What's your ideal target for an HSA?

[Anonymous]

What's your ideal target amount to be saved in an HSA before you reach retirement age?

[Anonymous]

Is there a limit? Is it ever taxed?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is there a limit? Is it ever taxed?

There isn’t a lifetime limit but you can’t contribute more than $4300 (self only) or $8550 (family) in 2025. I don’t think there’s an aggregate limit…

[Anonymous]

You can't overdo it. Max it out each year you have it available.

[Anonymous]

As much as humanly possible. I also try to put high growth investments in the HSA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What's your ideal target amount to be saved in an HSA before you reach retirement age?

$2M.

DH and I are in our early 40s and have an HSA with Fidelity that just hit $500K. Mostly invested in individual stocks and ETFs and actively traded. We have a separate one with HSABank that is directly tied to our Cigna HSA at work, but we only put employer contributions in that one and it is all cash, $20K. Whenever the cash balance exceeds what we think we might need to withdraw for emergency medical expenses (which we’ve never done yet), we transfer the rest to the Fidelity HSA.

[Anonymous]

HSAs are one of the most generous and flexible tax dodges available. I would think the "ideal target" would be as large a number as one can manage.

[Anonymous]

Realistically about 200K or 300K.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What's your ideal target amount to be saved in an HSA before you reach retirement age?

$2M.

DH and I are in our early 40s and have an HSA with Fidelity that just hit $500K. Mostly invested in individual stocks and ETFs and actively traded. We have a separate one with HSABank that is directly tied to our Cigna HSA at work, but we only put employer contributions in that one and it is all cash, $20K. Whenever the cash balance exceeds what we think we might need to withdraw for emergency medical expenses (which we’ve never done yet), we transfer the rest to the Fidelity HSA.

Huh? You have $500k in your HSA? This product has only been in existence since 2004. If you’re early 40s now, when did you start contributing?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What's your ideal target amount to be saved in an HSA before you reach retirement age?

$2M.

DH and I are in our early 40s and have an HSA with Fidelity that just hit $500K. Mostly invested in individual stocks and ETFs and actively traded. We have a separate one with HSABank that is directly tied to our Cigna HSA at work, but we only put employer contributions in that one and it is all cash, $20K. Whenever the cash balance exceeds what we think we might need to withdraw for emergency medical expenses (which we’ve never done yet), we transfer the rest to the Fidelity HSA.

Huh? You have $500k in your HSA? This product has only been in existence since 2004. If you’re early 40s now, when did you start contributing?

sounds like some sort of Dear Diary post.

[Anonymous]

As much as possible. We only got access about 10 years ago. I believe you have to be on a HDHP to do it, right?

[Anonymous]

$0. These gimmicky plans have large risk of mishandling that negates the tax benefits.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:$0. These gimmicky plans have large risk of mishandling that negates the tax benefits.

You don’t seem to have a firm understanding of what this is. It’s just an investment account. It’s self-managed. If someone “mishandles” it, that’s on them.

[Anonymous]

Is there a downside to accruing a high balance? What if you stay relatively healthy in retirement? (Or die on the younger side due to an accident or something). Had for me to understand what $2M would be used for if you don’t need a home health aide or expensive medical intervention.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is there a downside to accruing a high balance? What if you stay relatively healthy in retirement? (Or die on the younger side due to an accident or something). Had for me to understand what $2M would be used for if you don’t need a home health aide or expensive medical intervention.

There is no real harm. After the second spouse dies, it comes a taxable inheritance to kids. So they pay tax on it and keep the rest. It’s no diffferent than if you never had an HSA and paid income tax on that money over your life, rather than tax sheltering it. Obviously the better option is spending it on things that qualify. And the list of things that qualify is much less restricted after age 65.