If you have an HSA and invest it

[teachermom2834]

How do you figure out what balance you want to keep in your main account and how much you want to invest if your plan has that option? We've finally gotten ahead and built up a savings there and would like to start investing part of it. We have medical expenses but we put the max in the HSA on a biweekly basis and his employer plunks some in there every year too and we don't spend it all. It appears the plan can be set up to just take whatever amount in there is in excess of what we want to keep in the main savings account and supposedly we can transfer back from the investment account to the main account easily. 

Thoughts on this?

 

[scholastica]

If I had that option, I would make sure I had my annual deductible in the main acount and invest the rest.

[Katy]

We keep two years family maximum out of pocket in the regular account.  That way if we all get sick or in a wreck the week after Christmas but need to stay in the ICU into the New Year we never have to worry.

[RootAnn]

It takes about a week to transfer money back in. On our account, the system automatically does the transfer both ways. We can't request money go back into the main account. We ran into trouble when paying a big orthodontist bill on top of two kids' wisdom teeth balances. But we keep far less than our hefty family deductible in the main account. (It would take several years for us to save up for two years worth of deductible while using the HSA money.) 

Honestly, we just picked a number out of the air. Except for that one crazy circumstance, we haven't had an issue.

[kbutton]

5 minutes ago, RootAnn said:

It takes about a week to transfer money back in. On our account, the system automatically does the transfer both ways. We can't request money go back into the main account. We ran into trouble when paying a big orthodontist bill on top of two kids' wisdom teeth balances. But we keep far less than our hefty family deductible in the main account. (It would take several years for us to save up for two years worth of deductible while using the HSA money.) 

Honestly, we just picked a number out of the air. Except for that one crazy circumstance, we haven't had an issue.

Are there fees for the money going back and forth? I have never been able to get a real answer about the mechanics of this. 

We've considered having two separate HSAs to invest one and use the other. We've had enough changes with employers or employers changing companies that we're always rolling stuff over. 

[Bootsie]

We keep the minimum amount that is required in the main HSA account and transfer all remaining balances to a portion that can be invested.  We could pay for many medical expenses with funds outside of the HSA if necessary.  If we had a catastrophic illness and wanted to use more HSA funds to pay bills, we could move money out of the investment portion into the main account more quickly than the bills would be due once we know about the illness.  

[sgo95]

2 hours ago, kbutton said:

Are there fees for the money going back and forth? I have never been able to get a real answer about the mechanics of this. 

We've considered having two separate HSAs to invest one and use the other. We've had enough changes with employers or employers changing companies that we're always rolling stuff over. 

No fees for transferring from invested to cash or vice versa.

Edited August 31, 2021 by sgo95

[iamonlyone]

My husband has a minimally interest-bearing company HSA, and we plan to move some of the money to an new interest-bearing HSA of our choice next winter. In our circumstances, the company HSA does charge a small transfer fee. (I'm not remembering the amount.) The company HSA encouraged my husband to leave it all with them since "ours is interest-bearing as well." It makes like 0.02%. 😆

We will keep the company HSA because his employer does contribute some, but only to that particular HSA. Then, we will try to only move money once or twice a year to avoid multiple transfer fees.