I don’t know about you, but I was thrown into my adulthood with no real knowledge of how to manage my finances and I made some costly mistakes. My guess is most of you have had little guidance on personal finances or what it means to have financial well-being. The lack of financial well-being can put stress and strain on you and your family. Financial issues are one of the top ten reasons people get divorced.
A 2017 report in MarketWatch found that half of American households currently live paycheck to paycheck
- 19% have $0 saved to cover emergency expenses; 31% have less than $500 in emergency savings
- About 49% of Americans are “concerned, anxious or fearful about their current financial well-being”
The average credit card debt is somewhere between 6,000 and 8,000 dollars.
Even if you are great at budgeting or saving for emergencies maybe there are areas of finances you’d like to know more about as your life’s circumstances change. Such as retirement, college funds or navigating the care of a parent. There may also be ways to save some money that you haven’t thought of.
Below is a list of resources as well as money saving ideas that you can use to gain more financial well-being:
Take advantage of the money saving features of the Health Savings Account (HSA) with the Triple-tax advantage
Your HSA is triple-tax advantaged:
› Contributions – Your contributions can be reduced from your taxable income either by making pretax payroll deductions or contributing post tax and listing the contributions on your federal income tax return. (Use the Form 8889.)
› Earnings – Any interest earned in your HSA cash account and any increase in the value of your mutual fund investments are tax-free, meaning that you do not have to list these as taxable income on your federal income tax return. No action is required to report these earnings.
› Paying for medical expenses – As long as you use the HSA for approved health care expenses, you do not pay any taxes on the money that you take out of the account. This means that every time you make a purchase, you are actually saving money.
Wellness Premium Savings
If you participate in the company provided insurance, you can save $125 a month by getting a wellness visit and submitting a validation form signed by the physician. If your spouse is also covered they too will need to get the wellness visit for the credit to apply. Check out this link for more details and the validation form. If you are on the road for work you can utilize a convenience care clinic for your wellness visit – log onto MyCigna.com to find a convenience care clinic in the network near your job location.
Cost saving measures when using your medical insurance – shopping for services:
Telehealth Connection is a service offered by Cigna by which you can have access to a doctor via a phone call. There are two separate service providers you can utilize – they are Amwell and MDLIVE. Once you register with one of the services you can request a phone consultation for any of the below issues. Amwell costs $49 and MDLIVE $45 per consultation.
AmwellforCigna.com or 855-667-9722
MDLIVEforCigna.com or 888-726-3171
Telehealth Connection service can be utilized for the following conditions:
- Acne
- Allergies
- Cold & Flu
- Fevers
- Headaches
- Rashes
- Sore Throats
- Stomachaches
- Urinary Tract Infections
Urgent Care vs Emergency Room – According to Cigna the average ER visit is $2,259 versus an Urgent Care visit at $176. That’s an average savings of $2,083. Log onto MyCigna.com to look up Urgent Care facilities in your area.
Prescription Savings – Saving on prescriptions by using the Walmart $4 program – Walmart offers numerous prescription drugs for $4 for a 30-day supply and $10 for a 90-day supply. They have drugs that cover all the common issues such as cholesterol, diabetes, digestion, heart health, blood pressure, thyroid and family planning. You can find a list of all the covered drugs at this link.
Auto Save – create a routine around saving money by either contributing to the company sponsored 401K plan (which is pretax, so you are saving on your taxes) or by having a portion of your pay put in a savings account. Here is an article on some ways you can save some money so that contributing to a 401K or savings account is easier. Ways to save money on a low income – Article
Along with the above cost saving measures you can learn more about personal finances and how to achieve more financial well-being, by checking out the FREE courses on Smart About Money
I encourage you to utilize the above resources as well as checking out all the resources available to you at MyCigna.com and at NetBenefits.com brought to you by Fidelity (our 401K provider).
