How To Do Something Good For Your Body (And Wallet) Over Your Lunch Break
One of the more frustrating aspects of personal finance is how long-term things can be. Even if something is relatively simple and passive, like savings or investment, the true benefits of doing something good for yourself takes years to pay off. And if you’re like me, and a little more into immediate gratification than you should be, it can feel agonizing to take the right steps today that will mean something to a version of myself that I can’t even visualize. I do it because it’s the right thing to do, and I’ll admit I’ve even gotten to the point where I do enjoy checking in to watch savings tick up, but it still doesn’t satisfy that part of my brain that also enjoys shopping for clothes online at 2 AM after a few glasses of wine and getting that free two-day delivery.
The point is, sometimes you just want to do something that benefits you right now, and doesn’t have to mature over the course of years or decades. Sometimes you want to click a button or fill out a quick form and immediately see the results. And luckily for us, there are more than a few acts under the umbrella of personal finance that fall into this category, and one of the biggest ones is getting yourself some damn health insurance.
Particularly after this last election, where so much about our health (especially as women) is in question, and our coverage seems to be one of the first things under direct attack, protecting ourselves has gone from something we should do, to something we must do. And TFD works with our friends at PolicyGenius, not just because they are very cool people (Lauren and I have hit the dance floor with more than one PolicyGenius-er, and they are as passionate about dancing to Beyonce as they are about health care), but because they have made insurance something that isn’t scary, and is totally manageable.
We at TFD are obsessed with anything that makes taking control of your money easier, and if it can protect your health and body in the process, even better. PolicyGenius has made it so that 10 minutes or so are all it takes for health insurance — literally using just a small chunk of your lunch break, you can go from “what the hell does Obamacare mean” (they’ll tell you, along with a lot of other terms, here) to “I have the perfect policy for my needs and budget.”
The process is simple: starting here, you fill out some basic information about yourself and tell PolicyGenius what your trade-offs are. (Do you want to keep a specific doctor? Do you have a really strict budget?) Based on your info, they will compare your best available options so that you can pick the one that makes the most sense for you (just like you would a credit card or bank account). And for those of us who are extremely impatient about filling out forms, they even let you know on each step how much time you have left until you’re done with the process and can go back to scrolling through Twitter while eating your desk lunch (which you packed, because you are a good TFD reader who doesn’t buy $15 sad desk salads!).
In December, we let you guys know when open enrollment was ending and the opportunity for getting covered was running out. But we know that some of you missed it, whether it’s because you missed the warnings or simply felt too stressed to look into it (we get you), and we want to make sure you take advantage of the January window to get yourself covered — if you’re not enrolled by January 31st, you will have to pay the fine of $695 or 2.5%, whichever is higher. After Open Enrollment closes, you will only be able to sign up for health insurance if you qualify for a Special Enrollment period.
Spending time and money for your financial future is good, but it can be really tough to do, because spending that same time and money on mimosas at brunch can feel so much better in the short-term. But there are also things we can do literally while drinking said mimosa — if your office is cool and allows that kind of thing! — which have incredible impacts on our financial and personal health, and which don’t require a long-term incubation period to see results. Get covered now, and start feeling good (instead of incredibly stressed out) about health care right away. Hell, even bring a friend into the deal and make a promise to each other that if you both get covered today, you will treat yourselves to a little “We did something really good and adult!” happy hour after work. The buddy system, when it comes to making good financial choices, is always encouraged.
So stop procrastinating on something so important, and use this lunch break to get yourself the right health coverage with PolicyGenius. We promise that it will be one of the few things in a very uncertain year that is actually a sure bet.
This post brought to you by PolicyGenius.
Image via Unsplash
