What I’m quickly realizing about life is, no matter what you do right, it’s increasingly difficult to get ahead. Everyone goes through it, but I guess I’m (more or less) just starting out.
Marrying Amie was the best thing in my life. But a big part of being married, that I hadn’t considered before, is insurance. Yes, insurance. It drives me insane. Right now, our insurance expenses cover: life, car(s), ring(s), and since we’re still renting, we have renter’s insurance. On top of that, a recent quote for health insurance—just to add Amie (she’s still a full-time student)—came in at just under $500/month! “But it’s pre-taxed.” Oh OK, that makes everything just fine. And another thing about insurance, anytime you actually use it, the provider raises the cost. It’s absolutely absurd how much insurance costs, but at the same time, you’ve got to have it.
I honestly feel like I’ve done just about everything right so far in life, and I still get smacked in the face with a few things. I’m learning first hand why it’s so very important to invest, invest, invest while you’re young. We don’t have kids or a dog, and it feels like it takes nearly everything we have just to make it. I’m so excited to get a house, but it’s no fun to realize the budget we thought we had is about 25% less.
A friend of a friend told me about a guy who got a raise that pushed him into the next tax bracket. After his raise, he ended up making less than he was before the raise. And all you can say is… that’s life!
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I wish I could tell you that it all gets easier, but it just keeps coming… however, remember that your budget doesn’t define your life. You have so many talents and abilities you will be fine. You are one of the most planned, prepared, and focused people I know. By the way, I hate insurance, too.
Well, thanks for the kind words. I know what you mean, my budget shouldn’t define my life. And it doesn’t, but man, when a huge portion of my income goes out to insurance (which keeps going up each year), it’s hard to ignore. It makes saving for a house a lot harder, too. It’s not going away, though, so I suppose I shouldn’t dwell on it.
You might also think about having your wife get her own policy. We ran into a similar situation, and opted to have me and our daughter under our own policy as it would be cheaper.
The two of us are health and rarely make doctor visits. So, we went with a high deductible policy that qualified us for a HSA. We paid a $275 monthly premium and put $200 into the HSA. In the end, a monthly total of $475 came out our pockets, after tax. But, you have a choice in terms of the amount you want to deposit into the HSA. We simply chose to do $200 monthly contributions.
Our other option was to get added onto my husbands policy and increase our monthly premium (pre-tax of course) to $800.
Hope that helps. :)
We’re definitely considering other options—anything to avoid that ridiculous monthly cost. I’m currently looking into what the college offers. Since she graduates in December and will (potentially) have her own insurance through a company, it may be the way we go. Thanks for the advice; we’ll take all we can get!
Income up to the tax bracket change is still taxed at the old rate, so only the additional dollars above that line are taxed at the new rate.
So, move up into a new tax bracket with impunity!