What I wish I knew about investing my salary

2 min readJun 6, 2024

I’m going to go over things I wish I understood about the investment opportunities of my corporate salary.

Note: This is not investment advice. Every company is different so you will need to weigh the benefits for your situation and goals. Consult a professional financial advisor

HSA (Health Savings Account)

Most of my life I always choose the PPO plan when choosing my health insurance. The arguments I’ve seen for PPO over other types is when you have constant medical issues it can make more sense. The last few years I have chosen the HSA.

The main thing that attracted me to this is you get to keep the money you contribute to it, although there are annual contribution limits.

You can use this to pay for qualifying health expenses such as doctor appointments, eye drops, etc. Amazon, Walmart, etc let’s you filter items that are eligible.

Another thing I like about it is that a lot of financial institutions have HSA savings accounts that gain interest and also let you invest in it.

I kept it in the savings account until I had an amount I thought was comfortable. I now invest it in the S&P 500 with the financial institution, although I don’t put everything in it still

You can also transfer to different HSA accounts if they have a higher savings account interest rate!

Roth 401k vs 401k

401ks are the traditional retirement accounts given by employers. Some employers also offer Roth 401k. The difference is on Roth you pay the taxes now and the other you pay later.

The common argument I notice for the Roth 401k is that taxes may be higher in the future, but no one really knows. This is what I choose to do, although I do have a smaller amount going to the traditional 401k

Roth IRA

This is another common account I see others online encourage you to invest in.

One common reason I see others use this is when they have maxed out their 401k for the year and want to invest more. I believe you have to fall within a certain bracket to do this.

Also as catch-up, you can continue to invest in the previous year’s Roth IRA until the middle of the current year.

ESPP (Employee Stock Purchase Plan)

This is called different things at participating companies. Essentially the idea is that you can buy your company’s stock at a discounted price.

RSU (Restricted Stock Units)

This is a form of compensation companies can give when you sign your offer. It’s your company’s stock, but you only get a certain amount throughout the time period specified by your company

Tax benefits

Another reason for taking advantage of investing in these different accounts is the tax benefits.

Company Match

“Always take the company Match, it’s free money” is a common phrase I’ve seen online. Your company may offer a match for more than one of these.