Photo of Colin smiling outside

A tech expert uses his HSA to invest in his family’s future

A devoted husband and dad of three, Colin Murphy works in IT Support at Frog Design in Austin, TX. Recently, Colin began paying special attention to his Starship investment portfolio in hopes of better-readying his family for the future.

Colin Murphy knows tech. He works in IT Support at Frog Design in beautiful, lively Austin, TX, where a normal day on the job includes anything from overseeing conference rooms’ technological readiness, to significant infrastructure project management.

Given his expertise in technology, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that when Colin was asked, “What’s your favorite thing about Starship?” he said, “The tech!” 

“I also love how easy Starship’s account management is,” he continued. “I don’t think people often refer to anything health and finance related as easy. But when tech is smart, it becomes more useful.”

An HSA for the whole family

Starship is Colin’s first experience with a health savings account (HSA). He opened his account with us in 2019 and has been contributing ever since.

“When I first started at Frog, I opted for what felt like the closest version of my old health benefits, which was a PPO. But then Frog introduced us to Starship. It was the idea of saving tax-free that intrigued me.”

Colin was paying for a high-deductible health plan already, so pairing it with an HSA felt like a “no-brainer,” he told me. “Turns out I was right.”

Now, more than two years later, Colin has transformed from HSA-beginner to super savvy saver.

“I have a recurring contribution set up through work and I make one-time contributions when I can. I’m also a big fan of the reimbursement feature, mostly for my kids’ expenses. It often happens that I pay for an eligible expense on my debit card, then realize later I could’ve used my HSA, so I use the receipt to reimburse myself. Gotta get those tax savings!”

A family smiling together Person on laptop with coffee

As Colin has learned about the tax advantages associated with HSAs, he’s also brought maximizing his account to the forefront of his family’s savings strategy, noting that maxing out his HSA every year makes it feel like a safety net.

“[My wife and I] keep track of what we have coming up health-wise for the kids and try to ensure we have the funds in my HSA to pay for it. And if something happened that we weren’t expecting, the money’s there for that, too.” 

One of Colin’s family’s most recent HSA-expenditures? Two tonsillectomies for the little ones.

“We knew these surgeries were coming up, so we saved with Starship and when the time came, took money out so that nothing was incurred out of pocket.”

Family hugging each other

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