The Personal Finance Geek

An HSA, or Health Savings Account, is a tax-advantaged account that can be used to save for qualified medical expenses. HSAs are available to anyone with a high-deductible health plan (HDHP). The main benefit of an HSA is that contributions are tax-deductible, meaning you can deduct them from your taxable income. This can lower your tax bill and give you more money to save for upcoming medical expenses. Another benefit of an HSA is that earnings grow tax-free . This means that the money you contribute to your HSA will continue to grow, tax-free until you withdraw it. Finally, withdrawals from an HSA are tax-free as long as they are used for qualified medical expenses . This means that you can use your HSA to pay for things like doctor's visits, prescription drugs, and hospital stays, and you won't have to pay taxes on the money you withdraw. If you have a high-deductible health insurance plan, an HSA is a great way to save for medical expenses. The tax advantages can mak...

Dividends are payouts made by a company when it is doing well, to signal its strength to existing shareholders and to convince non-shareholders to become shareholders, pay out a certain proportion of their profits to their shareholders. There are a few things to know about them so that you can better understand what someone says when you're listening to a podcast or TV show about the markets. The "yield" of a stock is the amount of its price it pays out every so often. So if you have a certain stock, which you own 100 shares of, each worth $100, where each share pays you 1% every quarter, then, 4 times a year, you'll get $100, earning you $400 a year. The "ex date" is the date by which you must own shares, in order for them to be counted into the number of shares you own when the dividends payout. If in mid-May, you own 100 shares, there's an ex-date of May 25, and your next purchase is of 100 more shares, but on May 26, then, sorry! The second batch...