This is Optimal Finance Daily episode 2767, the Health Savings Account Strategy that not enough people are talking about,

by Renda Chappelle Wilk with FinancialFinesse.com.

And I'm your host and personal finance

enthusiast Diana Merriam. Now let's get right to it as we optimize your life.

The Health Savings Account Strategy that not enough people are talking about, by

Renda Chappelle Wilk with Financial Finance.com.

I was talking to a colleague of mine earlier. with Financial FinanceFines.com.

I was talking to a colleague of mine earlier this year about how awesome health savings accounts are,

and he threw out a little known use

of these delightful accounts that made the bogus alarm go off in my head.

Even though he's a well-respected and tenured certified financial planner who's on the

CFP board, I didn't actually believe him. I had to see it for myself, but it's true.

Maybe you've heard about it, but it doesn't get much press yet.

Qualified HSA withdrawals do not have to be taken in the year in which the expense was incurred.

That's right. There's no statute of limitations as to when you can reimburse yourself for a qualified medical

expense as long as you incurred the expense after your HSA was open and funded,

provided you hang on to your receipts through the years.

There are some pretty cool implications to this fact.

If you max out your HSA over a period of many years,

you can build up quite a nice balance of tax-free money. For example, let's say

you start maxing out at age 30 and continue to do so for the next 35 years.

At today's contribution rate, a single person could sock away $119,000,

...