Our (Ridiculously Simple) Method for Choosing the Right Healthcare Plan For You
Choosing the right healthcare plan can be intimidating, especially if you’re doing it for the first time. The stakes are high; the options are confusing; there’s often a small window during which you can make the choice before you lose your chance; and the whole thing highlights the merciless jank that is our healthcare system!
Luckily, there’s an incredibly easy, 100% foolproof way to make the decision. Here’s our secret to choosing the right healthcare plan:
First, you put it off until there’s only, like, two days left to pick. Then, you forward all your onboarding documents to your dad’s wife, Carol. She is the perfect person for the task, being both generous and detail-oriented in a way you will never understand. Finally, you pick whichever one she says, and never think about it again until your soul walks the halls of the Duat and Anubis weighs your heart against Ma’at’s Feather of Eternal Truth.
DO NOT VOLUNTEER TO BE A CO-SIGNER OR GUARANTOR FOR SOMEONE ON TUMBLR.
I just saw a 'mutual aid' post going around where instead of asking for donations, the person was asking someone to be a "guarantor" - also known as a "co-signer" - for their rent.
DO NOT DO THIS.
I am all for mutual aid. I think credit scores are a scam designed to fuck poor people. I get it. I do. BUT. Being a guarantor/co-signer for someone basically means that if they don't pay what they owe, for whatever reason, their landlord, bank, creditors, etc. can and will come after you for the full amount.
It seems like such an easy way to help someone. You don't need to pay any money, just lend them your name and good reputation so they can get permission to borrow and spend their own money. It feels like you're getting one over on the shitty capitalist system and using your privilege of good credit/income to help someone else.
But it is a HUGE risk. Do not do this. All it does is give that shitty system more ways to get their hooks into you and create tons of problems for you down the line.
You can really fuck yourself over in the long run by getting tangled up in a financial situation like this. Even co-signing for someone in your life who you trust, like a sibling or a parent, can be really risky. No matter how much you trust someone not to purposefully leave you holding the bag, now you're on the hook if they end up with financial problems neither of you anticipated.
Do not co-sign for another person's loan, car, rent, etc. unless you are able and prepared to pay the full amount or subject yourself to the mercy of whatever that person gets themselves into.
ESPECIALLY do not do this for someone on the internet, where scams are rife. Do not share your personal information with people online and NEVER allow someone else to use your personal information for their finances.
Women used to sell their engagement / wedding rings to escape abusive marriages. Learn from your foremothers. Never tell a man you have your own money. Financial freedom is the most important of all.
Having your own savings and source of income that can't be stolen from you gives you so many opportunities. Don't fall for their smooth words under the guise of 'fairness' and 'trust'. Protect yourselves and only trust yourself. For your safety and autonomy.
It can be the difference between being homeless and being safe. Spread the word.
I had this exact conversation with a friend last week. She had over $3K in a Roth account just SITTING THERE. Not invested in anything. But how would she know?? Nobody ever explained it all to her, they just told her to open a Roth IRA and deposit money every month.
So this is just a reminder to all of you since I often post about financial planning and saving for retirement!!! Make the IRA contributions and then buy assets with that money!
I want to take a min to spread awareness for the No Surprises Act after noticing a reddit post earlier.
This protection for patients just popped up in the past couple years, and the one major downside is that it's up to the patients to speak up to make use of it, but not everyone knows what it is.
"If you have private health insurance, these new protections ban the most common types of surprise bills.
If you’re uninsured or you decide not to use your health insurance for a service, under these protections, you can often get a good faith estimate of the cost of your care up front, before your visit."
Consumer fact sheet
Typically, health insurance companies will help pay for bills from "in-network" providers, AKA their VIP inner circle gang turf. They won't help pay if you get medical care from another gang's henchmen (out of network).
This means that sometimes, a person would go to the hospital, which they knew had been covered by their insurance before, so they expect it's going to be relatively affordable. But they didn't know that multiple medical "gangs" were working in the same hospital. Their anesthesiologist, for example, was from a different gang. That specialist was out of network even though the surgeon and nurses were all in network.
Boom. Big bill for thousands of dollars and their insurance refuses to help pay it.
But now we have this law! The No Surprises Act means that insurance companies need to cover "surprise" expenses (under certain conditions).
If you don't have health insurance, hospitals and clinics need to give you an accurate quote before you get services, then foot the bill if they were too far off the mark.
The Fact Sheet section of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services have some wonderful user-friendly resources for you about health insurance and how this act works.
Keep in mind that Medicare and government-run programs always have weird rules for everything, so you might have different (yet similar) protections through those programs.
If you have a medical bill that wasn't covered by insurance and you think it might count as a surprise bill, please check out your rights and consider fighting it instead of letting it become a stressful expense or debt you can't repay.
Go here to start figuring things out for your situation:
Health insurance companies have way, waaaaay too much power over our lives. We need every drop of protection we can get - but it only counts as much as we can understand and use those protections!
Hi sweetie, how are you? Do you have some podcast’s recommendations? I don’t mind the topic, it could be about finance, mental health, self development, powerful women! Thank you <3
Hi love! Sharing some recommendations below. Hope this helps xxx
If you want to know why there's a generational disconnect when you talk about pay, here you go. In 1982, the average starting salary for a college graduate was reported to be $22,449/year. [1]
In 2023, the median salary (not even just starting) for a college graduate aged 25-34 was $59,600. [2]
Now that sounds good, right? More than double? Well, let's take a closer look.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Inflation Calculator [3], $22,449 in 1982 had the same purchasing power as $71,617.79 in 2023. In other words, that "more than double" in nominal terms is actually almost a 17% DECREASE in real value.
If anyone is wondering what those dang Millennials and GenZ kids are complaining about, this is it.
We have lovingly, painstakingly updated our tax filing how-to guide for the 2023 tax year. So if you haven't filed your tax return yet, here's everything you need to know... including the due date, which is a month away.
So I used a personal finance management app that aggregates all the accounts I have in one place. The company that owns it shut it down at the end of the last year and transitioned it to another site they own. It does absolutely fucking nothing that I need it to do, which includes:
show me balances from all my connected accounts
track spending
sort/recategorize/tag transactions
set budgets
Literally the only functionality it retains is the ability to sell me shit. Which I was fine with (lights gotta stay on somehow) when I got use out of the site, but now it has been enshittified.
The other thing this experience has reminded me of is you should find a service that aggregates all your bank accounts. Empower is the one I'm using because it's got the same functionality as Mint, but there are other options*. Your bank/credit union might also offer a similar service.
It's a lot like using a password manager--it's a giant pain to set up initially, but it will ultimately make your life so much easier. All your account balances in one place** so you don't have to log in to each individual site to check! A unified view of your finances!
It is, of course, not a solution for not having enough money, but clarity on your purchases and subscriptions can help you identify things you don't want/need, as well as overcharges and discrepancies.
I know better money management is a popular new year's resolution, and this is a pretty easy step towards that. You don't have to add all your accounts at once. But I find it satisfying to see the picture become clearer. Also, graphs.
--
* Search "mint pfm alternatives" if you want to know more. Most options I found were paid but maybe you're a person who would shell out for useful features. Monarch looks amazing for people with shared finances.
** It's totally safe. I deal with this shit for a living. I can explain more if you want but it's boring.
took a day trip to a lower part of ohio today for yet again another car meet! super cool and met so many lovely people and of course here we are now again studying… the cost of school D: