Do you use HSA for expenses or not?

[FIREshrink]

Saving receipts is "easy" when you're healthy. You have few receipts, and right - you're healthy.

Not so easy when you're sick.

One year alone we had hundreds of receipts. And when you're sick, don't feel well, etc, scanning receipts falls to the very bottom of life's priorities.

If you would like to scan my two foot stack of receipts, please be my guest!

[adventure]

MPMD wrote:

A couple of people are talking about saving receipts like it’s a really onerous task.

 

1. Evernote/Dropbox

2. Evernote scan widget on your phone/any scanner app

3. Simple spreadsheet w/ date, note on expenditure, and totals

 

It takes ~45 seconds from start to finish.

 

For the hardcore DIY folks on this site maintaining digital copies of receipts seems like a pretty Jr. varsity task.

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This is probably the encouragement I needed to start.

[ITEngineer]

Atlas Axis wrote:

It just seems ridiculous to save receipts for 20+ years.

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I tend to agree. I can understand if you're not going to claim the expense at this time, in an effort to let the HSA Grow for decades, you just pay out of cash flow and throw the receipts. But the effort to scan/track receipts for 10 years to claim them in 2028 is not what I want to be doing with my free time to claim them 10 years from now. I would not save them as paper as they will fade and could get destroyed. I guess having a folder in the cloud would keep them safe from disk failure once scanned in. But why would you submit them 10 years from now? Why not wait another 10 years? When does it end?

Won't almost everyone on this forum be fairly well off though? I'm looking at RMD distributions at 70 that will put me in the top 1-2% of income annually for the rest of my life and I only save 8% of my salary. That doesn't include Roth or Taxable accounts. Of course, I might get hit by a bus tomorrow  8O   And that's if I stop working at 60 (which seems unlikely but possible). All you wonderful Doctors won't need a giant HSA to cover medical expenses. You'll have 401k's, Roths, Taxable, other savings and of course HSA's. It seems wisest to take the 40% tax break now because there are plenty of other accounts that will continue to grow over time.

I think I'm rambling......TLDR; Not for me, but do what you want! No judgement here.

[spiritrider]

ITEngineer wrote:

Atlas Axis wrote:

All you wonderful Doctors won’t need a giant HSA to cover medical expenses. You’ll have 401k’s, Roths, Taxable, other savings and of course HSA’s. It seems wisest to take the 40% tax break now because there are plenty of other accounts that will continue to grow over time.

I think I’m rambling……TLDR; Not for me, but do what you want! No judgement here.

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Then there is no need to do a Backdoor Roths either. After all, who needs tax-free income. Also, your 40% tax break happens on the front end no matter when you take distributions for qualified expenses.

To each their own, but don't begrudge those of us who engage in the trivial task of saving receipts. Also, it does not have to be all or nothing. Pick a dollar value under which you reimburse immediately. That could result in 80-90% less receipts, but deferring 80-90% of the total amount.

[FIREshrink]

That does seem to be the wise middle ground. But since I already have the receipts, actively tossing them feels difficult. Not saving them going forward may be my ticket.

[RogueDadMD]

MPMD wrote:

There some flexibility here that you’re not referencing though RDMD. If you collect receipts like I’m doing you have options: 1) True stealth IRA 2) True HSA being contributed to and withdrawn from on a yearly basis 3) Retirement health care 4) Withdraw from HSA up to receipts amount for future non-healthcare purchase Or frankly a combo of all 4.

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I actually think we're saying the exact same thing.