Insurance is always a gamble, a bet actually.

You are betting that youll eventually get sick or hurt. And your insurance company is betting that youll stay healthy.

If you stay healthy your whole life, but still pay into insurance, thats great for the insurance company. Actually, its great for you too, because you got to be healthy for your whole life. But you still lost the bet.

So an insurance company is never going to reward you for being healthy. Thats not the terms of the bet.

But heres a secret.

You can reward yourself.

Heres how. Open a Health Savings Account (HSA). Put as much money as you can into it. Tell your insurance company that you want to raise the deductible on your insurance policy as high as it will go. The deductible is the amount you have to pay before the insurance finally kicks in.

Now sit back and relax. You are completely covered for any healthcare crisis. You can use the HSA money for the small stuff and your insurance policy will kick in for the big stuff.

But

If you dont get sick or hurt, the money will stay in the HSA. Then youll put in the same amount next year, and it will sit there again. Earning interest, too.

After a while of being healthy, year-after-year, youll have tens of thousands of dollars sitting there.

And when you retire, your HSA turns into an IRA individual retirement account. You can take the money out and live on it.

And guess what? Its your reward for staying healthy. You rewarded yourself for staying healthy, and simultaneously covered yourself just in case you did get sick along the way.

Happy retirement!