<< Back to all Blogs
Login or Create your own free blog
Layout:
Home > Shuffling money around

Shuffling money around

March 6th, 2008 at 10:55 pm

That's what it feels like I'm doing right now...I got a medical bill for $850 and only have $600 left in my flex spending (such a bad year to try this high deductible thing, as I ended up having to get some tests and things at the beginning of the year)! So I've been moving stuff around...noticed we probably weren't going to need one chunk of exercise incentive money, because AS hasn't been working out lately, so wiped out that line item. Sold some CD box sets on eBay for over $100 total, so that covers the rest of it.

The good news is I didn't have to do anything drastic; the bad is that I feel like a sucker with this new healthcare plan, and it's going to be awhile before I can afford to change my paycheck withholdings; without this medical bill I'd be able to change it for the next paycheck. Oh well, if I owe taxes next year I don't really mind; I just want to make sure I don't owe as much as or more than this year, because I think that would generate a penalty.

Oh yeah, and it means I'm going to have to pay for future medical stuff with cash, so I may not be able to save as much. I don't understand this maximum out-of-pocket thing, but hopefully I will hit that soon. I wonder if it still means I have to take care of copays, and dental and vision stuff? Either way, health care is going to be more expensive this year than I thought, by a long way.

I looked at this way-cheap way of transferring money, bank account to bank account (that's harder than just transferring the money to an office where a person can pick it up), xoom.com. Only $4.95 for an international wire transfer of any amount! However, it looked kind of bare-bones so I searched for consumer reports, and saw some pretty wretched testimonials. So I'll stick to my $50-per-month setup with my bank--it hurts, but it will motivate me to get our UK cards down to where NT's flat rental income will cover bills, and I won't have to transfer money at all anymore. I'm hoping to accomplish that in about eight months.

Posted in Uncategorized | 8 Comments »

8 Responses to “Shuffling money around”

  1. Slowlygettingthere Says:
    March 6th, 2008 at 11:12 pm 1204845151
    1204845151

    I understand about the flex spending. It's our 2nd year of it, and I really underestimated. Ouch.

  2. ceejay74 Says:
    March 6th, 2008 at 11:20 pm 1204845650
    1204845650

    Sorry to hear that, but thank you for letting me know I'm not in this boat alone! :-)

  3. C Says:
    March 7th, 2008 at 12:11 am 1204848668
    1204848668

    Hello, I work for a health insurance company, and just wanted to let you know that with most plans, when you reach the max out of pocket, you will still have to pay copays.

  4. Amber Says:
    March 7th, 2008 at 12:23 am 1204849392
    1204849392

    I wish we had a flex plan, but I try to keep a separate saving accounts for miscellaneous appointments, like copays...praying I don't get sick

  5. boomeyers Says:
    March 7th, 2008 at 04:11 am 1204863084
    1204863084

    Hmmm... I'm thinking about changing my familys plan this June. This info is very helpful to know!

  6. ceejay74 Says:
    March 7th, 2008 at 04:11 pm 1204906291
    1204906291

    C, thanks for letting me know; that's what I expected. Amber, that is too bad, especially since it's virtually impossible to get a tax break on health expenses the other way (by itemizing deductions)--you can basically only deduct it if you have other items, and a crippling amount of medical expenses.

  7. Joan.of.the.Arch Says:
    March 7th, 2008 at 05:03 pm 1204909426
    1204909426

    This has been our first year to use a flex account. We intentionally under funded it to test it out. I'm glad we did because the administrators of the account are not good. We have had to spend a lot of time on the phone getting them to pay out. We have had our debit card rejected because the administrators put a block on it. That meant we had to pay out of pocket anyway and seek reimbursement which takes a paper form and more time on our part. They have done this multiple times. I have to wonder if they are not trying to make us have $$ left over in the account. Despite the tax savings, we might close the account at the end of the period.

  8. Amber Says:
    March 8th, 2008 at 01:53 am 1204941180
    1204941180

    You're right ceejay, I think one has to spend 7.5% of their income to claim the deduction Frown a few years ago I was so close

Leave a Reply

(Note: If you were logged in, we could automatically fill in these fields for you.)
*
Will not be published.
   

* Please spell out the number 4.  [ Why? ]

vB Code: You can use these tags: [b] [i] [u] [url] [email]