Health Savings Account (HSA): How Do I Invest It?

The Health Savings Account (HSA) is an amazing tool that a lot of people have been talking about. It is meant to help you save money on insurance and make your life simpler, maybe even help you be healthier.

A Health Savings Account is an investment. You may not have thought of it that way, but it is.

When you open your HSA, your insurance agent or financial advisor will ask you "How do you want to invest this?"

Your answer to that question might mean the difference between having money for that emergency operation or not having it.

There isn't room here for a big explanation of investing principles, but I can tell you that there are volatile investments and stable investments.

A volatile investment would be putting money into a fast-moving stock on the stock market. One day it's up, the next day it takes a dive.

The most stable investment is a bank account. You get paid a certain interest rate and that's that. No volatility. And not much benefit either, because the interest rate will be quite small.

My recommendation to you is to invest your HSA money into a bond mutual fund. Bonds are a special type of investment that are less risky than stocks, but more beneficial than a bank account.

By investing in a bond mutual fund, you'll have a steady rate of growth with no big up's or down's. Some months your investment might go down a little, but it won't be dramatic. And, over time, you'll beat that bank account interest by several percentage point.

Bond mutual funds are your best option for HSA investment. Ask your HSA custodian if they offer this type of investment for their HSA. If they don't, shop around until you find one who does.

If you cannot find someone offering a bond mutual fund, then stick with a money market account. That is your second-best choice. You want something very stable, because you never know when you'll have to tap into that money. Healthcare emergencies don't give us advance notice, do they?

Health Savings Accounts will change how we think of healthcare. They are the key to fixing the current healthcare crisis in America, and they will help your small business, self-employment or individual healthcare situation.

Daryl Kulak is the author of the book "Health Insurance Off the Grid - A Wonderful Way to Use Alternative Medicine and Save Money on Insurance Using the New Health Savings Account (HSA)." The book is available for sale as an e-Book or paperback at the Website http://www.healthoffthegrid.com

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table border=0 width= valign=top cellpadding=2 cellspacing=7trtd valign=top class=jfont style=font-size:85%;font-family:arial,sans-serifbrdiv style=padding-top:0.8em;img alt= height=1 width=1/divdiv class=lha href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/1-0fd=Rurl=http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/triage/2008/12/health-insuranc.htmlcid=1276133500ei=Cck0SZuMM5jI9ASM7YEjusg=AFQjCNFTQbzZSmJnNBT_qkZJqMRPMUH5sQHealth binsurance/b sticker shock hits consumers/abrfont size=-1font color=#6f6f6fChicago Tribune,nbsp;United Statesnbsp;-/font nobr10 hours ago/nobr/fontbrfont size=-1Health binsurance/b sticker shock overcame Mickey Trznadel when he opened an envelope from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois earlier this year, b.../b/fontbrfont size=-1a href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/1-1fd=Rurl=http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/Blue-Cross-Blue-Shield-Michigan/story.aspx%3Fguid%3D%257B5379FA18-BBBE-4084-A40A-AB5CFFB0BDAD%257Dcid=1276133500ei=Cck0SZuMM5jI9ASM7YEjusg=AFQjCNHgV6Ejm3vpuw1VjRyNkduDR0Kr5QBlue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan Answers Attorney General/a font size=-1 color=#6f6f6fnobrMarketWatch/nobr/font/fontbrfont size=-1a href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/1-2fd=Rurl=http://www.mlive.com/annarbornews/news/index.ssf/2008/12/blues_michigan_ag_continue_hea.htmlcid=1276133500ei=Cck0SZuMM5jI9ASM7YEjusg=AFQjCNGjnpDWBKqDWSRNnNb83P1ukvwKlQBlues, Michigan AG continue health binsurance/b fight/a font size=-1 color=#6f6f6fnobrMLive.com/nobr/font/fontbrfont size=-1a href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/1-3fd=Rurl=http://www.mlive.com/kzgazette/news/index.ssf/2008/12/blue_cross_blue_shield_of_mich.htmlcid=1276133500ei=Cck0SZuMM5jI9ASM7YEjusg=AFQjCNGNFVbDv5Qu-_bdQxo21B3569rdAwBlue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan continues push for health b.../b/a font size=-1 color=#6f6f6fnobrKalamazoo Gazette - MLive.com/nobr/font/fontbrfont size=-1 class=pa href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/1-4fd=Rurl=http://www.freep.com/article/20081201/FEATURES08/81201068cid=1276133500ei=Cck0SZuMM5jI9ASM7YEjusg=AFQjCNHVTDte5_IUOTlrC-yYuqOchJacpQnobrDetroit Free Press/nobr/anbsp;- a href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/1-5fd=Rurl=http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article/20081201/FREE/812010270/-1cid=1276133500ei=Cck0SZuMM5jI9ASM7YEjusg=AFQjCNHGxv4T9_c2NudKJp4xXAArPoSqHgnobrCrain's Detroit Business/nobr/a/fontbr/font class=p size=-1a class=p href=http://news.google.com/news?sourceid=navclientie=ISO-8859-1rls=GGLG,GGLG:2005-22,GGLG:enncl=1276133500hl=ennobrall 23 news articles/nobr/a/font/div/font/td/tr/table

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