One is the darling of the personal finance world, the other is her outcast cousin. But we're shining a light on the 'ugly duckling' and telling you one might be right for youโand it might not be the one you think. In this episode, Jen and Jill shed light on FSAs and HSAs and provide tips to help you determine which one is right for you!
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Episode four twenty eight FSA versus HSA, Which is right for you?
Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast, where you'll learn to save money, embrace simplicity, and live a life here your hosts Jen and Jill.
Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast. My name is Jen, my name is Jill, and today we are talking about flexible spending accounts and health savings accounts. One is the darling of the personal finance world and the other is her outcast step cousin. But we are going to shine a light on this ugly duckling and tell you one may be right for you and it may not be the one you think.
Wow, spill the tea. That was a salaciousness.
I know, I love I just I hate it when you find something good and you say it's the best for everyone, but like, you don't know me. You don't know what's best for me. Only I know what's best for me. And that is our mission with Frugal Friends is find what's gonna help you find what's best for you. Don't let somebody else tell you what's best for you, even if it's something that is really good.
Love that. But first, this episode is brought to You by Eenie Meani miney Mo. Great for selecting where to go to dinner who's going to pay the bill? But not the method for ensuring your retirement accounts are intact. If your approach to retirement accounts is feeling more like being out there on the playground waving your finger around calling out nursery rhymes, uncertain of will where you'll land financially, at least check out capitalized to make sure you don't have any rogue four oh one k's you forgot to roll over. They'll find so capitalized, they'll find any old plans, help you roll it over into an IRA of your choosing, and they'll do it for free. Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash capitalize. Don't any meanie miney mow this thing. Do it for real? But I mean also open a roth IRA or traditional IRA, or just open a four oh one k with You're giving them too many action stuff there. I know I not, but do this do they go Friends podcast dot com slash capitalize. They will help you find any potential four A one k's that you may have forgotten about.
Or four O three b's, any employer plan they can they can.
Find and roll it over into an IRA of your choosing.
All right, so let's talk about health baby. If you are looking to think about health insurance before open enrollment starts, uh, then we have a couple episodes for you. Episode two fifty four how to save money on health insurance. So this is open enrollment explained with our friend Eileen Doherty, she is a health insurance expert. And then episode three point fifty eight are experiences with healthcare sharing, so you'll learn why Jill and I both have health care sharing plans and we talk about the positives and the negatives in that one. Jill has more negatives than I do.
But I was feeling salty.
Yeah I know, and I went through a full pregnancy and delivery and C section with my healthcare sharing plan and had great things to say. So we have both used our healthcare sharing plans. We don't just have them because they're less expensive, we have experience with them. So episode three point fifty eight is another one. But today we are talking specifically about fessays and hssays because this is an important decider when you are choosing health insurance. These can impact your decision.
So this article comes from the wall Street Journal, and it is titled FSA versus HSA, what's the difference and how to pick the right account for you. So we're just going to go through essentially the whole thing. And yeah, so it starts off with talking about fssays.
Yeah, so let's first define what's the difference between the two. So FSA is flexible spending account. Spending is the keyword there. A Health savings account HSA is keyword savings. So you want to do your best to predict in this upcoming year, am I going to be doing more spending or saving on my healthcare? And that can influence for both. You are putting money into it. It's not just free money. You are putting in money to these and they will often have a contribution limit. You're contributing pre tax dollars, so anything that's tax advantage is going to have a limit. So for twenty twenty four, the contribution limit for an FSSAY is thirty two hundred. Those limits are adjusted annually and then for an HSA you've got forty one fifty four and fifty for eligible workers, eighty three hundred for a family. So these are accounts. Both are accounts you're putting money into one is with the intention of spending it in a calendar year. Because with an FSA, the big reason that people in the personal finance community don't like fssays is because they don't like spending money, but not us here, we love spending money. So if you foresee yourself spending money in on health in the calendar year, and we'll kind of go through scenarios later on how you can determine that FSA could be right for you if you don't foresee yourself spending on anything health related, you, your kids, your partner HSA.
Yeah, so they describe that an FSA can go towards prescriptions, over the counter medications, medical supplies, equipment that could include diabetic test strips, pregnancy tests, period supplies, blood pressure monitors, eyeglasses. So there are a lot of things, even outside of just a doctor's visit, that you could use an FSA on. Then we moved to an HSA, as you describe gen a health savings account. So it's an account where you can contribute pre tax dollars in order to pay for qualified health expenses. So there's also an annual contribution maximum on this, similar to an FSA, but it is. It can be as high as forty one point fifty for eligible workers or eighty three hundred dollars for a family. So that certainly is going to give you greater flexibility in how you eventually use that money. So an HSA they're describing can somewhat function like a four oh one K for healthcare expenses because the fun in HSA's don't expire. You can build up a balance over the years through contributing and by investing that money, so it does compound. So there are some significant differences between hsas and fsays. Hsas are only available to people enrolled in a high deductible health plan, and we'll go through some of what makes you qualified and what doesn't. But yeah, HSA's are really great, but not everybody has access to them.
Yeah, so let's go through this chart that they have on the comparison for FSA and HSA. So the first we'll go through is how to qualify. So for an FSA, your employer has to offer it through its health plan. It's just like a four oh one K or a four h three B in that you can't open one on your own unless you are your own employer and you have a business because the business needs to offer the h the FSA say, you don't have to get your health insurance from your job to open an FSA. That's important, but you do need to be eligible to enroll in it. On the other hand, you can open an HSA if you have a qualifying high deductible health planned purchase through your employer or the Affordable Care Act marketplace. You can open your own HSA if you have a qualifying plan and there are a lot Like I rolled my HSA from my last job into a Lively HSA, and we might have like an affiliate link for that. Try Frugal Friends podcast dot com, slash lively great, try it and it is. It had lower fees. So that's another thing. If you have an HSA from a former employer and you have left that that HSA is probably sitting there and they're probably charging you a couple bucks every month to hold it there. If not, like ten or fifteen, log in, check to see what they're charging you and see if opening an HSA somewhere else rolling it over there can save you some money.
So to reiterate where to get one. If you want an FSA, you need to get that through your employer. If you want an HSA, you can open an HSA through your employer or directly with a bank, brokerage, or insurance company. But again with the HSA, you do have to have a qualifying high deductible healthcare plan, but that you could still open one on your own if you meet those qualifications.
So then let's talk about ownership. Your FSA is owned by your employer, so if you leave that job, you cannot get access to any unspent contributions. So in addition to thinking about what am I going to say, spend this year, or if you're thinking about leaving your job, you need to think about the money in your FSA because if you leave midway through, you're going to have to spend all that money before you leave or you lose it. So that could impact a decision whether you want to leave or stay at a job. So it's not just if you have an FSA you have to use that money by the end of the year regardless, but it could impact a job decision if you want to pursue a job elsewhere. HSA, again, on the other hand, you own that. So just like I said when I left my last job, I had an HSA and I kept it and then I was able to roll it over into another HSA that had lower maintenance fees. So this means if you want to leave your job midyear, then you don't have to worry about using the health Savings account. You can that's that's free from your concern.
Then, as far as contribution limits, both do have limitations on how much you can contribute annually. For an FSA, this says for twenty twenty three, but it is the same for twenty twenty four. For an FSA you can contribute thirty two hundred dollars annually, but there are no catchup contributions available for workers fifty five plus, whereas with an HSA, you can contribute annually as an individual forty one fifty four thousand, one hundred and fifty dollars. If you have a family plan, you can contribute eight thousand, three hundred dollars annually, and workers fifty five and over can contribute an extra one thousand dollars on top of whichever plan they're contributing to.
Yeah, and so this is because of the tax advantages of both the FSA and the HSA, So any money you put into either is pre tax, so it lowers your income tax for your tax year, and so this becomes It's not as important for us in Florida, but if you're in a state that has your federal tax, your state tax, maybe even a city tax in addition having pre tax, having money that's contributed somewhere pre tax becomes more important. So and then for hsa IS it doesn't say this on here, but the limit when you can invest is when you get usually up to two thousand. It could have changed, but for my account, I had to have two thousand in the actual like quote unquote spending portion, and then anything above that can be spent, so like the first two thousands, and it's kind of like a highyield savings account. I don't know the interest I'm making on that, it's probably not high yield. But then anything old that I have mine invested in, I think just like a total stock market fund. I'm I should probably have checked that before I got on here. But the rest of that is just in an index fund, which is why I really liked lively that I could choose that. But that's that's why there's limits, and there's a lower limit for FSA because they don't want you to put a lot of money in there and not be able to use it all. So this is an instance where you have to be sure you want to hit your thirty two hundred. The great thing about an FSA, though, is that you can use it if you have a low deductible plan. And that's why hsas shouldn't be the one hundred percent of the time only used thing, right, it's if you need a low deductible plan. And ETNA has a really great like HSA versus FSA article on like they have actual stories of who would pick an FSA and who would pick an HSA. And so for the HSA, the I guess the I want to say the hero of the story because that's how I referred to it. It's the main character. Sorry, The main character of this story is a young man who's planning for the future. So this is a young man who is very healthy and is just thinking about the future. This is the main character of the HSA story. For the FSA, it's a mom budgeting for her family's health care. So it's because and her name is Maxine. They really do give it all for these They have written a short book, and it says given the families many trips to the doctor, Maxine chooses a low deductible health plan that means she can open an FSA to reimburse her for qualified health expenses. So if if you need a low deductible health plan, if you have a chronic illness, if you have kids that are always injuring themselves and go into the hospital, if you anticipate that you may max out your plan, then choosing an FSA is great for you because you get the added benefit of that you know the low deductile that you want, and you can also save money pre tax for the money you're going to have to spend anyway.
Yeah, I think that for me is the missing link with the FSA. I remember, way back my first social work career, I had like zero benefits. But that is one thing I remember them talking about was you can set money aside for health care, but if you don't use it, then you lose it. And I'm thinking, why would I do that. I'm not a dummy, but I think for this type of situation, And I was also thinking, why would I not just set money aside If I had money to put aside for medical expenses, then why don't I just do that and then I can keep it if I don't end up having medical expenses. But as you're describing with this example, if you do have a lot of medical expenses that you know in a year, setting that money aside with that tax advantaged component, I think is that missing link that I wasn't aware of way back fifteen years ago, And it still wouldn't have been the right choice for me at that time. But I think knowing that there's reasons people choose this and it can be advantageous for you financially. You just have to really know your situation. Okay, there's a few other things on this chart that I thought was worth going over, and well, I just highlighted the one about expiration that for an FSA, you must spend all of the FSA funds before the calendar year or they will expire. So the IRS does let some employers, at their discretion, offer either a grace period through March fifteenth or the following year of the following year, or a rollover of up to six hundred forty dollars. But again, that is a reason to really consider if an FSA is going to be worth it for you, because if you contribute up to that annual amount of thirty two hundred and you don't use all of that thirty two hundred, you'll lose it. Versus with an HSA. Contributions don't expire and they can be rolled over from year to year.
Yeah, and that grace period, that optional grace period is something important. If you have funds in your FSA that you can't use by the end of the year, you can just ask your employer. You know, they may not even know about the grace period that they're able to do this, and so saying like, hey, I really, I have like five hundred dollars in there, can you offer a grace period through March fifteenth so that I can can get this stuff. So that's something that you could talk about. And then as far as eligible expenses for FSA, it's going to be more or less the same for FSA most prescriptions and over the counter medications as well as medical equipment supplies, doctor visits, but not health insurance premiums. That's important. Health insurance premiums cannot be paid for with FSA contributions. And then you can use resources like the FSA store. Literally if you don't know if something's covered by your FSA, you can go to the FSA store see if it's on there. Then you know it's going to be covered, and then you can keep it, use your card to purchase it in the store, or keep your receipt. That's a really quick trick for HSA. In addition to most prescriptions, over the counter drugs, and doctor's expenses. Again, an HSA store is the same thing. I think they are owned by the same company. They are the same website. You can use an HSA balance to pay for Medicare, Cobra and long term care insurance premiums, so that's a big difference. A lot of people will use the HSA again like an investment account like a four oh one K or an IRA and keep that because there's not just a pre tax advantage with the HSA. There's actually something called the triple tax advantage of the HSA. And this is what this is what makes it the darling of the personal finance community. I think because deposits are tax deductible, growth is tax deferred, so you're getting the best you're getting a traditional IRA and a roth ira together, and spending is tax free, so there's no sales tax on it either. That's that's the big the big one. So so you have all this spending is tax free on eligible things. But once you reach a certain age, then you don't have to just spend it on health related.
And that's why I call it a quadruple threat, Like it really can become like a retirement invest in investment account because I think it's sixty five. Once you reach that age, you then have the ability to utilize that money on items other than medical expenses, and so it can in some ways help to supplement your income in retirement. Now, is this what you were saying, though, Jen, about you had a previous HSA with an employer, but now you're not HSA eligible, so you can roll it over.
Correct. I can no longer contribute to my HSA because I don't have a high deductible health plan. I have a health sharing plan, but my HSA is still mine and I'm still holding onto it for any I for any bill that I pay. Now that I don't have insurance, none of my bills are considered. I mean, there's no like premiums, right, So I hold on to all of my medical receipts and even the healthcare sharing like annual contribution, because I don't think that's eligible. But I'm still holding on to it because all I have to do in the future is submit those receipts. When I want to take money out of the account, I submit those receipts too lively, and then I can withdraw that amount tax free even before. And then I can spend that money on whatever I want because I've already in the past spent it on a qualifying purchase. I don't have to spend it in the year, and there's no time limit like I can in twenty years. I hold on to these receipts. I upload them and you know, submit them, and I can take all that money out whenever, and I could just let it sit and grow until I'm ready for it, and.
I don't have to cool.
Yeah, I don't have to wait until i'm, you know, in my sixties to take it out because I've already spent it on a lot of maternity stuff sometimes, Like you could also keep your receipts for all the small like tampons and all of that, but I have enough bigger expenses that I just keep it. I just keep those.
Wow, that's cool. Yeah, okay, Well we've already described a bit on how to consider each one, but we can do one final run through of how to choose which one's going to be right for you.
Yeah, I would say a. This is how you can tell if you want to do one or the others. So consider an HSA. Again, you have to have a high deductible health plan or you cannot consider an HSA. So that's the first first thing. To be eligible for an HSA, you got to have that HDHP. That and also not all high deductible health plans qualify for an HSA, so you have to have an HDHP that meets certain criteria, so double check that. And if you do, even if your employer doesn't offer the HSA, you can get an HSA on your own if it meets those certain criteria. But you are going to a you're gonna want to be really either maxing out or contributing highly to your four oh one K and your IRA. Already, the HSA is really the cherry on top. It's a great investment vehicle, but it's not what you should be prioritizing over an IRA and a four oh one K. So you can be using the HSA if you know you're not going to get really anything out of an FSA and you're already put a really good amount of money into uh A four oh one K and an IRA, because then there's no point if you're still struggling to contribute to the to the IRA, because an IRA you can take contributions out at any time penalty free. It's just the growth that has to stay in there. So really, if you're worried about being able to take money out for medical expenses, then then that really should be where you're prioritizing. But if you're if you're doing good over there, then adding an HSA is a really good idea. Otherwise we're not having this conversations because it's not super important. It's a way to optimize your finances. So and then you want to be able to have like enough enough enough margin to make it worth it, because you need at least two thousand dollars in that uh kind of like highield savings account portion in order to be able to invest anyways. So that would be if your healthy, don't anticipate making any health expense payments, if you are looking for more pre tax incentive and even trying to get some triple tax advantage in the future. HSA is a very good cherry on top, but it's not essential to your retirement plan.
Yeah, and then you should consider an FSSAY if you get it through your work. If it is offered through your work, then it's available to you and consider it. Then the extra considerations are if you do have or anticipate having high medical expenses that year, and if you plan to stay at your job, because again, since it's offered through your job, if you switch jobs and it's not offered anymore, that you could lose that money that respect to so at least plan to say at your job for that year that you have that FSA for so a lot of caveats, but there still are some people where this is going to be a good decision.
Yeah, and thankfully open enrollment is in November, so you can you can evaluate this be looking out for it in November to see, Okay, what is my family's health look like? As am I going to want to get anything done in January? Is my partner going to want to get anything looked at? In January? Are my kids starting weird sports?
Like?
Take an inventory in November and say Okay, I think we all want to get our absesses and weird marts and looked at yeah in January, So this might be the year because you can change every November, right, this might be the year we try the low deductible plan with an FSA because low deductible plans are going to be more expensive, so that's also a thing. You can't pay your premiums with an FSA. You also have to weigh the cost of Okay, if I have a high deductible plan then and an HSA, like how much am I going to pay here? And if I have a low deductible plan with an FSA, what am I going to spend here? So weigh those options for you because every employer's insurance plan is different and that is how you will figure out which one is best for you. But it's probably going to be different year over year, and so you can't say one is inherently better than the other every single year.
Yeah, right. I want to do one little quick fun rundown on like what you cannot spend your funds from an FSA or an HSA to pay for because I think sometimes we think, oh, there's so much you can buy with it. I might as well, but then it doesn't cover everything. So this is knowledge worth having. You cannot use an FSA or an HSA to pay for insurance premiums, so that's your monthly out of pocket just to have the insurance. You cannot use it to pay for any future medical care. So you can't use it like a credit card like I'm going to be putting a down payment on xyz. You can't pay for gym memberships, nutritional supplements, or cosmetic stuff like teeth whitening, face lifts, hair transfers.
Really, because I was thinking about a hair transplant.
Yeah, anything probably volume non essential.
I think volume is essential.
Not medically necessary.
I mean well, I how can you say hair volume is not.
Essential, not medically necessary? Right, You're right.
For my mental health, I need bigger hair.
The one on this list that's a prizes me is gym memberships.
Oh yeah, nothing preventative. They never like future like preventative care or current preventative care.
No, no, they'd rather not know the crisis. They'd rather be reactive than proactive. And yeah, you can remember.
And that's a whole nother podcast, not even on our show. That's a whole other podcasts episode. We'll leave it to them.
But you know what is happening in this episode.
This is our thing, and nobody else can have it. We will.
It is medically necessary. The bill of the week.
That's right, it's time for the best minute of your entire week. Maybe a baby was born and his name is Williams. Maybe you've paid off your mortgage, maybe your car died and you're happy to not I have to pay that bill anymore, Tuft bills, Buffalo bills, bill clan.
This is the bill of the week.
I had a baby in the beginning of the year, but last year I had paid fifty five hundred dollars to have a home birth, but I wound up having to transfer to the hospital. And I was supposed to have him in December, so my deductible had already been met at that time, but he didn't come until January, so then we're not transferred to the hospital. I had built up a balance of seventy eight hundred dollars and I was able to get nineteen hundred dollars off of my collective hospital bills. And then we also had a very large tax bill of forty six hundred dollars so I was able to pay off the hospital bills and our tax bills. So that was a great win for us.
Oh wow, Joshlyn, what a great I remember birds man, babies just don't come when you want them to come unless you schedule your C section. But I remember looking at my hospital bill. I told you this, Jill, when they Bayfront sent me emailed me. Since I'm on healthcare Sharing, they sent all the bills to me, and they made that number in that email so large you could not hide it. And it was like, God, it must have been like seventy eight thousand dollars or something like that. I know seventy eight thousand dollars how much I paid off in debt. So maybe like I'm confusing the numbers, but it was it was like that.
It was that like seventy or eighty of like a sex figure.
I knew I didn't have to pay it. Yeah, because then I submitted it to Healthcare Sharing and they got it like figured out, I think, and totally actually ended up paying them like fourteen thousand or something because they also negotiated. That's why I went with Liberty because they do the negotiating for you, and Mama did not have time with a newborn. But that what a shock, man, that's an expensive hotel stay.
It never ceases to amaze me that we don't listen to these bills ahead of time to our podcast content. But like it does align.
Goldie is probably doing this. We're so shocked every single how is it so perfect?
It's probably Goldie because Goldie is perfection. That's I would imagine that if I were to be having a baby, that'd be one of my major concerns is and you know, reaching my deductible through just the pregnancy and then getting into a new medical coverage year and needing to meet the deductible all over again with the birth.
Like that baby's born in January deserve a punishment when they are an adult, because you also miss out on that tax deduction for the previous year you were, Joshlyn, you were pregnant for most of last year and were not financially compensated for that via the tax deduction. And so when your kids starts asking for real expensive toys one day, real expensive things, you just say, like, hey, you owe me for coming out in January.
You chastise them for preferring the warmth of the.
Uterus versus for all January babies holds of the x tire. This is my hot take for all of you.
Come at Wow. Eric's a January baby.
Yes, he's deep in January though so like his mom probably knew she knew he was coming Janie. But for those ones that plan for.
December jan one, chan.
Few weeks of January, that's for you.
And on the other hand, those December thirty one babies, they are special.
Extra gifts and Christmas because they got You got a tax deduction that you probably weren't thinking about. Wow, blessings.
If you all are listening, you've got something really just that's gonna send us on a tangent. Your name is Bill. You got a bill. You don't mind paying bills, you don't like bills. You didn't pay a bill, you.
Got a really good tax deduction.
Frugal friendspodcast dot com slash bill We're ready for it and now it's time for.
All right, So Goldie's question to us is how much do you contribute to your FSA or HSA each year? And well, you go first job, we'll go into the inner workings of our companies that Frugal Friends does not offer insurance.
We are terrible employers to ourselves.
We are Yeah, we are slave drivers essentially, that's probably that's a horrible phrase to use. We are just overworking our employees ourselves. Yeah, us and yeah, so we we don't have it. But when I had an HSA, I contributed to it for two years because I was maxing out two rath diiras and two and one four oh one k and so then in addition I maxed out and HSI. This was pre kids, after debt, we were debt free, we had no kids. So this was a very great time financially at GRIPS, so great. It was the time to be live. And so now I keep up with that. I can tell you, Jill, why don't you answer, Why don't you talk about your your new thing?
You found it out.
I'll look up my HSA.
Okay, So I currently do not have either an FSA or an HSA. And with a medical sharing plan, which we've already said I have, I am on. So I can't have an HSA with the medical sharing plan. It's technically not insurance. Even though it is a very high deductible. They don't even call it deductible because they can't because it's not insurance, but you choose your deductible yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, yep. And it is when I hear other people talk about what they're high deductible, like mine's ten thousand dollars medical expenses will not be covered until I have paid ten thousand dollars out of pocket. And I think high deductible plans can be considered like fifteen hundred to two thousand dollars, so something far more reasonable to kind of have set aside in like a sinking fund or emergency fund. However, I did just recently discover some thing, and unfortunately I don't have it all worked out for this podcast to give you all an affiliate link for it. But there is a program out there that does provide it's a medical sharing plan, but it allows you to be eligible for an HSA. So I believe this is relatively new in the past couple of years because I'm just now seeing it. But I one day I did a ton of research on this and got really excited. It's definitely something I personally am considering now. The one downside that I've discovered is that it is a little bit more of a monthly cost. They don't call it a premium, but it's essentially a monthly premium because you are technically paying for two things like the plan and the eligibility for an HSA. So it would be maybe about triple what I'm paying currently for my MEDAE sharing plan, but still less than a high deductible plan that I would get through the Affordable Care Act marketplace. So definitely something to consider. I want to say, it's called like HSA for America, for America. Yeah, HSA for America. They've got like an HSA secure plan. If we do get more information on this and it's something that I really will recommend, I will put this in the friend letter. So if you're not getting the Friend Letter Frugal friendspodcast dot com, sign up for it. It's free. We're giving you tips like this type of things. What's the best really our whole goal right now, we found ourselves in a place where we are trying to teach ourselves and others how to spend better, teaching the skill of spending, and that in many ways includes how to buy the things that we all need to buy, how to get the best possible deal, how to be efficient with our money, how to buy quality over quantity. So this would be one of the types of things that we would put in that friend letter, is how to make the best decision with our medical insurance with an FSA or an HSA, basically what you're getting on the podcast, even more deep dives. Sometimes we even talk about how to get pots and pans for the best possible price that are going to have longevity, but really anything. So definitely get that. I will I'll put more about that eventually in the friend letter, but just know that this does exist. If you're like Jen and I, you're on a medical sharing plan and you'd really love the opportunity to have an HSA, it could be possible for you. Again, if you're willing to pay just a little bit more monthly for this type of thing.
Yeah. Otherwise, So I just was looking up my life Lively account and so for Lively it is a minimum of three thousand in your spending account, and in my one that was I think it was with PNC Bank was the one through my employer that was a minimum of two thousand. So that's something to look at. But the fee structure is really good. There are no monthly fees at Lively. If you keep three thousand in your spending account. But if you want to have no minimum, So if you want to put all three thousand plus everything over into they invest with Schwab and I just have a total stock market index fund over there, then you can just pay twenty four dollars a year. So if having that extra three thousand on top of what you have is going to make you more in interest than twenty four dollars a year, it makes more sense. But you have to get to a certain threshold of saving to make that pay for itself. So that's and I don't think we have a Lively affiliate link. I just checked and that link I gave earlier didn't work. But I yeah, I like Lively. Maybe I will make it work. I'll make it, make it, make it work work, I'll make it work. But it has been good to me, and I'm not paying the fees that I used to be paying at PNC once I once I left my employer.
Nice.
Yeah, So thank you all for listening. This is a dry topic, but I hope if it for the small number of you that needed it, I hope it helped you. And if you could leave Iranian Review, that would be great. It will help us figure out that these specific episodes are kind of like what people are wanting. Like Beth b the Bulah says, great podcast five stars. As a fellow frugal person, I love your ideas and conversations. I especially love the interviews and tips that you have. Keep it up, ladies, it's a nice one.
That is a nice one. We love it when you all review.
It could also be Beth Ebulah or be the Bulah.
I read it as be the Bulah, but okay, great, yeah, thank you, thanks for that kind review. If you all listening have not yet left us a rating and review, now is the time we are doing a PSA, a call to action, just begging. Basically, we're just over here begging and pleading because.
Am I think you still have one day? This is the last day too. I know we didn't say this at the top of the episode, so if you're hearing this, this is your last opportunity today. Only send us a rate, do a rating and review on Apple, take a screenshot before you submit it, send it to us. Jen at Frugal Friends Podcast, we're giving away one hundred dollars gift card, so if you want.
One hundred dollars running. Then submit, Yeah, because we got to get those We got to get those ratings and reviews up there. It's part of our efforts for selling our book is having our ratings and reviews.
We have a fantastic rating. I just want more.
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We legit.
Do that.
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Okay, thanks everyone, see you next time.
Frugal Friends is produced by Eric Sirianni. Okay, Jill, should I talk about my faral child?
Oh my gosh, yes, this was nuts.
So so this morning my one year old is feral. He is unhinged. And so this morning I get the kids ready and off to school alone because Travis leaves for work before we wake up, and I have Kai on his tablet. I bribed him to get dressed and ready to go by saying he could be on his tablet before school. And I got baby like in high chair, eight a banana ate, some yogurt mouths, and it's time and we are having a good morning. You know, this is it's good by all intents and purposes. So I get baby out of high chair because he loves to stand up. It doesn't matter if he's strapped in or not. He wriggles himself up, stands up in the high chair and will like put his leg over to just get down. And I've never let him get further than that. I don't want to know what happens after that. So he's not strapped in, then no, but he'll do it even if he is struck. Yeah, it doesn't matter. So like, it just doesn't. He does it at home, he does it a daycare, like.
He figures that away.
Yeah, he does it in karts at the supermarket or at home, depot gets out of the strap. It just doesn't matter. He's a little slippery, little snake. And so I get him out of the high chair because I don't want him to kill himself. So I move my coffee and my water from the coffee table up to the high chair so that he doesn't pour those things.
Out, right, because now he's down on the ground and so he's up up piate.
Eighteen things going on in my head at once, right, And so I'm like, it's time to go, I go into my bathroom to brush my teeth. I come out a minute later, and Atlas is just standing there with a smile on his face, and my coffee cup wrong side down and he's standing in a puddle of coffee. It's all over him and.
And he's smiling. He's not screaming. He did not It wasn't because it's not.
A mother's coffee is never hot, so uh, and we have to go like it's the minute, Like I left my teeth brushing, it's the last thing I do. And then we go and normally, actually sometimes I'll strap him into the car seat and then go back in and brush my teeth. But we were just having such a good warning that I really let my guard slip. And I come back he is standing in the puddle of coffee.
And was this on your wood floor or was this over a carpet wood floor?
Yeah, And so I'm like, what do I do? And so I take off his clothes and I'm holding him out like the poop hold, like when you don't want to hold them on their butt, you're just holding them in their armpits. And then I'm using my foot with the clothes and a dishrag to like wipe up.
Oh he's clothes to yeah, funny.
And to wipe up the thing, the puddle, so that as we speak, the clothes and the dish raggers are still still on the ground, but there's like not a pool, like a puddle.
That's great.
And then I just carry him into his room, wipe him with a wet wipe and put different clothes on him, and then immediately to.
The car, immediately out the door. And you know what, you still made it to my house early today.
Well, because I chose not to work out. Well, we had a deadline when we had to be at school and daycare, and so we still made those deadlines.
Sometimes it's sacrifice, but it's not deprivation.
Yeah, I don't know how that I would. I had already decided not to work out before the coffee thing happened. Yeah, okay, but this just meant I could tell you the story earlier. And yeah, like unhinged.
Will Travis get home before you today?
No, I will get home first, so I'll finish cleaning it up.
Yeah.
I took a video of Atlas over the weekend because he always stops doing weird stuff as soon as I pull my camera out. But this weekend I really caught him doing something that was just He climbed up to the top of the coffee table and is just spinning around.
In the confirmed. I'm watching Yellow. He's on a table spinning.
And you know, the sounds not on, but he is yelling.
And then he fell and he knocked something off the table. But he's fine.
Yeah, he's always fine, thankfully.
He just wants to be higher than he currently is.
Yeah.
And if he's not doing that, he wants destruction, yes, And I can't wait to see what happens next.