HDHP

The HSA is the most underused account in American personal finance. Most people who have one think of it as a glorified medical debit card — money goes in through payroll, money comes out for copays and prescriptions, and the balance hovers somewhere between $200 and “whatever’s left after braces.” That mental model is leaving an enormous amount of money on the table. Funded for 25 years, invested in a low-cost index fund, and left alone, an HSA can quietly outperform a Roth IRA, a 401(k), and a taxable brokerage account — all at once. It is the only account in the U.S. tax code with what financial planners call a triple tax advantage: contributions go in pre-tax, growth is tax-free, and qualified withdrawals are tax-free. ...