The Emergency You Really Need to Plan For

Welcome to Money Monday with Suze, a weekly newsletter designed to inspire your financial life and give you actionable insights from the World’s Personal Finance Expert. Like what you’re reading? Subscribe and share with your friends. Let’s dive in…

You know I wish all of you great health. And a life free of injury.

And you also know that one of my most important pieces of advice is to “hope for the best and plan for the worst.”

Which brings me to the subject of your health insurance. Do you have enough cash in your emergency fund to be able to cover your maximum annual out of pocket (OOP) if you –or a family member on your plan—happened to have a serious illness or injury?

According to the non-partisan Urban Institute, in 2018, the average maximum OOP charge for an individual with insurance through work was more than $4,400. The average for family coverage through work was nearly $8,400. If your insurance is through the ACA marketplace, typical maximum out of pockets are even more.

That is a lot of money. And I want to be clear, this is in addition to your monthly premium. The OOP maximum is the most you will have to cover for your deductible, co-pays and coinsurance charges. If you have an illness or injury that requires a lot of tests, surgery or ongoing treatment, you will likely hit the OOP max quickly. And I am sorry to point out that if you are diagnosed late in the calendar year, you could very well hit the OOP in that year and then have to pay it again if treatment continues into the following year.

If you decide to seek care outside of your plan’s network of care providers, there is typically no limit on what you can be charged in coinsurance/copayments.

Sadly, researchers report that two-thirds of people who file for bankruptcy cite medical debt as a primary reason.

Again, we can all hope for the best. But at the same time, I sure hope you have a renewed appreciation for how important it is to build up a hefty emergency savings fund. It’s not just for car repairs or needing to replace the HVAC earlier than you expected. Your emergency fund is vital to reducing the stress if you, or a family member faces a serious illness or injury.

.........................................................

That Was the Week That Was

Get ready for some "Suze School" on what happened in the Stock Market last week with respect to GameStop and Robinhood. Suze also shares lessons in investing in BitCoin and talks about what’s going on with commercial real estate. Listen to Sunday's podcast and subscribe to Suze Orman's Women & Money Podcast on your favorite streaming app. 

.....................................................

Get Paid To Save

I have said it for years now and once again I am going to repeat it - the most important part of your financial foundation is an emergency fund. The problem is that many of you have had to use your emergency fund over the past year and now’s the time to start over again. If that is true for you, or if you want to know the best place to keep your emergency fund, then you need to listen to me very, very carefully, and then I want you to take action.

What if there was a type of savings account that paid you to save? Yes, you read that right. Wouldn’t it be great to get cash back in addition to the current interest rate, all while saving for an emergency? That's where the Ultimate Opportunity Saving Account comes in. This is such a unique offer. I urge you to take advantage of The Ultimate Opportunity Savings Account, and get your $100 bonus while you can. Learn how you can get paid to save!