@smatthews51 Got it! ????. Now that I understand how the Long Term Care (LTC) input at the bottom of the Health Care page under expenses works, what a great feature! I now use it to stress test our retirement planning to see how we would fair if one or both of us ends up needing care.
In Pralana, how can I model using my HSA to pay for LTC expenses? Do I enter a series of scheduled qualified HSA withdrawals matching my scheduled long term care expenses?
What is the recommended way to model paying for LTC expenses using the HSA balance? Is it to enter a series of scheduled qualifying HSA withdrawals that match the series of scheduled LTC expenses?
P.S. Is it true that scheduled withdrawals always use the general inflation rate? In that case I will probably use the general inflation rate for the scheduled LTC expenses as well, to keep the two in balance.
Hi, currently in Pralana Online, creating a Scheduled Withdrawal using 'Qualified HSA Withdrawal' to the Cash Account is the best way I can think of to do this.
The limitations are:
a) As you note, Scheduled Withdrawal amounts are inflated annually using your general inflation rate with no add ons. A future enhancement would be for us to add a field to the SW input page to allow you to specify an inflation adjuster.
b) When the HSA runs out of funds, Pralana will generate an alert telling you the withdrawal was reduced or eliminated due to low/no balance in the HSA. To avoid that, I could add a checkbox on the SW page to skip the warnings.
In addition, we may someday add a checkbox or % input on the Healthcare and LTC pages allowing you to specify that the expense should be paid first from the HSA to avoid having to set up an SW in the first place.
Thanks. Actually, I think I ran into a gotcha: entering the LTC amount as a qualifying deduction from HSA means that the tax deduction is taken twice. Since I plan to use the HSA, and not necessarily itemize, I will model the LTC expense as a miscellaneous (not LTC) expense, to avoid the double tax deduction. This also means the general inflation number can be used for both amounts.
What is the recommended way to model paying for LTC expenses using the HSA balance? Is it to enter a series of scheduled qualifying HSA withdrawals that match the series of scheduled LTC expenses?
P.S. Is it true that scheduled withdrawals always use the general inflation rate? In that case I will probably use the general inflation rate for the scheduled LTC expenses as well, to keep the two in balance.
@jason-blattyprotonmail-com Hi Jason, please note that you've entered your posts on the Pralana Gold forum rather than the Pralana Online forum. I don't think I can move them over to the correct place since they're now a part of a much longer thread that is properly a Pralana Gold thread. Please find an existing thread or create a new thread under the Pralana Online forum for your questions and then re-enter at least your latest question. Thanks.
Stuart
