- The Finance Gourmet

HSA Contributions

September 27, 2025September 15, 2025 by Finance Gourmet

A quick reminder not to forget to use your HSA account to pay for ALL of your qualified medical expenses. Remember, you get the deduction based upon CONTRIBUTIONS, and your contributions do NOT have to be made before your expenses are incurred. In other words, if you go to the doctor and get a $180 bill, you can (EVEN AFTER) contribute $180 to your HSA account. Pay the $180 doctor bill (maybe using a rewards credit card), and THEN reimburse yourself the $180 expense. This is the best way to deduct medical expenses if you qualify. Otherwise, remember that you can only deduct medical expenses that are 10% above your adjusted gross income. With an HSA account, every contribution is deductible, regardless of when you use the money to pay medical bills. Also, any medical bills you pay with your HSA cannot be deducted as medical expenses. Also, HSA paid expenses do not count toward the 7.5% floor needed to deduct medical expenses. Remember, the contribution is deductible, not the expense. Contribute money for every qualified medical expense you have, and the net effect is the same as deducting all of your medical expenses. Remember, unlike a FSA, you can …

8 Biggest Credit Unions in Colorado

August 18, 2025 by Finance Gourmet

For most people, a credit union offers a better banking platform than a traditional bank. Here are the biggest credit unions in Colorado to get you started. Remember, bigger is not always better and smaller Colorado credit unions might offer better value for your situation. There are over 100 credit unions service Colorado, so there is sure to be one that suits your banking needs. CD Rate Specials Are Back Credit unions, like banks, need to balance their deposits against their loans. When loan activity increases faster than deposits, credit unions often turn to CD specials to improve their ability to attract new deposits. And, when things are going good, people tend to tap those home equity loans for summer projects like a new deck, or updated kitchen. More loan dollars requires more deposit dollars and BOOM, rate specials. People who might not normally bother joining a credit union change their tune when they can pick up a sweet CD rate instead of resigning themselves to a measly 3%. When loans are high (here come the profits) credit unions don’t mind the rate shoppers so much. These big Colorado credit unions are offering those specials now as we head into …

Marcus High Interest Savings Account Review

October 11, 2024 by Finance Gourmet

Update: As of January 2024, the current interest rate Marcus accounts is 4.50% Update: As of July 2024, the interest rate on the Marcus High-Yield Savings Account is 4.40%. Update: As of 10/11/24, the interest rate on Goldman Sach’s Marcus High-Yield online savings account is now 4.10% after recent rate cuts by the Fed. High Yield Savings Worth It Again After a few years decades of the Fed running along with near zero interest rates yielding high-yield savings account earning only a few cents more, online high yield savings accounts are back. With interest rates up over 3% for the first time in a long while, watching that monthly interest payment hit is a whole lot more fun now. As someone a little older and with more finance experience the return to 6% mortgages and savings accounts paying at least a few percentage points feels like normal. However, it’s been over 20 years since the Fed Funds rate was this high, so this might all be new to you if you are in your 30s, or younger. While the cost of your borrowing has gone up, whether it’s mortgages, credit cards, auto loans, or personal loans, taking out a loan …

Ibotta Review Cash Back for Buying Stuff

August 23, 2024 by Finance Gourmet

A friend of mine keeps going on about Ibotta. For those of you who don’t know, Ibotta is a shopping app that gives you cash back rebates for various items you buy. It’s kind of like coupons, only instead of saving on your grocery bill, you build up a cash back account. What makes it such a huge deal for my friend is that those offers often include beer and wine, and often for a few bucks at a time, so that can add up. But does that make Ibotta a legit deal for others, or is Ibotta a scam that takes more than it gives? Let’s dig into is Ibotta legit. What Is Ibotta? Ibotta is an app for either Android or Apple. You can also use it online via the webpage. It works a lot like many grocery store apps where you go through a list of coupons and select which ones you want to use. However, unlike my King Soopers app, or Safeway app, the offers on Ibotta are rebates, not coupons. In other words, while the coupons take 50 cents off of my grocery bill, the Ibotta rebates have no effect on the cost of my …

Should I Worry About the Equifax Hack?

August 20, 2024 by Finance Gourmet

Boy, time flies when you’re protecting your identity. This article was originally written September, 2017. It was just a taste of things to come. In August, 2024 criminal hackers went bigger and literally hacked the Social Security Administration and got away with as much as all of our social security numbers, date of birth, address, and who knows what else. Even a baby identity thief could profit from this. The worry is that new state-sponsored criminal organizations are already working on profit and intelligence gathering. If you are wondering whether to be worried about the Equifax hack from 2017, the answer is yes. You should be worried. However, you do not need to panic. How ever bad the Equifax hack of 2017 was, there were plenty of doozeys on its heels. So many, in fact, that any one of them likely caused more damage. Still, those who do not study history are doomed to repeat it. Get Some Credit Monitoring By now, you should probably have some rudimentary credit monitoring whether it comes through a free credit score service like Credit Karma, or from your bank, or one of your credit cards. You’ll want to read all of those emails …

Is Credit Karma A Scam or Legit Free Credit Scores?

July 1, 2024 by Finance Gourmet

The old maxim, “If it is too good to be true, it probably is,” holds up especially well in the world of personal finance. The concept of getting free credit scores has been mined by con-artists and scammers repeatedly. Unfortunately, many of these scams are perpetrated by well-known companies and by the credit reporting bureaus themselves. So, is there a Credit Karma scam? Who Owns Credit Karma? These days, Credit Karma is owned by Intuit. Intuit is the maker of popular tax software TurboTax, as well as QuickBooks, and some other finance software. Until recently, Intuit owned popular online personal finance software Mint, but like Microsoft and Microsoft Money before it, Intuit couldn’t figure out how to stop losing money giving people what they want. Instead, they closed down Mint and sent (or attempted to send) its users over to Credit Karma, which isn’t really the same thing at all. If you got here to creditkarma.com via mint.com, you’ll need to take some time to get to know the new setup. In the meantime, we are talking about credit score scam types if you want to stick around. How Free Credit Score Scams Work The free credit score scam usually …

How Much Does It Cost to Charge an Electric Car In Colorado?

June 30, 2024 by Finance Gourmet

Real world cost to charge an electric car in Colorado using current Xcel Energy rates. Somewhere along the lines, the entire country got divided into liberals and conservatives and the one hates the other one and thinks they are trying to ruin the country, and vice versa. Of course, once you get off of Twitter or whatever online/social media/internet/news website thing there is and get out into the real world where the sun shines, and people actually buy cars and drive them to work and stuff, things aren’t really that crazy. Out here in the real world, you might wonder if you live in Colorado how much it would actually cost you to charge an electric car. Let’s find out. I Bought an Electric Car and I Charge It at Home I’m not a political nutjob, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night. Just kidding. I am a regular guy though, and I did buy an electric car. Why? Why not? I like cool new technology and electric cars are cool new technology. Regular cars have basically run the same for over a hundred years now. Dig black goo up out of the ground, and burn …

Review Is Grifin App Legit?

August 28, 2024June 26, 2024 by Finance Gourmet

New Grifin news: I just recently got a notice that Grifin will be implementing a $5 monthly fee. I’m going to redo the review below in light of this fee and the new features that Grifin has positioned in an attempt to make it worth it. My first reaction is that $60 per year is too much. — Please read the rest of this review knowing that it was how I felt about everything before the fee was implemented, when there was no user cost. New Grifin review update: It looks like the folks at Grifin are back with new updates. The latest version of Grifin offers app users the ability to change how much to invest for each purchase. This is a big change from Grifin’s core system where every purchase using a Grifin linked credit card triggered a $1 investment in the stock of that same company. This latest version of Grifin lets you select whether to invest the traditional $1 for each purchase, or change it to $2 per purchase, or even $3 per transaction. The other new update is the ability to transfer cash directly into the Grifin app to invest as you please from inside …

Venmo Debit Card Review

February 25, 2024 by Finance Gourmet

I resisted the various cash transfer apps for as long as a could. My primary issue was always security, and judging by the number of people who end up calling, crying and trying to get their money back, that wasn’t unfounded. But time marches on, and it turns out that, used properly, services like Venmo, Cashapp, and Zelle can actually be easier, better, and more efficient than the old, “I’ll get you next time.” It also eliminates the need to carry around smaller bills just in case you need to break a twenty in order to pay for something with friends. However, just because Venmo is a good idea, doesn’t mean that a Venmo debit card scam isn’t in the offing. So, let’s do a Venmo debit card review to make sure no one is getting cheated by Venmo, and answer is the Venmo debit card good. Venmo Debit Card Review Basics How To Get a Venmo Card Venmo offers both a debit card and a credit card. To get a Venmo debit card you simply request one within the Venmo app or click the button on the Venmo debit card email they send out to verified Venmo users. Do …

Is Zelle Scam or Legit? A Zelle Review

February 28, 2024January 26, 2024 by Finance Gourmet

You may have seen the commercials for Zelle, the payment app. They aren’t very specific about what Zelle does, or how it does it. Questions that may pop into your mind are things like, how does Zelle work? Is Zelle legit, or a scam? Why would I bother to use Zelle? Is Zelle safe? You might even have Zelle through your bank without even asking for it. Time to check out some Zelle reviews. If you already use a payment app, your questions are probably more like, is Zelle better than Venmo, or is Square Cash better than Zelle? It’s time for our Zelle review. Soon we’ll have a look at Zelle vs Venmo. Zelle Reviews Zelle is actually two products from the same company. One version of Zelle is the behind-the-scenes payment system backed by, and used by, several American banks inside of their own banking apps. This is the part that the commercials claim is “already on your phone,” or “already in your banking app.” Since Zelle works directly with various banks, they play nicer with Zelle than with others including transferring money with no fees and allowing “instant” transfers and withdrawals. Check out my Acorns app review …