard, and
I want to ask how is yourBlack Friday? Like? How how did

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you do? How? And youknow what? Like I've like I said
on Friday. Black Friday's more ofa season than it is a day.
Used to be literally the one dayyou going to the store, people get
crushed, sadly, but now itis more of like an ongoing deal event,
and the deals continue. Many ofthe deals continue even after this,

(17:15):
right, And so we've got travelTuesday coming up. That's we're supposed to
be able to score more and moretravel deals. There are already some of
those out there, But I justwant to I'm curious whether or not you
overdid it. I hope not.I hope you got the stuff that you
were looking for for the loved oneson your list at a really solid discount.
Man, it was really fun havingJulie from deal News on the show
to talk people who eat, sleep, and breathe deals. It's amazing how

(17:40):
much stuff they know and how theycan point us to better shopping habits,
to at least kind of capitalizing onthe sales that these retailers offer. But
I wanted to mention this. Let'ssay you bought stuff and you're already kind
of regretting it, and you're alreadyrealizing that you went overboard. Well might
be in order right you want?You might want to take that thing back.

(18:03):
You might say, you know whatthis it turns out I found a
better price elsewhere, or this isjust too much gift and it's I don't
need this item in my life.Or maybe you just bought a few extra
things for yourself while you're also buyingfor loved ones and you think, yeah,
that wasn't necessary. Why did Ido that? And you don't want
to bust your budget, which isunderstandable and a good way of thinking.

(18:26):
And so you want to return someof those items that maybe you purchased on
a whim because the sale was sostrong. Well, I want to talk
about returns because the way we doreturns is changing, and that's because retailers
are starting to charge more and morefor returns more regularly. You're actually having

(18:47):
to pay to send the item backthat you no longer want. This is
this is true if you bought itonline, right, so it used to
be free shipping and free returns,and now oftentimes it's free shipping it at
least if you to certain amounts onthat website. And then no, no,
no, no, not free returns. You have to pay to get

(19:07):
that return done unless unless you're willingto take that item back to a physical
store location. And so Amazon ischarging more for returns too. If you
don't take it back to the exactplace they want, if you're taking it
to the UPS store versus a Coalsor something like that, then they might
actually charge you for returns, andthey might prompt you to return to another
specific location if you want to nothave to pay, it might mean driving

(19:30):
further. So you have to realizeand see and note how much it might
cost to actually perform that return.And so about forty percent retailers, like
I said, are charging for returnsthis year. It's a significant increase from
last year, and it's really away to protect themselves on the back end
of a purchase. They don't necessarilywant to eradicate free shipping, even though

(19:52):
shipping costs them money, because thatmight be a barrier, that's a mental
barrier for a lot of consumers thatmight prevent the sale from actually occurring.
But if they charge on the backend, well, most consumers are not
even thinking about that. They're notthinking about, well what if I don't
want this item. They're just inthe moment saying, well does it ship
free? And is it reasonably priced? And if it is, they're going
to click by most aren't aware ofthe return policy, and they're not they

(20:15):
haven't factored in that there might besome sort of restocking or shipping fee in
order to make that return. Andso because of that, yeah, they
might get frustrated by it on theback end, but it's better for the
retailer than charging for shipping on thefront end, or or if they were
to raise prices. And so thekey for individuals is to know the return
policy before you click purchase. AndI'm actually I don't mind this tactic because

(20:38):
shipping clearly isn't free for the retailer, right. They take it in the
teeth when they take returns. Andso for them to say, actually,
you have to have some skin inthe game here. We know it's not
free, right, And so forthem to end the charade at least on
part of the transaction saying no,we need you to pony up for at

(20:59):
least heart of the cost of theshipping, I'm okay with it. And
because this is happening more and more, it's just something we need to plan
for. It's something we need tobe ready, and hopefully I think it'll
prevent some of those purchases on thefront end we might say, wait a
second, I'm not sure about thisitem, which means there's like a fifty
percent chance I'm gonna send it back. And if I do send it back,

(21:21):
I'm not getting the full amount ofwhat I purchased back because of that
restocking fear or whatever. And soknow the return policy before you buy.
Like Zara, h and m JCrew, TJ Max, all those are
they're charging you to make that return. And TJ Max I saw. I
would say it's eleven ninety nine returnfee. A lot of these other companies
it's it's in the five to eightdollars range or something like that, but
TJ Max's is particularly egregious. Soyou're gonna pay twelve bucks. Let's say

(21:45):
you bought a twenty dollars jacket andyou're like, yeah, so it didn't
fit right or whatever, and youwant to send it back. Well,
you're getting eight dollars back on yourcard, and that's that just stinks right,
like nobody at that point. Maybeyou just keep it and you regifted
or something like that. I don'tknow, but it's important to know.

(22:06):
I would look, and I wouldor I would google each retailer, say
hey, what's the return policy,like what sort of restocking fee is charged,
what sort of return shipping is chargedbefore I actually click to purchase,
because that can make the difference betweenthe item being worth purchasing worth giving a
go. Maybe it's a deal,and maybe it's not a deal, right
if if it turns out it's hardto return or costly to return. And

(22:33):
one other caveat on the returns frontis that there are a whole lot more
final sale items on websites these daystoo, so look for the fine print
on that there are. It's notthe whole site. It's usually specific items
where it's deeply discounted, but underneathit'll have a big bold letters final sale.
And if you buy that item,well, hopefully you've purchased something marde

(22:56):
by the same manufacturer in the samesize before, so you know what it's
going to fit. Right. Let'ssay it's if it's a clothing item and
that you're really gonna love it oruse it, because if not, you
might be up the creek without apaddle because you can't return it no matter
how much money you pay in restockingfee. The final sale means you're stuck

(23:17):
with it. And so if it'snot something. If it's a gamble,
well know that you're out all themoney if it doesn't fit or you don't
like it, and the only wayreally to make up for it is to
sell it on eBay or something likethat. So if you're if you don't
mind doing that, if you're sayingthis is such a good deal, I
can sell it for more than morethan I paid for it on Facebook or

(23:37):
on eBay, then maybe it's worththe gamble. But when it says final
sale, watch out because if itshows up and you're like, oh yeah,
the same for me, Oh wait, the colors off, then there's
nothing you can do about it.So and one other thing I mentioned travel
Tuesday coming up. There's an articleI'll link to in the show notes up
on KFI AM six forty dot com, slash Out of Money that was written

(24:00):
by Elaine Glusak. She's the FrugalTraveler with the New York Times. She
had a lot of great travel dealsthat she listed that are currently available.
And when it comes to travel,I actually think that that could be a
great purchase this time of year ifyou're going to take a trip anyway,
and we're talking about potentially thirty toforty percent off hotel stays. Let the

(24:22):
bargain, drive the destination and readElaine's article to see kind of well,
where are the bargains? Where amI interested in going? Maybe Aspen,
Colorado, or maybe maybe I wantto take a trip to Alaska, And
there's some really great deals right nowat certain hotels or via certain trip operators
that are otherwise it's harder to findthose discounts. But Black Friday is a

(24:47):
good time this Black Friday season postactual Black Friday is a good time sometimes
to get those specials on travel thatwhy pay full price right when you get
the discount for something you are alreadygonna do? So Yeah, check that
article out for a lot of specificsthat she mentions. But coming up,
I talked about HSA's recently on theshow and how they can be one of

(25:08):
the best retirement accounts to help youbuild wealth. But very few folks are
using their hsas in that manner,So I'm going to talk about how to
use them in the most efficient way. Next, this is how to Money.
I'm Joel Larsgard. You're listening tohow to Money with Joel Larsgard on
Demand from KFI AM six forty.You're listening to How to Money. Just

(25:30):
one segment left here on the show. But there's always more money saving information
at how tomoney dot com. Andthere's the how to Money podcast comes out
three times a week. Wherever youlisten to podcasts, you can listen to
the How to Money podcast. ButI want to talk about hsas for just
a second. They are the coolestaccount that gets no press. And when
I was thinking about how great hsasare, it made me think of Mike

(25:52):
Trout. I'm not sure if youlike baseball or not, but he's one
of the best baseball players ever towalk on the diamond. Right He's one
of the best players currently playing,and he has been for like a decade
now, I guess, you know, one of the best players to play
in the majors. But outside ofSouthern California, it feels like he gets
almost no press. Like there aresome players who are just phenomenal, but

(26:17):
they fly under the radar for somereason. They don't quite get the love
and admiration and the props that theydeserve. So Mike Trout definitely falls in
that boat in my mind, atleast when we're talking about best baseball players.
He doesn't quite get the recognition acrossmost of the country, Like a
lot of people don't get to seehim play, and so they don't know

(26:40):
just how stinking good he is.Well, the HSA is in a similar
boat. In my opinion, theHSA is just incredibly underrated. Right,
few folks know just how powerful itis. It languishes an obscurity, which
is so sad because it really hasa significant It can add a lot of
bang to your attempts at saving upfor retirement, Like it's this account that

(27:07):
you could use to grow funds foryour future while avoiding taxation one hundred percent
the whole way. And just mostpeople don't use it very efficiently. They
don't know how it works, andso they either avoid it altogether or they
use it in a way that's completelyunoptimized. And I think the crux of
the issue for the HSA, wherethe problem lies is branding. Right.

(27:29):
Branding can make or break a product. And if you brand it improperly,
if you do a bad job sellingit, then guess what people are gonna
People are gonna avoid it. Peopleare gonna like, huh, what's what's
that product for? It and marketingcan have such an impact. Well,
the same is true on an HSA, and if you've got an HSA,
investing those dollars for your future ishow you make that money grow, how

(27:52):
you help it have the most significantimpact. But it's got the H the
s excuse me an, HSA standsfor safe and you're trying to not save
in this account, but ultimately hopefullyyou're able to invest in this account.
And I think that's where the brandingproblem comes in. It's called a health
savings account, but really for peoplewho care about their financial future and want

(28:12):
to invest more for their retirement ina tax advantage way, the health savings
account is more like a health investmentaccount, or should be. And so
I realized that not everyone can affordto invest dollars for decades down the road
in their HSA. They don't haveenough padding, they haven't saved up enough
money, they're not quite there.But if you can using your HSA,

(28:36):
investing those dollars for use years oreven decades down the road is what's going
to make it so impactful. Andso most people are still using their hsas
like a savings account to pay forhealth care expenses in the current year.
Yes, that will provide a decenttax break right now, but it's not
going to come even close to whatyou can pull off tax avoidance wise if

(28:57):
you put HSA dollars to work foror you in the stock market, if
you're investing the dollars that you stockaway inside of that account. And there's
a new survey I saw. Itfinds that only nineteen percent of folks use
their HSA in that manner. Soone in five people are investing inside of
the HSA. Well, the otherfour are using it in a completely unoptimized

(29:18):
manner. So there's a lot ofpeople who still don't know just how great
an HSA can be, just howpowerful it can be when it comes to
growing those dollars and when it comesto tax avoidance too. It's like putting
a governor on a Ferrari, right, It's like it'd be like sending watching
a Ferrari go top forty miles anhour, and you're like, but I
know that it has the stuff underthe hood to do so much more,

(29:44):
and it would be a shame tosee that beautiful red Ferrari not able to
climb past forty miles an hour.Well, that's kind of what we're doing
to our hsas we're putting a governoron them. We're limiting their ability to
help us reach financial independence because we'renot using them in a very efficient or
optimized way. And again, Iknow not everybody can do that. If
you are investing your HSA dollars forfuture use, you have to have enough

(30:07):
savings on hand now to be ableto pay for those current your healthcare expenses
out of that savings account, allowingthat HSA money to go untouched. But
if you're not able to do itcurrently, that should be the goal.
And if you have plenty of cashon hand to pay for medical expenses out
of pocket. If you're like,no, I could do that, but
I'm still not investing my HSA money, well think about investing your HSA dollars.

(30:30):
That is the best way to reallygrow them. And there's an article
on the site of howdomoney dot com. It's about HSA is the triple tax
advantage way to boost your financial health. And so if you are wondering,
well, how do I what arethe nitty gritty, nuanced realities of investing
in an HSA and how how bigof a benefit. Can it actually be

(30:51):
well, go check that article out. I'll put it up in the show
notes as well, but please gocheck that article out. It can make
a big difference in your ability toreach financial independence and have financial security and
retirement through this. We love thefour one K, I love the roth
IRA and I love the HSA.And if you can do some money set
aside money in every single one ofthose accounts every single year, you're going

(31:12):
to be just fine years down theroad. So I hope you're able to
use your HSA to the max getthe best benefit that you can. And
thank you so much as always forlistening. I'll see you back here next
week for more money saving information.I'm Joelarsgard and this is how to Money
on KFI AM six forty. You'vebeen listening to how to Money with Joel
Larsgard. You can always hear uslive on KFI AM six forty twelve pm

(31:36):
to two pm on Sunday and anytimeon demand on the iHeartRadio app.