Statistically it has been shown that the average person pays more in health insurance premiums than they receive in care. How else would the insurance companies stay in business. However, to not have health insurance is folly. The HSAs allow you to set money back for your own medical care, and take advantage of this statistic.
To qualify you must register for a High Deductible Health Plan HDHP, which essentially ensures coverage in case of a real disaster. The good thing about paying into the HSA is that you get to keep the money you save instead of pay it to the insurance companies. The money saved can be used for a broader range of services than most insurance policies pay for. The funds can cover such things as OTC medicine, dental and vision. The money rolls over every year, and once you hit 65 you can spend the money for expenses other than medical.
I checked out the services of Bank of America, (they appear to be a one stop shop lately). They offer a nifty credit card that is to be used only for HSA qualified expenses. This makes it easy to keep track of everything.
Side note. If you don't have the money to allow you to make $0 trades with BoA I wouldn't use them. I don't like their platform. Scottrade is better.
For more info on the HSA, including an FAQ visit: US Treasury HSAs
Monday, February 5, 2007
Friday, February 2, 2007
The Lazy Fish In A Growing Pond
The more I read and try to piece together the world in which we live, the more I realize that natural intelligence is helpful, but hard work and preparation are really what determine success. The writers whose articles I choose to read have spent vast amounts of time amassing information and following their interests, and the business-leaders have worked many late nights and weekends to get to their position. It's a passion, not a natural inclination.
Ben Stein wrote a very motivational article about work ethic the other day, “Success is all in a day’s work”. I have thought about his advice frequently over the past few weeks, and it has spurred me to work a little harder. It basically says get to work, look how much all these other people are doing. When you’re young, your energy and ambition is one of the main things you have to offer.
Another thing that motivates me is the growing competitiveness and rapid change taking place in the global job market. When I look at the pool of world talent that is present and largely untapped, I realize that our young students and recent graduates need to work much harder than before to ensure a place in the upper reaches of business and society. These new players don’t want to take our jobs, they want to be our bosses.
These workers have a drive to succeed and work ethic instilled at an early age. It is especially helpful to start early, because it takes years of education to work in a specialized career. When I read The World is Flat, by Thomas L. Friedman, he pointed out some cultural differences between the west and many of the “hungry” nations like China, India and Eastern Europe. Much of the differences lie in their educational values. Something humorous; Friedman mentioned that Bill Gates is like a Brittany Spears in China, in other words Gates holds huge celebrity power (people crowd in to hear him speak). Over here, Brittany Spears is, well, Brittany Spears (I can’t recall hearing her say anything interesting). I’m sure anyone reading this would agree that it would be nice to turn on the news and not hear "Brittany Spears has shaved her head", or "Anna Nicole Smith was a gold digger."
This all scares me a little, for our country to continue in the top spot we need a well educated work force. We are accustomed to having the best and the brightest and we need to maintain this in order to keep up our standard of living. America started this idea of Globalization and open markets across borders and then we more or less turned our backs on it, we have also turned our backs on many of the other country’s successes. We need to recognize their achievements, whether they include a successful socialist welfare state or more efficient engineering, and we should learn from this. Why try to convert the world to our way when we can observe their success' and build on them. We still have the ability to continue as a world leader, we should just let in more ideas from the outside. What leader wants a team of all the same people anyways?
What better way to lead than by example. This could be anything from improving U.S. infrastructure (transit, broadband, communication, oil exploration), to improving education, to reducing energy dependence. All of this would help facilitate our future success in an increasingly competitive world, and all of the above are beginning to severely lag behind world leaders. America should consider getting back to its likeable image; you know being the good ole boys again, with open ears and open hearts, like we were around WWII era(So I read). Everything in business (and in life) goes smoother when people like you. I think our business and political leaders do realize this, I just want to see it in practice on the world stage.
Sorry for the Friedman inspired rant on our society, I recommend reading his book; it is one of my favorites.
To conclude, I'll relate this to my current station in life. I’ve just finished my undergraduate studies and have basically become the small fish in the bigger pond again. I worked hard to become a big fish in the small pond, but life progresses and I welcome the bigger stage. A similar thing is happening to the world, the pond is growing very quickly and suddenly we aren’t such big fish as we thought we were. Let’s avoid finding that out the hard way. I don’t look at this new global growth as a bad thing, we have new competitors emerging to play the game with, and why would anyone want to play a game with someone they can beat all the time, you don't learning anything that way.
Ben Stein wrote a very motivational article about work ethic the other day, “Success is all in a day’s work”. I have thought about his advice frequently over the past few weeks, and it has spurred me to work a little harder. It basically says get to work, look how much all these other people are doing. When you’re young, your energy and ambition is one of the main things you have to offer.
Another thing that motivates me is the growing competitiveness and rapid change taking place in the global job market. When I look at the pool of world talent that is present and largely untapped, I realize that our young students and recent graduates need to work much harder than before to ensure a place in the upper reaches of business and society. These new players don’t want to take our jobs, they want to be our bosses.
These workers have a drive to succeed and work ethic instilled at an early age. It is especially helpful to start early, because it takes years of education to work in a specialized career. When I read The World is Flat, by Thomas L. Friedman, he pointed out some cultural differences between the west and many of the “hungry” nations like China, India and Eastern Europe. Much of the differences lie in their educational values. Something humorous; Friedman mentioned that Bill Gates is like a Brittany Spears in China, in other words Gates holds huge celebrity power (people crowd in to hear him speak). Over here, Brittany Spears is, well, Brittany Spears (I can’t recall hearing her say anything interesting). I’m sure anyone reading this would agree that it would be nice to turn on the news and not hear "Brittany Spears has shaved her head", or "Anna Nicole Smith was a gold digger."
This all scares me a little, for our country to continue in the top spot we need a well educated work force. We are accustomed to having the best and the brightest and we need to maintain this in order to keep up our standard of living. America started this idea of Globalization and open markets across borders and then we more or less turned our backs on it, we have also turned our backs on many of the other country’s successes. We need to recognize their achievements, whether they include a successful socialist welfare state or more efficient engineering, and we should learn from this. Why try to convert the world to our way when we can observe their success' and build on them. We still have the ability to continue as a world leader, we should just let in more ideas from the outside. What leader wants a team of all the same people anyways?
What better way to lead than by example. This could be anything from improving U.S. infrastructure (transit, broadband, communication, oil exploration), to improving education, to reducing energy dependence. All of this would help facilitate our future success in an increasingly competitive world, and all of the above are beginning to severely lag behind world leaders. America should consider getting back to its likeable image; you know being the good ole boys again, with open ears and open hearts, like we were around WWII era(So I read). Everything in business (and in life) goes smoother when people like you. I think our business and political leaders do realize this, I just want to see it in practice on the world stage.
Sorry for the Friedman inspired rant on our society, I recommend reading his book; it is one of my favorites.
To conclude, I'll relate this to my current station in life. I’ve just finished my undergraduate studies and have basically become the small fish in the bigger pond again. I worked hard to become a big fish in the small pond, but life progresses and I welcome the bigger stage. A similar thing is happening to the world, the pond is growing very quickly and suddenly we aren’t such big fish as we thought we were. Let’s avoid finding that out the hard way. I don’t look at this new global growth as a bad thing, we have new competitors emerging to play the game with, and why would anyone want to play a game with someone they can beat all the time, you don't learning anything that way.
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