After the $2 bill, the $50 bill is the rarest in circulation. It bears the image of Ulysses S. Grant, one of the most consequential and interesting leaders in American history.
$50 saved is modest: forgone lattes, dedication to an older vehicle, or a rounding error for some. $50 saved every two weeks can offset most of the out-of-pocket healthcare costs in retirement while funding the card swipes for care today. It’s also less than half the gap in annual premiums in two common insurance plans. For most, this advice works: buy low. Save the difference in premiums.
Out-of-pocket costs are actually pretty modest, especially when stretched over multiple years and normalized. Mean reversion can be your friend. What goes up must come down. Few young people are high users over multiple decades. While bad luck and big health interventions do happen, most health expenses in working years are pretty small. It’s the least steep part of the human depreciation curve, or the age-gender utilization that actuaries use.
Where did I get $50? The short version: an analysis of a 3,000 employee midwestern manufacturer. 3 years of continuous healthcare claims, single coverage, a multiple regression with statistical significance on age and gender factors, ~$50 is the average for a 27 year old male.
A 27 yr old male with a typical healthcare plan can expect to spend $46 per month on average ($0 low, ~$100 high).