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Knyteguy posted:Sure we could actually really use some help with this insurance thing. We're already locked into the HSA but there were two HSA plans and one HRA plan. We chose the mid tier plan which is I think $1,500 deductible and I can't remember max out pocket. I wanted to ask more on here but we were down to the wire before we had enough information to decide to drop our current insurance. My company allows near-instant (next pay period vs next enrollment window) dropping of insurance if other insurance is available. Yours *may* have something like that, that they aren't telling you. Weird that you have to pay for an additional month, vs now and have it take effect next period. Maybe its a small business thing - tho it was not at the auto shop I worked at, where we had a whole 5 insured.
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Jun 20, 2014 01:40
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I'm not sure the HSA is the best thing to opt into for someone newly pregnant.
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Jun 20, 2014 12:35
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I think most HSA have lower max out of pockets then other plans. You also get to pay for your out of pocket using pretax dollars. Most OBGYN will wait and bill in the same period as the birth to get it in the same limit period. You are going to hit your max out of pocket, if you pick a premium plan with a $3600 limit, or whatever the minimum HSA eligible limit is, you are golden. If you can sign up for an aflac type plan and you can scam them too for your maternity leave.
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Jun 20, 2014 14:56
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How is your car payment $800/month? You better be driving a 911.
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Jun 22, 2014 15:06
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n8r posted:How is your car payment $800/month? You better be driving a 911. They had a paid off truck but were underwater on their other car, there wouldn't be much equity between the two of them. A $25,000 loan for the Corolla (I'm guessing here) at 11% for a 3 year note is $818/month.
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Jun 22, 2014 17:10
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You should legit do the Canada birth thing. Even a perfect - zero pain killer - easy birth runs at least 5,000 in America. Depending on your hospital they can run up to 20,000. God forbid she have a C section then you're into crazy expensive territory. My sister in law had her kid at group health and had that perfect no pain killer birth and it still severely crippled their family financially.
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Jun 23, 2014 04:39
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SiGmA_X posted:Well your plan is the suck! I hope your wife's is better. Can you post up the plan details for it? There are a LOT of factors, and we aren't hearing the basics from what you posted. I'm reasonably decent at reading and making insurance plans understandable, I had a serious need as a unemployed person with a herniated disc who made too much for govt assistance a few years back. I'm well versed in reading and comparing plans, and would be happy to run the maths for you. Maybe post a screenshot of the PDF they gave you, with the coverage amount table? I can post an example in a few min. Thanks the information is on my wife's company portal so one of us will post it ASAP. I hope we don't have to pay another month's worth of dual insurance if not necessary. Tigntink I think our expected out of pocket with everything is about $10,000 this year. I don't know when the deductible resets though; that could make all the difference. I'd love to do the Canada thing but I don't think that's morally right since we don't pay taxes there. I like the idea of it though. Car payment is $510.00/mo now. We had a $600.00/mo car payment before, but we put an extra $200.00 the previous month which is why YNAB shows as $800.00. I really want a Porsche 911 though  .Can't wait to get into the cheaper place; I'm very tired of paying $1,560.00/mo when most of our space is unused. All-in-all June has been an uneventful month. However I did sellf off the PS4 and a couple handheld systems for a decent amount of cash (on the low side but oh well). We hardly used any of it anyway. Working on selling the AR-15 for $600.00, and hopefully the 9mm will fetch $200.00. Weight set we're aiming for $700.00 but $500.00 might be more realistic in the time frame we have. We'll see. We're going to organize the garage this weekend so we can get pictures of everything. Thanks all for the insurance advice.
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Jun 26, 2014 06:29
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AR is only $600? Is it a partial? I don't know much about them, but are they usually mid-teens? What type of 9mm?
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Jun 26, 2014 18:47
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SiGmA_X posted:AR is only $600? Is it a partial? I don't know much about them, but are they usually mid-teens? Nah this one isn't that valuable unfortunately. http://www.gunbroker.com/Olympic-Arms/Browse.aspx?Keywords=Olympic+Arms The 9mm is a Ruger I think P95, but it may be a P89. Custom grips. Here's a picture I took when I got it. 
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Jun 26, 2014 19:11
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Knyteguy posted:Nah this one isn't that valuable unfortunately. http://www.gunbroker.com/Olympic-Arms/Browse.aspx?Keywords=Olympic+Arms
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Jun 26, 2014 21:50
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SiGmA_X posted:Metal or plastic? Metal is a 89, plastic is a 95. Fwiw. Ah, P89 then; it's metal.
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Jun 26, 2014 23:01
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Knyteguy posted:Ah, P89 then; it's metal. Post up copies of your wife's health insurance docs! I want to kill some work time calculating this for you.
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Jun 27, 2014 00:59
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SiGmA_X posted:Kk. I thought that based on google pics but wasn't sure. Hey man gonna get this posted tonight. My wife has mostly been working nights this week so we haven't had much time to get together and do this. Our futon/couch broke as we were sleeping on it last night. Any ideas on what to do? We can probably use lawn chairs for a bit but I'm debating buying a new couch (and saving this futon mattress for guests or camping).  Note that the bend is in the wrong direction here. It's supposed to face the other way. There's a furniture scratch and dent place nearby that we could probably pick up a nice sectional for around $500.00 with a couple scratches or something? Also sold the AR for $500.00 and working on the Ruger and the weight set. Going to get all of the rest minus the 9mm up on Craigslist tonight. Edit: Wife's kiosk site with the insurance information is down... I'll get the info and post it tomorrow. Knyteguy fucked around with this message at 08:03 on Jun 30, 2014 |
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Jun 29, 2014 21:23
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Tigntink posted:You should legit do the Canada birth thing. Nope - most if not all Canadian provinces require a three-month residency period before any health costs are covered. You can apply for a waiver of the wait period if you're in the process of establishing residency, but only if you can prove that the costs incurred would break you financially or if they included emergency procedures that could not have been foreseen. (Seriously, if it was that easy to get free health care, people would be crossing the border all the time for it. The single-payer health care system is set up to benefit only those who have been paying into it.)
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Jun 29, 2014 21:43
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Knyteguy posted:Hey man gonna get this posted tonight. My wife has mostly been working nights this week so we haven't had much time to get together and do this. If you have a biglots near you, they always have cheap furniture. My sister has bought a few things from them and has had good luck.
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Jun 30, 2014 15:58
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Ok http://www.pluswebhost.com/insurance.pdf there is my wife's insurance plan. The relevant plan is HSA 1500 and I think most of the relevant information can be found just by searching the document for that. ^ dreese thanks we do have a BigLots next to use we'll check them out.
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Jun 30, 2014 16:44
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Knyteguy posted:Ok http://www.pluswebhost.com/insurance.pdf there is my wife's insurance plan. The relevant plan is HSA 1500 and I think most of the relevant information can be found just by searching the document for that. The futons as Big Lots suck major rear end. However, I bought a sectional there 5 years ago and it's still in great shape. Highly recommended!
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Jun 30, 2014 16:51
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Hey so it's totally my fault for not getting the information out here sooner, but does anyone see why I may not want to cancel my current insurance? I checked it out myself when we signed up for my wife's insurance (which was supposed to be instead of), but I'm not sure if cancelling is actually the smartest thing to do due to our current coverage possibly covering the deductible of our new one for the pregnancy? Here's our current policy, and we're currently dual covered when we signed up for my wife's insurance a week or so ago: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3586966&pagenumber=9&perpage=40#post431229281 I'll need to let my boss know today or I'll have to sacrifice another month's worth of possibly unnecessary insurance. I don't know why it's setup like that, but according to him it is (can only end on the 1st of a month). Worst comes to worse I figure we can just use Obamacare or something and get private insurance? I think I'll cancel mine (our current coverage) certainly unless someone has input otherwise. Thanks. Edit: Wrong link Edit2: No sense rushing something like this. It could save us thousands to keep insurance going, while we're out maybe $800.00 net if it's not useful. I'll keep both insurances going until I'm better informed. Knyteguy fucked around with this message at 00:14 on Jul 1, 2014 |
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Jun 30, 2014 21:59
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So new plan is about $400/mo? I'm on my phone and failing to find that number. I'll run a comp when I get home in a few min. Pretty sure your existing plan blows rear end. Similar deductibles, lower OPM and better coinsurance for more money... Man, I'm glad my employer has kickass instance (and they pay ~80% of mine and ~50% of dependents.)
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Jul 1, 2014 01:18
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SiGmA_X posted:So new plan is about $400/mo? I'm on my phone and failing to find that number. I'll run a comp when I get home in a few min. New plan yea is about that. Here's my current plan for reference:  Yea for how much we pay for this plan I'm pretty disappointed. It includes some paltry medical/dental but so does the new plan which is far more affordable. Thanks again by the way.
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Jul 1, 2014 01:30
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Knyteguy posted:New plan yea is about that.  Unless I'm missing something, your current plan may be illegal? New OPM is 12.7k. Maybe for small biz it didn't take effect till 2015. I am going to assume that your current plan means OPM (I said OOP in my image, do not feel like changing) of 13.5k - if they mean coinsurance and OPM is 13.5+6k, holy poo poo. Yellow is where you hit your annual deductible. Green is where your HSA hits OPM. Total column takes into account the cost of the premium ($4.8k vs $7.3k) and also takes into account your employer HSA contribution of 1k for the HSA plan. I think you said you're expecting about $9k in baby costs? If so, you're looking at about $8.6k including premium and accounting for HSA with the new plan, vs about $13.9k on the old plan. I would absolutely start contributing pre-tax dollars to your wife's HSA, too. You already know you're going to have huge medical bills shortly. You'll avoid whatever your income tax rate winds up at. My chart doesn't take into account tax avoidance savings, but it can be pretty substantial. When is your due date? If its next year, I would set aside just a bit over the required amount for this year's medical costs in to the HSA pre-tax, and then the rest into post-tax savings. Then next year, crank up the HSA contributions to fully pay for the baby and then some. Then you'll have a cash fund to spend money out of for living expenses, and less income due to higher payroll deductions. This *should* net you the biggest tax avoidance, providing the baby is being born next year. Ideally, it would fall out before NYE, so you can incur the bulk of the costs in 2014 and turn your HSA contrib down in 2015. Kids are so loving expensive. Do never have! SiGmA_X fucked around with this message at 02:07 on Jul 1, 2014 |
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Jul 1, 2014 02:05
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SiGmA_X posted:Insurance data Wow I realized it was kinda crappy, but I didn't realize just how crappy it really was! Due date is February. So it sounds like it may be best if we just take the employer contributed money (IIRC ~$700.00/yr) and maybe contribute my wife's whole paycheck come January next year until the birth? Also I'll get rid of the current plan obviously. Anyone ever get tired of juggling financials? I mean I know that's why I'm posting in this thread (to get out of the cycle), but it can't come soon enough. June has just been rough as we had to put a down payment of $2,000.00 towards the car and we overspent on restaurants. There's been some wiggle room but we're still uncomfortably close to $0.00; we're totally fine but if something was to happen we'd be borrowing money almost certainly. Next month is going to be equally hard with moving costs I think. New goal: don't ever overextend financially again unless it's absolutely necessary (emergencies). We have a grocery plan for August but I'll post that later when I post June's YNAB. Oh and also I sold the gun for $500 but I agreed to pay a $50.00 commission. Pretty much all of it is going towards debt repayment. Same with anything else we sell. Anyway thanks for the help SiGmA. JanusOwl (wife) says thank you also.
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Jul 1, 2014 03:32
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Knyteguy posted:Wow I realized it was kinda crappy, but I didn't realize just how crappy it really was! The one thing people bitch about with the HSA plan (tho not compared to your non-HSA!! Jesus) is that you have to pay more up front. Like my work, HSA is $1500, non-HSA is $300 deductible. But the premiums, you pay ~$1300 vs $352. And with HSA, the company gives you $750 (single person, double for spouse or family). So that means I start the year at -$397 a year in medical costs/premium. $1300+$300 is $1600, which means I need to have $1500+$500 in expenses to break even. Everyone's situation is different, but with my employer, if you get sick once or twice a year, or have a $5k bill, you're ahead doing the HSA. When you get into the ~8k range, its more of a wash. I could post solid numbers if I was at work, I made a nice little chart for two of my coworkers. So for me, I have money in my HSA plus an efund, so I don't think twice about the HSA. I haven't had more than $800 in medical bills in 2yrs, and before that I have like $16-50k in bills but the were all up front or eventually covered by my auto insurance. Gotta weigh the costs/benefits, but it cracks me up when my coworker won't go in for an xray because she has to pay out of pocket, vs pay out of pocket for premiums all year that total more... I'm in the same boat, on the tight finance side of things. I hate juggling it and being tight on money. I have a couple grand in the bank for efund and a few more for downpayment/ring, and am saving more for a ring (finalllly found out she really, truly, only wants a 1-2k ring! Not what I was expecting, with her mom's massive rock) and a downpayment, and my cars keep needing repair.. At least I do my own work! My gf is finally fed up with it and is fully on board to sticking to the budget vs blowing it on .. FOOD!!! She doesn't spend excessively, outside of lunches and the occasional dinner where she buys her girlfriends rounds and meals!!! We sat down last weekend and discussed what it is going to take to stick on track, and I think she's finally on board! Good plan on the gun -> debt repayment. And food budget. Share that stuff, I need help w/ food... My gf (and I) come from families that like good food, and it often means eating out. Which I don't do myself, cuz I want bigger things than a nice meal, that I could cook at home for almost the same effect...
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Jul 1, 2014 08:53
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Man. I pay $50 a month total for my insurance, no deductible, and $10 copay for everything except the emergency room. Husband just broke his collarbone into 5 pieces and I was out a total of $200ish for all the visits and rehab and percocet. #workforthegovernment
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Jul 1, 2014 15:34
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I thought my insurance sucked, but I went to urgent care for a neck pain that hasn't subsided and it was a $20 co-pay. "Sweet!" I thought. Then I went to get my prescription filled. Generic version of a muscle relaxer is $3.20 for 30. "Double-sweet!" said I. Thanks, Obama!
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Jul 1, 2014 16:53
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Every time you use generic meds instead of Genuine(TM) Patented(C) Pharmaceutical(TM) Medical Products(TM) by GlaxoSmithExxonMegaCorp(SM), a kitten gets set on fire (and then charged for the kerosene). Or so pharmaceutical industry lobbying has led me to believe(TM). Generics are great. Panadol isn't sold in Japan because ppl use ibuprofen instead, so last time I visited the family in Australia, I went to the chemist and asked at the counter where it was. (Apparently it's behind the counter now.) The pharmacist said "Would you like our home-brand product instead?" It was something like $4 for 100 tablets compared to $6 for 30 for Panadol. Seriously, gently caress the pharmaceutical patent industry.
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Jul 2, 2014 04:17
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SiGmA_X posted:Have your wife ask HR if she can turn on/off HSA contributions like that. If not, NBD - you can contribute after tax and get the money back at the end of the year. DEF do that vs pay out of pocket, that will save you quite a bit come tax time. But, if possible, crank up HSA payroll contributions for a few months and then turn them down again. You may consider putting an extra $25-50/ck into it from now till then, it'll ease the pain a bit. Right on man congratulations on the soon-to-be engagement  .Food stuff OK I will share this coming Friday which I'll have off for the 4th. Sold the handgun for $300.00 no commission, and I have an offer for $500.00 on the weight set which I'll probably take. With the other gun that's $1300.00 in sold goods with an additional $400.00 left on Craigslist/to be sold. Woot. Also we checked out Big Lots for a sectional. Not sure what we're going to spend on one yet but we'll likely get one by Aug 7th at the latest.
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Jul 2, 2014 15:42
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5.5 years - it's been a long time coming lol! But thanks! Nice re sales! Great price on the 9mm from the quick google search I did.
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Jul 2, 2014 15:56
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Knyteguy posted:Also we checked out Big Lots for a sectional. Not sure what we're going to spend on one yet but we'll likely get one by Aug 7th at the latest. Their prices are good on furniture, but if you can wait until they do the friends and family event you will get 20% off. My neighbors bought an awesome faux-leather sectional and paid around $500 for it. It's nice and soft, too.
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Jul 2, 2014 18:20
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Nocheez posted:Their prices are good on furniture, but if you can wait until they do the friends and family event you will get 20% off. My neighbors bought an awesome faux-leather sectional and paid around $500 for it. It's nice and soft, too. OK we'll see if we can make it. Wife's work is also doing a 20% off with an additional 25% off for her employee discount on furniture right now... gonna check that out as well. Gonna set a hard limit at $1,000, but aim for $750 (before discounts). Good news: finally paid off the speeding ticket. loving progress!  Also sold the weight set at the aforementioned price of $500.00.June/July YNAB:  Cont.  Added a new category to include beer, and we're going to be adding a pregnancy one (currently medical). Also added new HSA account with new balance. We're going to do our damnedest to actually stick to this budget this time. I feel like I was pretty fair with everything except for restaurants. We want to cut those out. We're going to shop (starting tonight) at our budget grocery store to help save money. Great prices. Oh and the screenshots don't reflect it but we've started our August buffer which has about $300.00 in it so far.
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Jul 3, 2014 05:57
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I feel like you're still needing a giant wake-up call. You are barely treading water, and the only way you've come 'under budget' these past two months has been by reducing your savings and debt payments. Is your business actually making money? Have your pets had health problems? Combined these two categories have cost you nearly $1,000 over the past two months. It seems like every time we see a detailed breakdown, there are areas where you have spent hundreds of dollars more than is reasonable. Last year it was the guitar and PS4. Now it's your business, pets, and restaurants. Next it will be $1,000 on a futon. I know emergencies come up, but you really cannot afford all these expenses. I think you need to look back on all your purchases and see what they've brought you. How often does your wife use the guitar she got last year? How much enjoyment have you gotten out of your guns and gym equipment? Is your life any better for having spent $600 eating out last month? You are sacrificing your long-term happiness and stability for short-term pleasures.
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Jul 3, 2014 06:30
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in_cahoots posted:I feel like you're still needing a giant wake-up call. You are barely treading water, and the only way you've come 'under budget' these past two months has been by reducing your savings and debt payments. Is your business actually making money? Have your pets had health problems? Combined these two categories have cost you nearly $1,000 over the past two months. The pets we've cut back on by buying less expensive, but still healthy food. I also wanted an exercise pen for our dog so she didn't have to sit in a crate all day (she's house broken now but I don't want to leave her to her own accord). That plus yea our dog got a pretty nasty cold that required antibiotics and the last couple of months have been expensive for pets. It should be drastically cut this month barring another sickness or injury. All of that stuff you mentioned is true. We have been sacrificing our long term happiness for short term pleasures. 100%. No the restaurants didn't give us any net pleasure, because it just made us fatter. The weight set and the guns were all mistakes, and so was the PS4. I've sold all of that to not only make amends to our future selves, but to help us reach our goals. Luckily the net loss on all of that stuff was only in the range of $500-$600. The Guitar is great though we've been jamming together and it's awesome. No regret there (although we would do it more responsibly now). My business: I am in the process of prototyping a new cool project which was expensive last month. According to our accounting system we're up $0.78 since the start of the year though and I have some deductions I can enter. However I've put all of the business on hold except for my most profitable clients while we prioritize our finances. All-in-all man though we're back on track. I'm trying to stay accountable here again and be as transparent as possible, and it's helping me. We need a couch though there's no getting around that. I'm willing to use lawn chairs and our busted futon mattress for now, but that's only going to work for so long. We do have visitors and stuff. I'm not going to buy something stupid and fancy though. If we gently caress up this month I'd love to revisit our strategy with some goon input. Mind you the budget posted isn't for the whole month though. We have to cover our rent for next month, this month. I just mentioned to my wife the new MMM post, where the Get Rich Slowly guy brings up the fact that with a 20% savings rate, it takes 5 years to cover 1 year of expenses. With a 10% it takes 10 years. With a 40% it takes 2.5 years. 50% it takes 1 year, and 75% it takes 3 months. Puts some stuff into perspective.
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Jul 3, 2014 07:21
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I have to agree with the other guy, $1000 for a couch is nuts, and there is a ton of questionable things in hour budget. Why doesn't buying a $300 couch and putting $700 in savings sound good to you?
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Jul 3, 2014 13:21
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Uncle Jam posted:I have to agree with the other guy, $1000 for a couch is nuts, and there is a ton of questionable things in hour budget. He's saying spending $750-$1,000 on a couch where he can get a 45% discount (so really spending $410-$550 on a couch).
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Jul 3, 2014 15:15
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Bugamol posted:He's saying spending $750-$1,000 on a couch where he can get a 45% discount (so really spending $410-$550 on a couch). 20% off 1000 is $200 25% off 800 is $200 = $600 Right? Maybe Penneys stacks it differently. SiGmA_X fucked around with this message at 15:54 on Jul 3, 2014 |
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Jul 3, 2014 15:30
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SiGmA_X posted:Iirc (been a while since I did retail math) it's 45% of 1000 is $400. You're probably correct. I was just looking at it is a additive flat discount rate. Personally I would spend a little extra money (a few hundred dollars is what we're talking about) to get a quality couch that is going to last. Big Lots has great deals but my experience with them has always been that you get what you pay for.
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Jul 3, 2014 17:02
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SiGmA_X posted:Iirc (been a while since I did retail math) it's 45% of 1000 is $400. This is correct; the smaller discount comes out first. So it looks like it's 40% off total. If we get a $750 couch (like what we're aiming for) we'll be spending $450. I think that's pretty reasonable. I don't know if Penneys will have a couch we like within budget though, and in that case we'll likely wait for the 20% Big Lots sale which will probably be in October if last year is an indication. Edit: noted Bugamol. Our futon that just broke before it was a year old is a good indicator of that.
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Jul 3, 2014 17:04
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You can find very decent couches on Craigslist or local auctions for $200. Look at consignment furniture stores too, if you have any. There's no reason not to buy used at this stage of your life. Also, you may or may not already know, but Costco brand dog food is extremely decent, highly rated everywhere I've ever looked, and cheap as dirt.
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Jul 4, 2014 00:38
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imabanana posted:You can find very decent couches on Craigslist or local auctions for $200. Look at consignment furniture stores too, if you have any. There's no reason not to buy used at this stage of your life. I just looked and there are some good ones on Craigslist. Bed bugs are kind of a problem around here though so that's my biggest concern. Just switched to Costco food actually. Thanks.
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Jul 4, 2014 01:03
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Knyteguy posted:I just looked and there are some good ones on Craigslist. Bed bugs are kind of a problem around here though so that's my biggest concern. I may just be lucky, but I've bought tons of furniture off Craigslist without a problem. I always vet the sellers/house and will only purchase if they seem honest, reasonably clean (not that bedbugs come from unclean surroundings, but people who care about appearances are probably more likely to notice bedbugs) and have a legitimate reason for selling. You are going to have a ton of expenses with the baby on its way, and it doesn't seem as if you have the credit to cover you. I would seriously consider getting the cheapest couch you can live with. Are you planning on having a 'baby savings' row in YNAB?
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Jul 4, 2014 01:25
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