High deductible health plans and your adult children on your insurance (you need to know)

 What you don’t know could get you audited.

Luckily I had came upon this a few years ago when my oldest went out on his own. But I was disappointed to find that our congress and most HR staff didn’t know that when congress allowed parents to keep their children on their health insurance until age 26 and high deductible health plans (HDHP) came along they didn’t fix tax code to match up to the change and make it make sense.

So yep you can keep them on there but you cannot pay their medical bills with your HSA (health savings account) finds unless you are able to legally claim as a dependent. That’s really only possible with student adult or disabled children. Publication 969 explains all of this.

When I tell HR this they say well just have said child open their own HSA? That does work if your child also has their own employer sponsored HDHP. If not, the employer won’t set up an HSA so the child would have to get their own through a bank and most local banks will charge fees AND they’re no longer getting the tax savings of having it deducted from their paycheck. You’re better off putting it anywhere else at that point.

In my middle sons case, he got a job with the same large organization I happen to work for, so they don’t allow him to have his own and be on mine. So he’s only going to be on mine so at least he gets the benefit of meeting the family deductible until later, when he turns 26. And if he decides to return to grad school this will be better in the long run.  In my middle sons case, he got a job with the same large organization I happen to work for, so they don’t allow him to have his own and be on mine. So he’s only going to be on mine so at least he gets the benefit of meeting the family deductible until later, when he turns 26. And if he decides to return to grad school this will be better in the long run.

Fortune, when they turn 18 in my house I made them open a Roth IRA. They all work at age 16, so they all can legally contribute. They just open it with $2k to start and that starts the clock ticking on the 5 year rule.

That’s another topic for another day!  #healthinsurance #healthinsuranceadultchildren #adultchildinsurance #claimingdependents

Sweet little kitten

 

We love our sweet little kitten so much. He’s not such a kitten anymore. He’s  over a year. His sleeping positions, in the summer heat, crack us up. He lies on the floor, in various chairs and hangs off the zero gravity lounger.  He always makes us laugh and is so sweet. 

Our sweet Loki is growing up. 

We waited….I waited…a long time

 

I have wanted a pool since I was a kid. I LOVE the water. I was born to be near the water. When the older kids were little we had a couple of framed pools for several years. $100 was all we could afford but they had fun in it. It was worth it. I still wanted a pool I could float in but couldn’t make sense of the expense.  

THEN…. The mortgage rates dropped and the interest we saved refinancing down to 2.375 and 15 years was about $100k in interest. We cashed the house some money (while keeping in range by plenty so as not to pay PMI) and found someone to put in a pool. This is of course, more  than 10 years after all those small pools but it was worth the wait. It was never for them. It was for us to enjoy. We will be here even after they fly. And we use it almost every day. And the biggest reward is having friends and family over to enjoy with us AND the pool completely eliminates my husbands nerve pain from his spinal cord injury. Wait for what you really want. 

Keep dreaming and keep trying and working. 

#waitfordreams #patience #nervepainrelief #refinanceforpool #worthit

Samsung electric stove review

 

Out with our old broken Maytag. Good riddance. I hate aqua clean ovens. They DON’T clean!  But the electronics quit working so we decided to sell this one super cheap to someone who could fix it themselves. It was going to cost us too much and we needed a stove asap as we cook every single day!

Enter 

Our Samsung with air fryer. I was not specifically looking for an airfryer oven because I love our Ninja Foodie. And I was skeptical. But this one had a bigger oven capacity than our old one so I can actually fit more in there without the cost of a double oven and it was on sale. I guess the perk of breaking down right before Memorial Day weekend. We read the reviews while we were at the store and they did sell us on the credit card to get an extra $100 off. I never take those but figured $100 was worth it and I won’t use the card again. The only negative reviews really were about the glass top scratching easily.  My old Maytag didn’t look too bad. I’ve seen worse but we were careful to clean it. However I feel like my carbon steel pans were hard on it so we will not be using them on this one. We have a side burner we use on the cast iron anyways. I did brush up on making my old stainless steel set of pans non stick so we could use them on the stove and sure enough it works!  

After one month of constant use, there’s nothing not one slightly hazy spot. 

Otherwise we’ve been keeping it in good condition. 

The air fryer genuinely impressed me. With our Ninja we have to do quite a few batches when we’re all here. With the Samsung oven we can do everything at one time. And the fries turn out pretty much the same as the Ninja air fryer but not quite as good a oil frying. The oven has a lot of settings and things that we will likely never use but it has the old style of heat cleaning and I’ve already used that and it’s awesome!  My husband does want to try the dehydrator. It does link up to Alexa but have yet to figure out how to turn it on to preheat. I can turn it off though. 

I LOVE THE LOOK of it. It’s very streamlined and goes nicely with my counters. I love the typical Samsung music when anything changes like preheating etc.  Something we became very accustomed to in Korea.  

All in all, we’re loving it!

How to avoid handprints near light switches

 

Voila!

Lutron motion switch here!

I installed these in the walk through pantry and laundry room shortly after moving in. I noticed handprints near the switches and was having to wash the walls.  This has saved me a lot of anxiety and cleaning time and breakdown of paint.  Worth it!

Had to share!!! Cool children’s book

 

Get the Dude Perfect children’s book here

We have watched a LOT of Dude Perfect over the years. My 23 year old watched it a bit when they first started and my 14 year old grabbed on. He loves watching them. He even asks for the merchandise. He has a hat and some shirts and even got a new one this year when he outgrew the old. 

The thing is I like him watching them. They’re clean fun and pretty funny when we watch with him. I was literally seeing this book while he was watching them this morning and if he was his younger self I would buy it for him. Such a cute book with a $3 coupon. 

#affiliate #amazonfind #dudeperfect #dudeperfectbook

Great Etsy jewelry find

 

Link to this Etsy jewelry store 👉 https://www.etsy.com/shop/mysignaturejwl

I’m it one to wear much jewelry. Mostly because in the past anything that’s not solid gold turns and discolors on me. But I really wanted a necklace with my kids names on it in Hangul. I’m took a chance and ordered this this Spring. I worked it to sweaty track meets and all the way through our Florida vacation with sunscreen and saltwater. To my EXTREME surprise it hasn’t turned yet and has held up well. It’s also adjustable in length from 16”-18” for $30. 

I love this necklace so much!  Check out her store. And she was retry quick to ship.