Maximizing Your Employee Benefits: Make Your Employer Work for You

"Employee benefits are where money hides in plain sight. Every fall, HR sends you a PDF the length of a Russian novel, and most people blindly click "enroll" after 17 reminder emails. You see the enrollment deadline on your calendar, but like your brother's birthday, you acknowledge it and then just completely forget about it. But skipping over your benefits is like tossing free money in the shredder (do offices have those anymore?)."

"Nowhere is this more obvious than when it comes to health insurance. For most Americans, it's the single biggest non-housing expense. And because this country ties healthcare to employment, your boss effectively gets to decide what menu of options you'll live and die by. Which is why treating benefits like background noise is such a costly mistake. Benefits are not gifts. They are part of your compensation. If you don't use them, your employer pockets the savings."

Open Enrollment is an annual opportunity to review and select workplace benefits that form a meaningful part of total compensation. Health insurance often represents the largest non-housing household expense, and employer-controlled benefit menus significantly affect coverage and cost. Ignoring enrollment materials or defaulting to prior choices can forfeit employer-provided value and tax-advantaged accounts. Retirement options like 401(k)s and accounts such as HSAs provide ways to invest in long-term financial security while reducing taxable income. Actively assessing benefits each year helps maximize compensation, reduce out-of-pocket costs, and build wealth over time.

Read at Substack