When it looks like a purchase is going to run me more than a few hundred dollars, the analysis process starts. It is automatic, and I can’t stop it. Some might consider this a telltale sign of a cheapskate. But I know there is a difference between being cheap and being smart with your money. As a purchase moves into the several thousand-dollar range, a deeper analysis is required. It might even require an excel...
I have to say, I am surprised by what I am seeing with the COVID-19 progression over the last few weeks. Max is generally pretty even-keeled about things like this. As such, I have been in the “hey, aren’t we overreacting a bit here?” camp for a while now. But the changes over the last few days have certainly gotten my full attention. For me, the global response over the last week has been both...
Well, I will just come out and say it – Mrs. Max OOP is officially an American. It has been a while since I’ve done one of these little updates here at Max Out of Pocket. That’s not to say we haven’t had a lot going on. The last time I did this I was writing about leaf-peepers descending on our town and now we are knee-deep in the snow writing about a new American...
That’s right, Max is going off course here. But whoever said this blog can only talk about out-of-pocket costs for human healthcare? What about our furry family? They can get expensive too. The spectrum for what people are willing to pay to keep their pets healthy goes from about zero to a million dollars. People from the “they are just animals” camp will often support letting nature take its course. Others from the million-dollar camp...
We now know that many of us with private health insurance plans are entitled to a free cholesterol screening. The Affordable Care Act mandates it with no out-of-pocket costs if we meet certain criteria. But what if we don’t fit into that criteria or our insurance company decides we need to pay for one? If we aren’t high risk or under the age of 35, that just might happen. But how much should a lipid...