Last Christmas, my kids gave me this little sign to post in my yard.  The little sign came with no post so I got a piece of scrap re-bar, about 2 feet long, stoked up a good fire in the fireplace and heated that sucker until it was white hot.  I then carried that glowing steel torch down to the basement where, having managed not to burn down my house whilst hauling it through the den, down the stairs and into my workroom, I managed to bend and hammer a nice “S” curve into the end of that sucker.  Once cooled and painted, it looked better than anything I could have bought at the hardware store.  

I might add, that while pretending to be a blacksmith, no burns, injuries or casualties were incurred requiring neither a visit the local emergency room nor a dip into my Health Savings Account (HSA) to pay for said visit.   For the record, I do not recommend home blacksmithing because it could be very dangerous to your health.  Besides that, it is stupid and just plain moronic.

But this is not a story of an idiot/handyman blacksmith.  This is a story of my 4 year old nephew.

On Sundays after Church, my in-laws often take their grand kids to the Taco Bell for some fat laden, gas producing toxic taco eating.  After one such fine dining experience a few months ago, my in-laws (”Baggie” and “Pa Pa” to their grandchildren) were delivering the kids home when my nephew who can’t read, noticed the sign in the grass.  “What does that sign say Baggie,” he asks?

And she responds, “Well Clayton, it’s a sign for dogs that says, ‘NO POOPING ON THE GRASS.’”  With a somewhat puzzled look on his face he counters, “That’s silly Baggie, dogs can’t read.”

Now I would argue dogs can read, because since I put that sign up, my son has not dragged nearly as much poo on the bottom of his shoe into our house.

If you’ve read this far, good, because there is a point to all this and it does relate to Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) and High Deductible Health Plans (HDHPs).  In fact it relates to literacy in America in general.  We have become a nation of “skimmers,” “sound biters,” and “sign readers.”  There are dogs out there who read as well as we do, and some even better than our children.   The point is this; the folks at HSAeducator.com,  recognize that this business of health insurance, HSAs, HDHPs, Consumer Directed Health, is not the easiest nor the most stimulating information to read, understand and digest.  So, through this website, they have tried to make it as informative and painless as possible.

They  can’t boil it down to a few signs and sound bites, but hopefully if you visit the site on a regular basis, you can be entertained and more importantly educated about health savings accounts (HSAs).  Then you can take what you learn and use it to become a better health care shopper and be more aware of yours and your family’s health.  And if you don’t see what you need to answer your HSA questions, the folks at HSAeducator invite you to become a member of the site and then you can tee your questions and comments regarding HSAs, HDHPs, health and wellness up in the community forum on this site and your peers and HSA experts can help you out.