How To Choose Your Benefits

The last time I decided to choose a job over a career I decided that no one would ever be able to hold the benefits over me. Personally, a job or a career should not only meet your monetary needs, but also provide for your intrinsic needs without threatening to take away your health insurance, vision insurance, dental insurance, vacation pay away. While I could go on a whole rant about this (trust me I want to), I digress. If you, like me, would rather hustle to accomplish goals and make ends meet then I have an ultimate cheat sheet for you!

1. Vision Insurance - If you don't need it, consider yourself very fortunate. However, even just having a base plan to cover emergency surgeries and services is not a bad idea. Unlike health insurance, vision insurance can be started or stopped throughout the year. If you do need it, you can find an inexpensive plan that covers what you need just by searching for it and then reading over the plan benefits.

   
   

2. Dental Insurance - Fun fact: If you get an infection in your teeth and it works its way to the cranial (skull) nerves it can spread to your brain and cause all sorts of really terrible effects up to and including death. The first thing I'd do is decide which provider you want to be seen by. Maybe you have a dentist from the past ten years that's been consistently treating you and you like them. Find out what insurances they accept and look them After you find the one that works for you, make sure you read the fine print including: coverage for cleanings, x-rays, cavities, crowns, and root canals so you have a good understanding of what exactly is covered, what's not and how much you're looking at out-of-pocket.

   
   

3. Health Insurance- I shop every year on the Health Insurance Marketplace to find the best insurance for my budget. When I am researching different plans I utilize their comparison feature to make sure what I'm paying for each month is a good option. Here are some things to watch out for in addition to the monthly cost:

   1. ER Costs- Some plans will only cover a percentage and others will cover the majority but charge you a set amount for the entire visit. Be Careful! If you choose a $10/month plan, but your ER copay is 40% and you only make $2,000 per month, you're in trouble. If you need a CT scan, an MRI, Stitches, plus medication you're looking somewhere near the $50,000+ range. 40% of $50,000 = $20,000. While most hospitals have charity programs and are able to write off what you can't pay, be prepared for that price tag to send you back to the ER.

   2. Prescription Coverage - There is a feature on the health insurance marketplace that allows you to double check if your medications are covered. Please use this! The last thing you want to do is find out, after you're locked in, is that your medication you rely on everyday isn't covered.

   3. Therapy/Mental Health Coverage: If you want, need, or rely on any kind of mental health support be sure to check and see if your provider is covered and what the co-pay is and if it applies to your deductible. Most of the time the copay for therapy and/or mental health services does not apply to your deductible. Also check to make sure you can afford the co-pay based on the frequency of your appointments.

   4. Providers- Remember how I mentioned you can check for the coverage of your prescriptions? You can do the same with providers. If you have a doctor you enjoy working with double check to make sure they're going to be covered by your insurance. There's nothing worse than finding out they're not covered and now you're stuck with either a cancellation fee, because you don't want to pay full cost of the insurance, or finding out after and getting stuck with the entire cost of the appointment.

   5. Hospitals - Same principles apply, make sure the nearest hospital near you is covered by your insurance. If they are out-of-network you may get stuck paying significantly more than you think.

      
      

4. Retirement - We're going to dive-in in much more detail in the next post but just know as much as the company-match is a beautiful thing, you don't have to rely on your employer to start a retirement fund for you. There are a ton of options that you can start with just a small amount and grow over time (this is the next post coming out in two days, stay tuned!).

   
   

5. Vacation Time - Yes, a career position (full-time with benefits) will cover some paid-for time off. However, relying on that alone gives you a limited amount of time, unless you work for an employer that allows you to earn unlimited time off, can be detrimental to your needs or your family's needs. So here's what I recommend, put money away each month to go towards a vacation fund. Whether you rent a condo on the beach or spend a week at the theme parks having that money in place can serve you in the future. Future-you will thank you. Plus you won't be surviving on only what your employer can provide. Besides, we're all about financial freedom, right?

   
   

6. Stocks- You can buy your own stocks. There's a few apps and websites that offer a platform that's easy to use:

   1. RobinHood

   2. So-Fi

   3. JP Morgan

   4. Public

   5. Acorns

   6. ZACKSTRADE

   7. etoro

   8. STASH

      
      

      If you want to go the traditional route and hire a financial advisor I recommend looking for reviews as well as their credentials. Do your background-check-level research. It's important to choose a good one or you may just end up losing your small fortune (if you want to read more, don't worry! I'll be doing a post on this later on this month).

      
      

      

      
      
      
      

   At the end of the day, being responsible for your own benefits can mean a significant amount of freedom in making decisions that are best for you and your family. You may not get the discounts that an employer would provide for the cost of your plans. However, with employer-sponsored insurances you are obligated to sign up for that specific company. You may not get to choose what providers you work with and your medications may or may not be covered. My best recommendation to you is to do your due diligence and research. If you are offered sponsored insurance then call the company and find out if the providers, medications, and mental health services you use and rely on are covered. No insurance plan is perfect, but choosing the one that's the right fit for you can give you significantly more freedom.

Happy Budgeting!

Ellie/TBM