Just need to vent...

You can get some serious growth going for you even with limits on what you annually put in.

You can only put 4 odd thousand a year into a health savings account. That's great if you start one early in your career.

I had an employer that jumped on the HDHP+HSA bandwagon late in my career, making it not very easy to grow any useful amount in the account (even compared to one year's possible deductible!).

Still, there were ways at least to make best use of the situation. The employer offered to put in a few hundred a year, and I could elect an amount to deduct from each paycheck, though it all had to add up to less than the yearly limit by the end of the year.

For the first few years I set the monthly paycheck deduction at zero, and instead wrote one check early in the year to the HSA account, for the yearly limit minus the employer contribution. That way I could have the maximum possible amount earning growth the whole year, instead of small monthly amounts dribbling in. The first year, that also meant I immediately reached the threshold for putting the account funds in better investments than the HSA custodian's tiny interest rate.

Didn't take very long before the HSA itself could earn more in a year than what the employer was contributing, and it just kept improving from there.

 

I did that to point out the fact that "living wages" - aren't.
It sets an artificial floor but not an artificial ceiling.

The minimum wage here is $7.25...but that's not the real-world minimum wage at any of the fast food joints (we have most of them) big box stores (we have most of those too,) or mom-and-pop operations.
Eggs are cheaper in the country - AND so are taxes, housing, etc....
Although I DID pay nearly $5 for 'hen-berries' just yesterday.
Location
Location
Location.

I get it.
Colorado is a pretty place, but if it's expensive to live there you have to work harder or smarter.
Work-life balance makes working more than 40 hours a week 'harder' but not impossible. Ask any veteran.
Education isn't the end all be all of having a successful career. I got my last two jobs on the strength of being an Electronics Tech, with a clearance (which means only no felonies to my present employer) after 11 years of active duty.

You're over 50.
I get that too.
So am I.
I am becoming more and more sympathetic with people who are forced to retire before 70!

You have the RIGHT to vent about it, which is the point of this thread, but you also have the privilege to enjoy your friends, family, home town, etc....
Hope you retire happy!!

If you're still in your 50's you still have a LOT of rudder input over that!!

 

Did you mean "after" 70?

It's also not just cost to income to balance. It's also willing to accept less.

• For an example, we live in the cheapest rent in town, a small mobile home.
  
• We hardly ever eat food that wasn't made from scratch, including food from our garden.
  
• We don't get ski tickets or go to movies.
  
• We usually own only one car.
  
• We don't have any subscriptions except a Microsoft 365 Office subscription that I'm planning on canceling.
  
• I'm even contemplating canceling our $30/mo internet service because I'm possibly spending too much time on Priuschat and don't really see much benefit in having internet for other things. It's just a way to get ads to buy more stuff and an easy way to just buy that stuff in the ads. I can get the internet at places like the library when in need.
• If I did own y own home and had health insurance and a retirement plan I'd still live the same way I do now and give my extra money to charity.

Thanks for listening to me vent

I just hope my family is happy and that I've made my community a better place... with or without my retirement or health care.

 

Post Office? Maybe someone will retire. My daughter is single and a family income can be higher and still be on the lower premium tiers. I don’t know why hers is what it is but she still says it’s too high. Hers may be a little less income, but I know the gross is about like yours. On another note, she pays uncle sam her withholding deduction and gets just a tiny refund.

 

I'm positive I'll find a job that I'll like. I'm looking at an ad for a city job that looks like just came out today as a shop technician that has full benefits and looks like may start out at a salary of more than I make now plus full benefits, such as a matched 401k. And the good thing is I already have all the requirements for the job including many of ones that they say "must be willing to obtain" such as a commercial driver's license, mechanic experience and valid 1st aid and CPR training.