Or, perhaps you may have had an HSA for years but haven’t used it.

It sounds weird, but I love writing and talking about Health Savings Accounts. I don’t think enough people know about the benefits of Health Savings Accounts.

An HSA comes with a number of benefits. It creates a (much-needed) medical emergency fund, has a “triple tax advantage,” and is a retirement account on steroids.

We’ll go through all the details of an HSA in this Health Savings Account guide so you have all the info you need to take full advantage of the benefits. Let’s start by talking about High Deductible Health Plans, or HDHPs. Why start there? Because you need to have an HDHP to contribute to an HSA.

High Deductible Health Plans – What Are They?

 
HDHPs are health insurance plans that have a relatively high deductible before your insurance kicks in. For example, you may need to spend $3,000 of your own money towards medical costs before your health insurance pays anything. Even though your insurance doesn’t pay anything until you hit your deductible, you would still reap the benefits of having health insurance because you would get their negotiated pricing, which knocks off some of the cost of provider visits, pharmacy drugs, and other costs.

The IRS sets the parameters for what is and isn’t an HDHP. For 2025, the IRS defines an HDHP as any plan with a deductible of at least $1,650 for an individual or $3,300 for a family. As long as your coverage hits those minimums you have an HDHP and are eligible to contribute to an HSA.

$1,650 is actually a relatively low deductible. Many plans will have a deductible of $3,000+ for an individual and $6,000+ for a family. Typically the higher the deductible the lower the monthly premium. The good news is that HDHPs total yearly out-of-pocket expenses are capped by IRS guidelines. These out-of-pocket costs can’t be more than $8,300 for an individual or $16,600 for a family, though this limit doesn’t apply to out-of-network services which could have a cap as high as $10,000+ for an individual or $20,000+ for a family.

You may be wondering how the out-of-pocket max comes into play, since insurance kicks in once you hit your deductible. Well, just because you hit your deductible doesn’t mean that you are done owing money; it just means your insurance will cover most of the costs. You may see something like an 80/20 cost share once you hit your deductible, meaning for a $1,000 bill you would owe $200 and your insurance would cover $800. The out-of-pocket max is the absolute maximum you will pay. If you need an expensive surgery, a hospital stay spanning a few days, or some other expensive event you will likely hit not only your deductible but also your out-of-pocket max.

HDHPs are becoming more popular

Many employees today have no choice but to sign up for an HDHP because it’s the only option that their employer offers. According to a data brief from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the percentage of adults aged 18–64 with employment-based coverage that had HDHPs increased from 14.8% in 2007 to 43.4% in 2017. Keep in mind this doesn’t include the millions who get their insurance through the exchanges, which virtually only offer HDHPs.

HDHPs are both good and bad. They are good because they allow for lower monthly premiums. They also can, in some situations, give an incentive for the consumer to shop around. For example, when I got a CT scan a few years ago I would have paid $1,000 if I went to the place my doctor referred me to. Instead I shopped around and paid $300.

The elephant in the room is the large amount of costs it puts on a consumer before their insurance kicks in. I wasn’t surprised in the least when Presidential candidate Kamala Harris in a debate about health care, painted the picture of the mother with a sick infant who was parked outside the emergency room, hoping she wouldn’t have to go in because she knew she could afford a bill of $1,000+.

HDHPs can serve as a “medical emergency fund”

That’s where a Health Savings Account comes into play. An emergency fund is great, but we’ve gotten to a point where even if you have insurance you are exposed to a potential for a big surprise medical bill. This is why the cost of health care is my biggest concern for millennials. Too many don’t have an emergency fund, let alone a separate medical emergency fund. I fully recognize that some are in a position where cash flow is tight and it’s extremely difficult to save money in an emergency fund.

Now that we have a solid background on HDHPs and why it is beneficial to sock away money in an HSA, let’s talk about the specifics of HSAs.

Health Savings Accounts – How They Work and How to Maximize Them

 
For 2025 the IRS has set contribution limits for HSAs to $4,300 for an individual or $8,550 for a family. For those over the age of 55 there is an opportunity to contribute an additional $1,000.

Most HDHPs will already have an HSA provider set up that you can leverage with your health insurance. If you don’t have one, though, a few of the major providers are Fidelity, Lively, The HSA Authority, and Optum. When picking one you will want to understand any fees they charge as well as the minimum balance required to invest (more on that in a moment).

One important distinction to keep in mind is that an HSA is not a Flexible Spending Account (FSA). FSAs have a silly “use it or lose it” policy where you lose any money that is left in the account at year-end. HSAs stay with you forever. You can switch employers, move to another state, change medical coverage, get married or divorced, or any other number of life changes and your HSA stays with you.

Now let’s get to the tax advantages that come with HSAs, specifically the “triple tax advantage”:

• Put Money in Pre-Tax – Contributions put into an HSA are not taxed. Meaning, your adjusted gross income on your taxes will decrease by the amount you deposit.

• Interest and Investment Gains are Not Taxed – Once your cash balance hits a certain threshold (i.e. $1,000, $2,000, etc.) you can shift any money above the threshold into an investment account. The investment gains are not taxed.

• Withdraw Money Tax-Free – When you withdraw money to cover a qualified medical expense you are not taxed on the withdrawal. You can consult a tax expert on exactly what is and isn’t a qualified medical expense, but in general an IRS-qualified medical expense is defined as an expense that pays for healthcare services, medications, or equipment. Clear-cut examples include a prescription you get at a pharmacy or a bill from a doctor visit.

One reason I call HSAs a “retirement fund on steroids” (no pun intended) is because after the age of 65 you can withdraw money from your HSA for non-medical expenses without incurring a 20% penalty. You will still have to pay taxes on the withdrawal, as this withdrawal would be treated similar to a withdrawal from an IRA. But you also have the option of withdrawing funds for qualified medical expenses and pay no taxes at all, regardless of your age. Meaning, an HSA acts similar to a standard IRA retirement account with the (huge) added benefit of potentially taking out the funds tax-free if you have medical expenses. With the way health care costs are going and with people living longer, there’s a very good chance you will have many qualified medical expenses when you are 65+.

A final benefit I want to point out is that you can use it for anyone in your household. What I like about this is that if you are caring for and covering the medical bills of a parent, sibling, or child, you can leverage your HSA to pay the bills tax-free. This could be invaluable if you have a sibling or child with a disability who you anticipate caring for long-term.

Health Savings Accounts – Strategies to Maximize

 
Whether or not you contribute to an HSA – and how much you contribute – depends entirely on your individual financial situation. You can talk this over with a financial advisor or money coach. With that being said, here are a few strategies to maximize HSAs:

• Deposit as much as possible, as early as possible. While I don’t have research or a robust data set, what I’ve seen is that people tend to only contribute to an HSA if they have medical issues. If someone is relatively healthy they don’t contribute. I will admit my wife and I didn’t max out our HSA until after we had a pair of surgeries and realized how important it was to have money set aside ahead of time.

• Shift your money out of cash and into investments as soon as possible. The HSA I have has a threshold of $2,000. I log in every two weeks and if my balance is above $2,000 I shift every dollar I can to investments. Now that I have some traction my ultimate goal is to get my HSA to $100k.

• Never use the debit card the HSA provider sends you. Instead, use a rewards credit card and then simply reimburse yourself through your HSA. HSA providers are making money each time you swipe their card, but they aren’t sharing the wealth with you. There is no requirement to use their debit card, so you should be using a solid rewards credit card instead.

There are many ways to maximize your Health Savings Account, or HSA.

We list many of these in our Health Savings Account (HSA) Guide. This guide also provides a nice overview for those who are a newer to Health Savings Accounts.

They include things like:

• Shifting dollars from the savings portion of your HSA to the investment portion of your HSA, which allows your balance to grow tax-free (as long as you withdraw for elgibile medical expenses)

• Maxing out your HSA contributions each year

• Making sure you aren’t missing out on elibible expenses

While some of the more basic hacks to maximize your HSA are a good starting point, there are a couple of hacks that most people don’t know about.

And when I say hacks, let me be clear: these are all 100% legal ways to take full advantage of your Health Savings Account.

If you are ready to take your HSA game to the next level, here’s two things you can do:

Hack #1: Pay with a credit card, not with your HSA debit card

 
Similar to how a bank provides you a debit card that allows you to make purchases directly from your bank account, HSA providers also provide a debit card so that you can make purchases directly from your account.

The problem with an HSA debit card is that you miss out on credit card rewards, such as cash back and travel rewards.

There is no requirement to use an HSA debit card to use your HSA. You can use any form of payment, even cash, to make purchases. Then all you need to do is reimburse yourself.

It may feel like an extra step, but over time medical spend can really add up. Additionally, when you pay with a credit card it gets you in the practice of uploading a receipt when you go in and reimburse yourself. When you use an HSA debit card, it can be easy to not keep a copy of your receipt.

One other thing to think about is the fact that medical expenses can sometimes be quite material. We had our first kid in 2023 and we knew that the bill would be in the thousands, since we have a high deductible health plan.

So what we did was we signed up for a new credit card that required a certain amount of spend to receive their sign-up bonus (e.g. $2,000 within the first four months to get 50,000 points, which translated to a $500 statement credit). We easily put the required amount on the card when we paid the hospital bill.

To recap: pay with a credit card for the rewards, save the receipt, and go into your HSA servicer’s portal to reimburse yourself.

Hack #2: Track your qualified medical expenses, then reimburse them years down the road from investment gains

 
This second hack builds off of the first one.

Something that most people don’t realize with a Health Savings Account is that there is not a time limit for when you can reimburse yourself for a qualified medical expense.

Practically speaking, you could have a hospital bill of $1,500 in 2025 that you paid for with a credit card. As long as you save the receipt and keep a record of the expense, you can reimburse yourself 5, 10, 15, or even 40 years later.

One thing to keep in mind is that the eligible expense does need to occur when you have a high deductible health plan and an HSA. So if you had a bill in 2021 but didn’t have an HSA until 2025, you can’t go back and reimburse that 2021 bill.

This is a huge benefit for a few different reasons:

• You keep more cash in your HSA
   
  With an HSA you can put money in pre-tax and take money out pre-tax (as long as it’s for an eligible medical expense). While that cash is in your HSA, you can also invest it.
   
  What this means specifically for our example of a $1,500 hospital bill in 2025 is that you don’t have to take out $1,500 in 2025. You can let that $1,500 you would have taken out and let it grow via mutual fund investments in your HSA until 2025, in which case you can withdraw it. So instead of paying $1,500 with little investment gains in 2025, you can potentially take out $1,500 ten years later totally from investment gains.

• You Build up a Secondary Cash Emergency Fund
   
  If you take this approach you can, at any time, reimburse yourself for your expenses. You don’t have to wait until years down the road.
   
  Let’s say over the course of a couple years you have $2,000 of eligible medical expenses. That means any day you could log into your HSA servicer’s portal and reimburse yourself for $2,000 worth of expenses.
   
  I often talk about an HSA being a medical emergency fund, which it is, but if you are able to hold off reimbursing yourself you can build up a cash reserve that can be tapped, tax-free, at any given time in the future. The longer you hold off on reimbursing yourself, the larger this fund will be.

• Future Medical Expenses May Be Massive
   
  In general, I think the annual contribution limits for Health Savings ACcounts are relatively low.
   
  For example, in 2025 the limits are $4,300 for an individual or $8,550 for a family. To be clear, I am not saying this is a small amount of money and there is certainly an argument to be made that there is an increasing divide of those who have well-funded HSAs and those who do not. But what I am saying is that health care expenses are becoming more and more material, especially for seniors. If you let your HSA grow while you are in your 20s, 30s, and 40s, you will have more tax-free assets to use later in life for expensive medical care such as long-term care in a facility or in-home care.
   
  With this in mind, the more money you can keep within your HSA the more you can invest within your HSA and the larger your nest egg will be for future expenses.
   
  And remember: in a pinch, as long as you tracked your expenses you can always get reimbursed from your HSA. Which is why this hack works so well.

Tracking Your Medical Expenses

 
The best way to track your medical expenses is in a spreadsheet. What I do is this:

• Create a folder to store your receipts. Include the date and some sort of unique descriptor (e.g. 2022_12_15 Chiropractic Block of Care Robert).

• Add the expense to a tracking spreadsheet. In the first column, include the name of the receipt (e.g. 2022_12_15 Chiropractic Block of Care Robert). That way you can easily locate the receipt that aligns to the row. Remember, if you use the strategy of reimbursing yourself later on, you may need to go back years later – make it easy on yourself. Include other details in the spreadsheet such as what payment was used, the servicer/company you paid, cost, etc.

Instead of starting from scratch you can grab a copy of our free medical expense tracking spreadsheet. I included a couple examples in it to give you an idea of the type of details you may want to record. You can grab this spreadsheet for free by entering your email in the below form:

 
To recap:

Get yourself a solid rewards credit card instead of using the HSA servicer’s debit card.
 
Start tracking your medical expenses and saving your receipts.
 

If you have a Health Savings Account, or HSA, and aren’t using it to pay for medical epenxes, you are missing out on tax benefits.

As we explain in our Health Savings Account Guide, HSAs have a triple-tax advantage:

• Put Money in Pre-Tax – Contributions put into an HSA are not taxed. Meaning, your adjusted gross income on your taxes will decrease by the amount you deposit.

• Interest and Investment Gains are Not Taxed – Once your cash balance hits a certain threshold (i.e. $1,000, $2,000, etc.) you can shift any money above the threshold into an investment account. The investment gains are not taxed.

• Withdraw Money Tax-Free – When you withdraw money to cover a qualified medical expense you are not taxed on the withdrawal. In general a qualified medical expense is defined as an expense that pays for healthcare services, medications, or equipment. Clear-cut examples include a prescription you get at a pharmacy or a bill from a doctor visit.

At a minimum, it makes sense to deposit money into your HSA and reimburse yourself for qualified expenses so that you are paying with before-tax dollars.

So how much can you contribute to an HSA? For 2023 the IRS has set contribution limits for HSAs to $4,300 for an individual or $8,550 for a family. For those over the age of 55 there is an opportunity to contribute an additional $1,000.

Besides contributing to your HSA and reimbursing yourself for qualified medical expenses, there are a couple of other ways to optimize your HSA. You can read a more detailed explanation in our post 2 Hacks to Maximize your HSA Health Savings Account, but at a high level they are:

• Pay with a credit card, not with your HSA debit card – When you pay with your HSA debit card, you don’t receive any rewards like cash back or points. Use a rewards credit card that either provides you with travel rewards or cash back. You can view all the latest credit card sign-up offers here.

• Track your qualified medical expenses, then reimburse them years down the road from investment gains – What most people don’t realize is there is no time limit for reimbursing your expenses from your HSA. Meaning, if you incur a qualified expense in 2023, for example, you can reimburse it at any point in the future, even years down the road (you must have had an HSA when the expense was incurred for it to be eligible for reimbursement).

The benefit of tracking your medical expenses and reimbursing later on is that you can keep more cash in your HSA, which allows you to invest more money. Remember, the investment gains are not taxed, so you can keep building your investments tax-free.

Think of the alternative. If you reimburse yourself for a medical expense immediately from your HSA, that cash exits your tax-sheltered HSA account, and you miss out on all the tax-free investment gains.

HSA Medical Expense Tracking Spreadsheet

 
The best way to track your medical expenses is in a spreadsheet. That way you have a record of what expenses you’ve paid for but haven’t reimbursed from your HSA. Then at any point in the future you can reimburse yourself for some or all of the expenses in your spreadsheet.

Here’s my approach:

• Create a folder to store your receipts.
   
  Include the date and some sort of unique descriptor (e.g. 2022_12_15 Chiropractic Block of Care Robert).

• Add the expense to a tracking spreadsheet.
   
  In the first column, include the name of the receipt (e.g. 2022_12_15 Chiropractic Block of Care Robert). That way you can easily locate the receipt that aligns to the row. Remember, if you use the strategy of reimbursing yourself later on, you may need to go back years later – make it easy on yourself. Include other details in the spreadsheet such as what payment was used, the servicer/company you paid, cost, etc.

Instead of starting from scratch you can grab a copy of our free HSA medical expense tracking spreadsheet.

I included a couple examples in it to give you an idea of the type of details you may want to record. You can grab this spreadsheet for free by entering your email in the below form:

There are a ton of budgeting apps out there, but many people end up using some sort of a spreadsheet for their budget.

Spreadsheets offer control and flexibility to users, and allows them to look closer at the transactions going through their accounts.

I have nothing against apps. Many people find them useful, and there’s no denying that there are a ton of good ones out there.

But I personally have used a budget spreadsheet for years and have found it useful. The more people I talk to about budgeting, the more I hear that people desire a spreadsheet-based budget without all the manual work that comes with it.

Today we finally have a budget spreadsheet in Excel that is automated and easy to update. But first let me tell you a bit about the budgeting process I’ve used in the past.

My Budgeting Process

 
I’m an Excel nerd so using a spreadsheet to budget was a no-brainer for me. I’ve had the same spreadsheet for over four years now. But why haven’t I shared it?

When I share spreadsheets and tools I want them to be as easy to use as possible. The biggest issue with spreadsheet budgeting is getting all the data in the proper format.

I have a number of credit cards due to credit card churning, plus throw in a bank account and you can see why it would take quite a bit of time to reformat everything. No two financial institutions seem to export data in the same format. So there’s a lot of work on the backend.

I didn’t want to share a budgeting spreadsheet until I solved this key piece of the puzzle. Fast forward four years and I still haven’t shared a spreadsheet.

That all changed when I discovered Tiller.

Tiller – The Key to Automation

 
Tiller is what I have been waiting for: it automates the process of pulling in your financial data into a clean, uniform format.

Now there are a ton of apps out there that link to your accounts. But they don’t allow you to dump your data into a spreadsheet because they either haven’t built a tool that can do that or they have a huge incentive to not allow their users to dump data into a spreadsheet.

Once you sign up for Tiller you simply have to connect your accounts and your financial transactions will be dumped into a Google Spreadsheet each day. They will come through in a uniform format that looks something like this:

 
Tiller does cost money. You can use my link for a free 30 day trial, but after that it’s $79/year. If you’re like me and spend an hour or more getting your data into a uniform format or have avoided budgeting because you don’t want to take the time to mess with your data, $79/year is well worth what you are getting in return for Tiller’s service. (Don’t worry they have a 60-day money-back guarantee as well).

Tiller has bank-grade security and has partnered with a company that works with some of the biggest banks in North America to ensure it’s up to the same high standards banks are held to. What was even more reassuring to me was hearing that their employees can’t even see your financial data. You can read more about their security and other features of their service on their website.

I’m all for Google Sheets, and Tiller absolutely can work simply using Google Sheets, but Excel is where it’s at if you want a clean and good-looking budget spreadsheet.

So I took it a step further and created an automated budget spreadsheet in Excel.

An Automated Budget Spreadsheet in Excel

 
Tiller is a great start, but my automated budget spreadsheet in Excel is where people will feel most “at home.” Excel is widely used and I’ve created a spreadsheet that someone with limited experience can use.

The spreadsheet has a directions tab that guides you through the process of updating the spreadsheet with your data. It also points out best practices that will help you not “break” the file.

 
The data tab is where you will want to paste your Tiller data. The data will then become part of a table that uses formulas to automatically populate the monthly summary tabs and the annual summary tabs.

Note that Tiller does not automatically populate the category for each transaction. Having the user populate the category allows the user to assign relevant categories and look at the transactions at a lower level of detail than they would if category was auto-filled.
 

 
On the categories tab you can add or delete categories as you see fit.
 

 
On the monthly summary tabs, everything is automated except for the budget column and the categories. You can add and delete categories as you see fit. You can unhide the hidden rows towards the bottom if you need to add more categories.

Everything is formula-driven, making it easy to see a snapshot for the month. While tabs have already been created for each month in 2025, you can easily make a copy of any of the months tab and choose a different month and year drop-down as you see fit. Everything will update automatically for whatever month you choose.
 

 
One additional thing included in this file is the annual summary. If you go to the 2025 tab you can see an annual summary of your income and expenses by month. This is automatically populated and you can easily make a summary for future years by choosing a different year from the drop-down.
 

 
This spreadsheet takes a lot of the manual work out of the budgeting process and gives you nice clean views of your financials, both budgeted versus actual as well as net inflow and outflow of cash.

My hope is that this easier process of importing and tagging data will encourage others to start budgeting. After all, using this process you can easily update your budget in less than 30 minute a month, perhaps even less than 10 minutes depending on how many transactions you need to tag.

It’s an easy way to save over $1,000 in one year. $1,378 to be exact.

The 52 Week Money Challenge is realistic for anyone because it doesn’t require the same amount of money to be saved each week. That’s because over the course of 52 weeks you save as little as $1 and, at most, $52.

Let’s take a more detailed look at how the 52 Week Money Challenge works, and some alternative ways of doing the challenge.

How the 52 Week Money Challenge Works

 
The 52 Week Money Challenge is simple. Over the course of 52 weeks, you make a deposit into your savings account once a week. The deposits range in value from $1 to $52.

One way people do this is deposit $1 the first week, $2 the second week, $3 the third week, and so on. At the end of 52 weeks the deposits total $1,378.

Another way to do this is vary the payments. Perhaps you deposit $52 the first week, $1 the second week, $51 the third week, and so on. This works well when there are busy times, like Christmas, where money is tighter, or if you have an unexpected expense that sets you back.

Being able to adjust your weekly contribution as needed is an added layer of flexibility to the challenge, but not everyone takes that approach. It can be easier to just stick with increasing your contribution each week by $1. Who knows? Maybe you will even continue past the 52 weeks.

Another variation is to multiply the amount you save. Depositing $1 through $52 is great because you will save $1,378 in one year, but why not up the ante? If you deposit $5 through $260 in increments of $5, you would have nearly $7,000 saved. This is a great way to make a game out of building an emergency fund.

I recommend having a separate savings fund at a different bank than your home bank or credit union to create a separation between the money you have for spending and the money you are saving for a rainy day. My choice is a high-yield savings account at CIT Bank. Many banks pay almost nothing in interest for their savings account. You deserve to get a high interest rate on your savings account, and CIT Bank is a great option.

Download the 52 Week Money Challenge Spreadsheet and Printable

 
If the 52 Week Money Challenge sounds like something that you want to try, we have a free 52 Week Money Challenge Spreadsheet and Printable for you.

If you want the spreadsheet or printable, you can get a free copy below.

Don’t miss out on our free budget spreadsheet or these travel rewards credit cards that can help you achieve your travel goals faster.

If you’re like me, a lot of ideas are swimming around in your head. It can be hard to nail down what areas of your life you want to focus on.

That’s where this list of 100 goals to focus on for a successful year comes in handy!

100 goals is a lot of goals, but this list is meant to give you a bunch of ideas that you can pick and choose from. We have ideas for money goals, career goals, personal development goals, and finally health & fitness goals.

You’ll find inspiration and things you can take action on below.

1. Create an emergency fund
2. Automate your savings
3. Create a budget
4. Track your income and expenses
5. Save for a down payment on a house, a wedding, a baby fund, a car, etc.
6. Create a student loan repayment strategy.
7. Travel more, but spend less by travel hacking using credit card rewards to get free flights and hotel stays
8. Make a plan to give a percentage of your income to charity
9. Identify your spending triggers and create a plan to cut temptation out
10. Make a plan for paying off your debt
11. Commit to not getting further into debt
12. Learn more about investing
13. Open an IRA and start saving for retirement
14. Contribute more toward your 401(k) – enough to get matching contributions from your employer (if it’s offered)
15. Learn how to invest in rental property
16. Read some awesome personal finance books
17. Spend in a way that reflects your values
18. Save a certain percentage of your income each month
19. Start a side hustle
20. Review your insurance coverage to make sure your needs are met
21. Consider refinancing your student loans and learn about income-driven repayment plans
22. Try calling creditors to get your interest rates lowered if you have credit card debt
23. Cut cable (if you haven’t already!)
24. Take a “no-spend” challenge or a ban on buying certain things
25. Calculate and track your net worth
26. Learn how to optimize your taxes and take advantage of tax savings
27. Create a will and an estate plan if you have a family

1. Ask for a raise, or work toward getting one
2. Work toward a promotion (and a raise)
3. Update your resume
4. Go to networking events in your area
5. Go to a conference in your industry (yes, even if you are a huge introvert!)
6. Try learning one new skill each quarter that you can apply directly to your job
7. Create a “pat on the back” folder in your inbox and fill it with praise you receive from coworkers and managers
8. Distance yourself from office politics as much as possible
9. Start a side business to diversify your income
10. Look for a better paying job with more opportunities for growth if you feel stagnant at your current job
11. Find a mentor in your field
12. Work toward receiving recognition for something you’ve done – does your employer offer awards?
13. Work more hours or less hours depending on your personal and financial goals
14. Get comfortable with negotiating
15. Take a public speaking class, join Toastmasters, or seek out opportunities for public speaking
16. Explore other interests you have to gear up for a career change
17. Do regular salary research to make sure you are getting paid what you should be
18. Consider going back to school for an advanced degree
19. Take a course to get certified in something related to your industry
20. If you’re still in college, research internship opportunities
21. Raise your rates with clients if you’re a freelancer and/or business owner
22. Get comfortable with the idea of outsourcing and think of how it can benefit your career instead of hurt it
23. Learn how to manage your time better
24. Set expectations and boundaries with clients/customers
25. Find a way to showcase your creativity in your job

1. Find things to be grateful for
2. Control your thoughts and emotions and choose to react better to negative situations
3. Give meditation a try
4. Learn the art of having patience – good for those with a short fuse
5. If you’re Type A, try going with the flow and being spontaneous more often
6. If you’re Type B, try embracing organization and planning more
7. Think of a few habits you want to develop (like not checking your phone/social media as often) and mindfully incorporate them into your life
8. Consider enlisting professional help in the form of a coach or psychologist
9. Read inspirational stories from others
10. Make more time for yourself; stop focusing on others as much
11. Live more intentionally and mindfully each day
12. Volunteer at an organization close to your heart
13. Become more confident in yourself; have faith you can accomplish new things
14. Get out of your comfort zone and do something completely out of character (but still legal, of course)
15. Learn a new language
16. Travel to a different country and live like a local to immerse yourself in a different culture
17. Write something, whether that means starting a blog or going all in and writing a book
18. Put yourself in the shoes of others more often
19. Get rid of your tendency to procrastinate and get ahead on a few projects
20. Pick up a book like How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie (a classic) or The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey
21. Learn a new language using software like Duolingo or Rosetta Stone
22. Wake up earlier to get a head start on the day (or work through the night ;))
23. Cut out or decrease the time you spend in front of the TV
24. Consume more information – there’s tons of free content out there in the form of books, blogs, podcasts, video courses, etc.
25. Keep a daily journal or blog

1. Try cutting out sugar from your diet
2. Eat smaller meals frequently throughout the day
3. Cut out all fast food
4. De-stress and relax more often
5. Be proactive and get an annual checkup
6. Set aside 10-15 minutes each day, search YouTube for a exercise video, and do it!
7. Get into exercising at home with light weights or kettlebells
8. Go to your apartment complex’s gym or your town’s community fitness center for free
9. Become vegan or vegetarian
10. Have vegetables with every meal, or at least two out of three meals per day
11. Drink more water (a Contigo water bottle can help)
12. Choose to walk to places within a mile or two of your house instead of driving
13. Start a couch to 5k program to work your way up to running
14. Make it a point to try a new, healthy meal at least once per month
15. Join a community sports team or find a Meetup group where people play sports
16. Improve your posture by being mindful of how you sit at work, or…
17. Get a standing desk (you can build your own)
18. Increase your flexibility
19. Commit to working out at least three times a week, every week
20. Visit a nutritionist to optimize your diet
21. Get more sleep
22. Decrease or cut out any unhealthy vices you have, like smoking, drinking, or eating frozen meals all the time
23. Pick a workout or diet program and stick with it consistently for a month or two
24. Make sure you’re getting enough vitamins from your diet and if not, choose appropriate supplements
25. Try a new fitness class to get more excited about getting in shape (Groupon always has deals)

 
If you’re looking to make next year your best year yet, then these 100 goals focused on money, career, personal development, and health and fitness should help make it happen!

I’m paying down student loan debt. I bought a house and I’m working through paying that down and making needed updates and changes (none of which are cheap). I’m investing and saving for retirement. All of this and trying to balance travel with my other financial goals.

Regardless of your age, you’re likely in the same boat as me: there are multiple financial priorities fighting for your paycheck.

Why then did I decide to take on another financial burden and get a million dollar life insurance policy at 27?

Despite the endless list of things I could use my money for, I have meant to get life insurance for a few years now. Here’s a few reasons why I did it.

Because I’m Married

 
The main reason most people get life insurance is because they are married and/or have children. When you are married or are in a serious relationship there is someone else who is making financial decisions based on your current and future income. And when you have children they are obviously relying on your income to support them.

While my wife and I both work and plan on being a dual-income household even when we eventually have kids, it’s clear that the decisions we make are based on both of us bringing in money. From the house we bought to the decision to live where we are, it’s all joint decision making. There are clearly financial implications of these decisions.

I was also greatly influenced during college by Suze Orman’s book The Money Book for the Young, Fabulous & Broke. She argued that you have no idea how your significant other will react to a premature death, nor will you know how you will react. I know we all like to think we’d make it out just fine, but in reality it can have a deep impact on your life. It could derail your career and force you to take an extended time off from work, which just makes it more difficult to get back to where you were income-wise.

Her suggestion is to take out more than you think you would need. For our situation, a million dollars is clearly more than we need. But it allows us to know that if the unthinkable happened, finances would be the last thing we have to worry about.

Because I have Debt

 
Both my wife and I have undergrad student loans that we are paying off, and my wife is in grad school. Beyond that we have a mortgage. This all adds up to a sizable amount of debt that we are paying off jointly, with the assumption that we both will be working to pay it off.

I get it. When you have debt, you want to pay it off as quickly as possible. Having an extra payment for an insurance policy does not help that cause. But what if your significant other passes away unexpectedly? You have to face the reality that all the debt would fall on your plate.

This goes back to my other point that the last thing you want to deal with when you have a loved one pass away unexpectedly is money. Having a life insurance policy – especially one that is worth a million dollars or more, can take that completely out of the equation. Debts can be paid off, and then some, to allow you to cope with the loss without having the burden of debt weigh over you.

Because I Can Lock in a Rate Now

 
One reason I refuse to pay more than the minimum on my mortgage is because of the incredible interest rate we have: 3.25%. Stocks are *almost* guaranteed to beat 3.25% over the course of thirty years, perhaps by a wide margin. It’s pretty awesome that we have the ability to lock in that interest rate for such a long time period.

Life insurance to a great extent is based on your health history. The younger and healthier you are, the less risk you are to those underwriting the policy. Locking in your rate in your 20s or early 30s can be a good way to ensure you are paying the lowest possible premiums over the next couple of decades.

These are my reasons for signing up for a million dollar life insurance policy at a relatively young age. If this has piqued your interest and you want to see what life insurance would cost you, read on as I describe how I got my policy.

How I Got My Life Insurance Policy – and How You Can Too

 
It’s probably worth an entire separate post explaining the life insurance process and exactly how easy or difficult it was, but it’s worth mentioning at a high level how I went about getting my life insurance policy.

One thing many people know about me is that I hate having to actually talk to someone on the phone if it can be avoided. Life insurance is something where I don’t want to sit on the phone with someone providing information that could be more easily entered online.

I got my online price quotes through PolicyGenius. PolicyGenius collects a small amount of information about you and instantly shows you quotes from various insurance companies. What I liked about this is I didn’t have to meet with someone in-person who sells policies, nor did I have to talk to someone on the phone. It was done entirely online.

Getting quotes through Policy Genius is an easy way to see what life insurance may cost you with no commitment.