California leads the nation with starting the open enrollment for ACA health insurance on October 15, versus November 1 in the rest of the country. As I mentioned in the previous post When ACA Insurance Does Not Include Your Doctor, we are switching from a PPO to an HMO next year to save $5,600/year. As I went through the open enrollment process, I noticed one thing that I didn't know before. Although you report your total household income to the health insurance exchange, you don't have to [...]
When ACA Insurance Does Not Include Your Doctor
Since I left my full-time job in April, my wife and I get our health insurance from the ACA healthcare exchange (called Covered CA in California). We have an HSA-eligible Bronze PPO plan from Blue Shield of California. We pay the unsubsidized premium [...]
Easy Early Retirement Portfolio Withdrawals
We're in the 4th quarter now. It's time to plan for the next year. When I left my full-time job in April, I still earned enough to cover our expenses for the rest of the year. Next year will be the first full calendar year in which we will be 100% [...]
2019 Social Security COLA
[Updated on October 11, 2018.] The official announcement for 2019 Social Security cost of living adjustment (COLA) came out. The COLA in 2019 will be larger than in 2018, but it's actually bad news. Social Security COLA goes by the increase in [...]
Where To Get Vaccine Shots For International Travel
Last month we saw a good airfare deal we couldn't refuse. A round-trip ticket from the west coast to Kenya was under $900. We are going to climb Mount Kenya in January. We are also thinking of going to Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, and possibly Cambodia [...]
What To Do With A Maturing CD
Shop for Healthcare Cost When You Have High Deductible Insurance
More and more people are on high deductible health insurance these days. Most people on high deductible insurance don't meet their annual deductible when the deductible is $3,000, $5,000, or sometimes over $10,000 a year. In such case you are [...]
When Tax Efficient Asset Placement Doesn’t Make Much Difference
Tax efficient asset placement, also known as asset location (as opposed to asset allocation), is the practice of figuring out which investments should be held in which account based on each investment's tax efficiency. The idea is that when you have [...]
