How do I protect money above the FDIC coverage limit?
If you are concerned about FDIC coverage, then yes, you can spread your money across multiple banks. The limit is $250k, so after you invest in property, 4 banks should do it.  That having been said, in my opinion, it would be a waste to keep all this money in a bank's savings account. You will slowly lose value over time due to inflation. I suggest you spend a little money on an independent fee-based investment advisor. Choose someone who will teach you about investing in mutual funds, so you can feel comfortable with it. He or she should take into account your tolerance for risk, look at your goals, and help you come up with a low cost plan for investing your money.  It's certainly okay to keep the money in a bank short-term, but don't wait too long; take steps toward putting that money to work for you. Be very careful to hold on tight to your money! I agree with paying for an investment advisor, but I would say use at least two to get different viewpoints, and get credentials and references! Don't let relatives convince you to invest in their business, or help them out, or any other such nonsense. Real estate still is one of the best investments out there in my opinion. You could buy a fixer upper and rent it out?
Yes, you are generally allowed to make contributions yourself to your HSA, even if your employer also made contributions. Let me explain further. The contribution limit for tax year 2015 is $3350 for individual coverage.  (It is higher for family coverage, or for account holders age 55+.)  The limit is for everything contributed to the HSA, whether it is an employer contribution or an account holder contribution.  (In other words, if your limit is $3350, and your employer contributed $3000, you can only contribute $350.) As far as the IRS is concerned, anything that your employer sends in is considered an employer contribution.  This might be money from the company as part of a benefit, or it might be money deducted from your salary as part of a voluntary contribution on your part.  Either way, if the employer sends it in, it is an employer contribution.  None of this employer contribution shows up on your W-2 as taxable income, so you don't get to deduct it on your tax return.  It has already been taken off of your income. Money that you send in yourself with your after-tax dollars is your account holder contribution.  This is money that you can deduct on your tax return, so that you aren't paying tax on this money. So here is what you need to do: Determine your total HSA contribution limit for tax year 2015. Find out how much your employer has already contributed for 2015.  The difference is how much you can still contribute for 2015. Contact your HSA provider and find out how to make a 2015 contribution.  Don't just send money in, because there is probably a form they want you to fill out to make a prior year contribution. Get all this done by April 15, the deadline for making a prior year contribution.  Actually, get it done before April 15, because often there will be some sort of delay of a day or two that will prevent you from doing this on the last day. Did you consider AppleCare? http://www.apple.com/support/products/iphone.html very iPhone comes with one year of hardware repair coverage through its limited warranty and up to 90 days of complimentary support. The AppleCare Protection Plan for iPhone extends your coverage to two years from the original purchase date of your iPhone. This was only a flat fee of $69 (or at least it was when we bought our iPhone 4 models) which seems much more reasonable, particularly if you're planning to keep your phone for a while. (and remember that iPhones magically turn into iPod Touches when you stop using them as phones, so their useful life is a bit longer than most typical smartphones) "How will contribution limits rise?  Contribution limits are raised based on COLA. COLA (Cost of Living Adjustment) is a number based on CPI (Consumer Price Index) which is published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The IRS publishes these limits annually and a simple search term to find them each year is ""415 limits"" because section 415 lists how much the various qualified plans can set aside each year. CPI is a heavily managed and very political number. It is the number that is cited when the media talks about ""inflation."" Since it drives increases in salaries, deductions, Social Security and pension payments, there is very heavy pressure to keep the number smaller than it really is.  My next step was to calculate how long that money will last  One traditional rule-of-thumb is to withdraw 4% of your balance each year. Another alternative is to purchase annuities. While younger people think that annuities are horrible investments, they appeal to older people because they protect the annuitant from excessive risk of losing your capital. When you are 30, and another 2008 comes along wiping out half your savings, you have time to re-earn that money. When you are 60, and another 2008 comes along wiping out half your savings, you have very few years to recover that money. So an annuity pushes that risk onto insurance companies. If you think you will die in your 90s, then an annuity is going to be a good investment (the insurance company will be betting that you won't be living that long).  I have a simple spreadsheet that I use to calculate estimated projected balances and compare them to actual performance. Don't forget that when you reach 50, the amount you can contribute goes up due to ""catch up contributions.""   There are 2 views of the same tab in this picture. There are 3 growth rates: pessimistic, nominal and optimistic. You can change the numbers to suit your own projections of future growth. Other tabs on this spreadsheet include measurements of actual performance by my 401k and IRA accounts. At the end of the year, I replace the numbers in columns F, G & H with the actual end-of-year dollar amounts. This way, future estimates do not get too far unhinged from reality.  If you need more sophisticated planning, such as Monte Carlo analysis to attempt to cope with inflation, I recommend the book Engineering Your Retirement. The book is aimed at younger engineers, so there is a bit more math than the average person would want." Yes. Although I imagine the risk is small, you can remove the risk by splitting your money amongst multiple accounts at different banks so that none of the account totals exceed the FDIC Insurance limit. There are several banks or financial institutions that deposit money in multiple banks to double or triple the effective insurance limit (Fidelity has an account like this, for example) I just called the customer service of a real bank, not a money transfer service. It seems that the limit is on the electronic transactions only. If you show up at the bank the limits tend to be huge or do not exist (the bank rep. just told me that he is not aware of a limit in this specific bank). With a lot excess cash you eventually have two goals: Since interest on cash bank deposits does not exceed inflation and you have currency risk, you may want to get into other asset classes. Options that might be, but not limited to are: They've already taken your money, and your purchasing power.  The Fed's balance sheets is filled with $4 trillion worth of toxic mortgage derivatives and US treasuries that were purchased at all time highs.  Move your money to a credit union. "The number one difference is that bank savings accounts, or money market accounts (MMAs allow limited checking--six non-ATM withdrawals per month, max, else possible fees) have FDIC insurance up to $250,000.  However don't put that much in--allow some room for interest, so you never go over the $250,000.  Money Market Mutual Funds do not enjoy FDIC insurance.  There may be some SPIC insurance--generally against brokerage failure though, but its coverage is questionable--search out those details, and if they apply to anything besides actual cash held at the brokerage.  If the money market mutual fund is strictly invested in US Treasury securities (like T-Bills, or other short-term US Treasury instruments), it enjoys the full faith and credit of the US government, FWIW--but many MMMFs invest in corporate instruments.  If the fund has any pricing issues, there might be a delay in getting paid off.  (Extremely unlikely.)      Number two, and more importantly, bank savings accounts (or MMAs) pay way more!  You can get a bit over 1% APY now--many paying 0.90% APY, or higher.  No money market mutual funds are close to that, generally yielding a small fraction of that, almost zero for US Treasury MMM funds.  Sure 1.05% ain't too exciting, but you may as well get the most you can if holding ""cash,"" and fully insured to boot."