Today, Amy and Jag look at a financial risk that is easy to ignore because it does not feel urgent in the moment: the cost of doing nothing. In this episode, we focus on how delays in financial decisions can quietly create long term consequences, especially for healthcare professionals who are used to acting quickly at work but may postpone choices in their own financial lives. The central idea is simple. Inaction is still a decision, and over time it can carry a real cost.
Amy explains that many financial delays do not come with immediate pain. Income is still coming in, accounts still exist, and nothing appears broken. That makes it easy to leave cash uninvested, skip HSA contributions, ignore open enrollment changes, or delay insurance decisions. But time is often the thing being lost, and time can translate into large amounts of money. A $100,000 cash balance left sitting too long can mean missing tens of thousands of dollars in growth. Missed HSA contributions can reduce both tax savings and long term wealth. Idle cash spread across accounts may not seem serious until the total missed opportunity becomes clear.
The episode also highlights timing windows that matter. Open enrollment, tax planning before year end, lower income years that create Roth conversion opportunities, and insurance decisions made while health is still favorable can all have meaningful financial impact. Amy gives several examples where waiting leads to higher taxes, less retirement savings, or insurance that becomes more expensive or unavailable. She also notes that rule changes can remove options people assumed would still be there later.
A major theme in the conversation is that the biggest mistakes are often basic ones that never get revisited. People repeat the same benefits elections, forget to update beneficiaries, let cash build up unintentionally, and miss planning opportunities because nothing forces action. Amy stresses that beneficiary designations override a will, which makes that one of the fastest and most important items to review. She also emphasizes income protection through insurance and the importance of identifying unintentional cash balances.
The practical advice is to start small and focus on what matters most. Review beneficiaries. Check insurance coverage. Look for idle cash. Make a short list of what has a deadline, what affects family, and what becomes more expensive if delayed. Amy suggests one or two intentional financial reviews each year, along with a pre year end tax check and regular check ins on the biggest issues. The message is not to do everything at once. It is to notice what has been sitting too long and move it forward. Doing nothing feels neutral, but it is often where the biggest hidden costs begin.
(00:00) Intro
(00:16) Why financial inaction feels harmless
(01:50) The real cost of waiting
(03:10) Missed HSA contributions and idle cash
(04:29) How to triage financial decisions
(05:00) Tax timing and lower income years
(06:14) Why insurance gets riskier to delay
(06:51) Decisions that get more expensive over time
(10:05) Common mistakes people make when they delay
(12:18) Where to start fixing it
(17:57) Key takeaways
[Music Playing]
Jon Gay (00:08):
Welcome back to ThimbleberryU, I'm Jon Jag Gay. I'm joined as always by Amy Walls from Thimbleberry Financial. Amy, always good to be with you.
Amy Walls (00:14):
Jag, always great to talk to you.
Jon Gay (00:16):
Today, we're talking about the hidden costs of doing nothing when it comes to healthcare. If you work in healthcare, you're used to what happens when something gets delayed. A symptom gets brushed off, a follow-up gets pushed, a test gets postponed. Most of the time, nothing feels urgent in the moment until it is (laughs).
So, what's interesting is how different that feels in your financial life. This gets into behavioral finance, Amy, which I know you love to talk about. Benefits get rolled forward, cash builds up, decisions sit, and in this case, nothing feels urgent, so nothing happens.
Today, we're talking about the hidden costs of doing nothing and how waiting on financial decisions can quietly create more risk than people realize. It's not something as obvious as on like a test or a scan. So, Amy, why is this so common for healthcare professionals?
Amy Walls (01:00):
Yeah, because financially, nothing is forcing a decision. So, at work, for our healthcare professionals, there's a patient and there's a timeline, but at home, things look fine, they feel fine.
Your stomach and energy levels remind you that it's time for some fuel. With your financial life, income is coming in. Accounts are there; nothing feels broken. There's no symptom to see.
So, as a result, waiting is harmless, when in fact it might not be harmless. So, there are still decisions to be made, just ones that don't show up with consequences right away, and over time, those quiet decisions start to add up.
Jon Gay (01:50):
That makes a lot of sense. So, let's start there. I know you've said in previous episodes, deciding not to do something is a decision in and of itself. So, when someone's waiting, what risks are they actually incurring?
Amy Walls (02:02):
Most of the time, they're risking time. But time can equate to real dollars. So, for example, if someone has $100,000 sitting in cash because they haven't gotten around to investing it, that usually doesn't feel very urgent. But over time, the difference, and especially when you look back, is very real.
So, at around a 6% rate of return, that money, that $100,000, could grow to be about $320,000 over 20 years. But if you waited five years to invest, instead of having $320,000, you might have around $240,000. You can say I still have $240,000, but the five-year delay still cost you $80,000.
Jon Gay (02:51):
That's real money.
Amy Walls (02:52):
Absolutely. So, the point is (and this is what's hard to recognize) nothing went wrong. There was no bad investment. There was just time, and that time passed. And so, we can see these patterns in other areas, not just in cash sitting in a bank account.
Amy Walls (03:10):
So, maybe someone misses making HSA (Health Savings Account) contributions for several years, that could be $4,000 to $8,000 per year in tax advantage savings that never happened.
And so, over time, those dollars could grow to $150,000 or more that simply now doesn't exist. We don't miss what doesn't exist, we just miss opportunity or miss what we could have had when we hear the numbers.
So, another example is someone maybe has $200,000 spread across accounts, so they don't even realize it's that much. And it's not invested within those accounts. It just looks like bits of cash that, oh yeah, this account has some cash in it.
But at moderate returns, that could mean missing out on $40,000 to $50,000 in growth. So, individually, none of these items feel urgent. But together, and when we see the impact, they become really meaningful.
Jon Gay (04:14):
Yeah, that's the part that's so easy to miss. It doesn't feel like one big mistake, even though it adds up over time in those little bits. So, how do you figure out, Amy, what actually needs attention now versus what can wait, maybe kick the can down the road on a little bit?
Amy Walls (04:29):
Well, let's call it triage (laughs).
Jon Gay (04:32):
Okay, for our medical professionals, that's a good way to put it.
Amy Walls (04:35):
Some things are going to have very clear deadlines. Open enrollment each year through your employer. That's one. If you miss it, you're locked in with probably what you had the year before for a full year. Tax planning is another. Once the year ends, those decisions are gone. You missed it, I didn't get to it, maybe I'll do it this year.
Jon Gay (04:56):
It's like me making a contribution to my SEP-IRA by April 15th.
Amy Walls (05:00):
Absolutely. The same thing. Then there are decisions that change based on timing. So, income fluctuations are a good example. A lot of healthcare professionals have years where income might be a little bit lower. Maybe they took on fewer shifts, for example. Maybe they were part of a transition. Those years can be incredibly valuable for planning.
For example, if someone converts $200,000 of, let's say, a Roth conversion at a 24% tax rate, instead of at a 32% tax rate, that's about a $16,000 savings just in federal taxes. And so, that lower income year is a year of opportunity. And so, if it passes without action being taken, the opportunity is missed.
Jon Gay (05:52):
That's a really good point.
Amy Walls (05:53):
So, also, changes that depend on timing could be decisions tied to health. Disability insurance at 45 looks very different than trying to get disability insurance at age 50. Sometimes it's more expensive, and that's the difference, but sometimes it's not going to be available at all based on how your health has changed.
Jon Gay (06:14):
You're not in my email by any chance, are you?
Amy Walls (06:17):
(Laughs) I am not, Jag.
Jon Gay (06:18):
It's so funny you use that as an example because I am 45 and got approved yesterday for disability insurance. That is wild that you used that as an example (laughs). I'm a little freaked out right now, Amy.
[Laughter]
Amy Walls (06:31):
Well, good for you, and congratulations.
Jon Gay (06:34):
Thank you.
Amy Walls (06:35):
I'm glad you took care of that. Going back to this, the way to think about it is pretty simple; deadlines matter, health matters, and timing windows matter.
Jon Gay (06:45):
All really good points. What are some of the decisions, Amy, that tend to get a little bit more expensive the longer someone waits?
Amy Walls (06:51):
Well, Roth conversions that I already alluded to are one of the clearest and possibly the cleanest. If someone spreads out $50,000 annual conversions over five years at a 24% tax rate, that's about $60,000 in taxes total.
But if they wait and end up doing the same thing at a 32% tax rate, that's closer to $80,000 in taxes. So, we've got a $20,000 difference for the same strategy. Savings delays work the same way. If someone starts investing $10,000 per year at age 45, they might have around $370,000 by age 65.
But if they wait until age 50 to start, so we lost five years here, that total amount might be closer to $290,000. So, again, an $80,000 gap. And as we just alluded to, insurance is different. It's not just more expensive, it can disappear. And then other things, there are rule changes.
So, for example, starting in 2026, higher income earners who are over the age of 50 have to make their catch-up contributions into their employer-sponsored retirement plans as Roth contributions versus pre-tax contributions.
So, up until December 31st, all those catch-up contributions went in pre-tax. Well, now, the catch-up contributions, if your income's been over a certain limit, has to go in as Roth. So, you don't make those changes, you could just miss out on even being able to contribute the extra dollars.
And then if someone was expecting to reduce taxable income with those contributions, that option is gone. Meaning you were contributing 15% of income into the 401(k) pre-tax. Now, because you hit that limit, really, you're going to hit your $24,500 basic contribution limit earlier, you will miss out on the extra money being contributed but you also aren't getting the amount that's lowering your taxable income.
And that's not someone's decision, that's the IRS's decision, not a person's decision. But to not have looked at that and factored that in, means you may also have missed another opportunity to do something else that could help with those taxes.
Jon Gay (09:33):
And what's really interesting, what you're saying is a lot of these things are good general pieces of advice, but as administrations change, as different parties with different priorities take over- we don't get political here, we’re apolitical- but rules can change. If there's a law or rule that is advantageous to you now, why not take advantage of it, because it could change at some point.
Amy Walls (09:55):
Absolutely. I think your point is, and my point is, time doesn't just pass, outcomes pass.
Jon Gay (10:05):
To sort of hone in a little bit more, Amy, we've alluded to this, but what mistakes do you see most often when people delay?
Amy Walls (10:10):
Most of the mistakes are really quite simple, and I'd say it's probably that decisions never get revisited or a decision never gets made. So, for example, at open enrollment, listeners, how many of you are repeating the same benefits year after year without checking to make sure they still fit?
Jon Gay (10:37):
“I don't want to read through all these plans, I'm sure what I have is fine.”
Amy Walls (10:41):
Exactly. So, HSA opportunities, those health savings account opportunities might get missed. Cash builds up in or across accounts, beneficiaries don't get updated after life events and these things matter more than people expect. Beneficiary designations override a will.
Jon Gay (11:03):
Really important point.
Amy Walls (11:04):
We also see missed planning windows. So, like we just talked about, that lower income year comes and goes and nothing happens in it. And then later, that decision sounds really good, but it's going to cost quite a bit more.
Jon Gay (11:20):
Can I send this episode to myself in 2018 when I was between careers and really wish I'd done some prep when my income bracket was a lot lower?
Amy Walls (11:29):
(Sarcastically) There are ways to do that (laughs). And we talked about insurance. Just like it sounds like you did, you'd plan to get to coverage later and you did get to it. I can actually share that well before I was an advisor, I had a health issue that came up and it made me uninsurable.
And so, that option for individual disability insurance is gone for me, and has been gone before I really even knew it existed. So, the pattern of delays isn't about complexity, it's about I've got time to do this without realizing that the consequence could become real.
Jon Gay (12:18):
Yeah. Let's turn this into practical knowledge here, Amy. If someone's listening and their hand is up, “Yep, that's me, I'm making those mistakes.” Where do they even start?
Amy Walls (12:28):
Oh, Jag, you're always so good with your questions. I'm going to say start with the things that have the most impact and are easiest to fix. Now, it might sound like I'm going to contradict myself on that.
First, beneficiaries. It's really quick to do and it matters. Now, you may not be here, we're talking beneficiaries, you're not going to be here. So, it might be, well, that's not an impact to me, but it's the impact and the legacy you're leaving. So, I think it's an easy place to start. And I also believe momentum begets momentum. So, let's get started, and that allows it.
So, secondly, insurance. If your income supports your life, protecting that income matters. So, for example, if someone earns $300,000 and they become unable to work for 10 years, that's a $3 million loss.
Jon Gay (13:25):
Jeez. Yeah.
Amy Walls (13:27):
Yeah, like your reaction, that's not a small risk.
Third, look for idle cash. I met with clients recently who – unbeknownst to them or to me, had been opening a variety of bank accounts over time and they had lost track of them.
Jon Gay (13:52):
Wow.
Amy Walls (13:52):
They were sitting on a lot more cash than anybody knew about. Look for that not because it necessarily needs to be invested immediately, but because unintentional cash is usually a sign that decisions have been delayed or they were made unintentionally.
Jon Gay (14:10):
That's a really good point.
Amy Walls (14:11):
From there, create a short list of what's outstanding, what has a deadline, what affects your family, what gets more expensive if it waits. I'm also going to say if you're someone who has been struggling to make these things a priority, it's okay to seek accountability. And with that combination, that's really enough to get moving.
Jon Gay (14:37):
So, a lot of our listeners and a lot of your clients that are in the medical profession, they're very busy. They might be a little bit overwhelmed with everything we just threw at them in the last 15 or so minutes.
Amy Walls (14:47):
Sorry (laughs).
Jon Gay (14:48):
It's all good information, but it can be a lot to digest at once. And so, in the interest of “eating the elephant one bite at a time,” what's the minimum that our listeners need to do to stay on track?
Amy Walls (14:57):
Well, there's no hard and fast rule here. So, know that like normal on our podcast, I am speaking in generalities, but I have to call it out for this. And this doesn't take constant attention, what it requires is an intentional attention and some discipline.
Jon Gay (15:20):
Okay.
Amy Walls (15:22):
So, maybe it's one to two annual reviews of your overall financial situation. Doing a scan of accounts. How much cash do I have sitting here? That sort of thing. Obviously, an open enrollment review if you're still working, a tax planning check before year end. So, that combination, that's a few hours each year.
And for those listeners with a partner or spouse, although you could also do this individually, and I think it's a great exercise: Do a monthly check-in on the things that impact either of you, especially, and a couple. Or maybe if you're single, it's: do a monthly check-in on the thing that has or the two things that have the biggest impact in your life.
Maybe, for example, you know that, hey, I make more than enough money. I really enjoy these extra things that are … I haven't been taking care of myself. I'm going to do a lot of self-care for a while, but it would be really easy to go overboard on that, a budget-wise, compared to everything else.
Maybe put that on your list as a thing to check in against was, did I stay within kind of what I deemed reasonable? Because if we're talking about this, we probably aren't paying attention along the way.
Jon Gay (16:47):
It's funny- long-time listeners of the show will know how financially literate my wife, Ellen, is. And we've joked about it on the show before. We will often do a weekly check-in. If we're sitting around on the weekend, she'll look at me and she'll say, “Do you want to do finances?”
“Well, want might be the wrong word to use, honey. I don't really want to, but yes, if you want to compare notes and see where we are with stuff, yes, I will do it (laughs).”
Amy Walls (17:09):
Yep. My husband and I try to have a weekly Monday meeting. Many of my clients know about our weekly Monday meetings and we'll throw financial topics into this. But on these monthly check-ins for a bigger purpose, set an agenda of the things that are on your short list to focus on.
And I'm a huge fan of going to a coffee shop, somewhere neutral, because at home has the emotions and run through your agenda in that neutral space. And I know clients who have done this say they get a lot more progress and are able to communicate a lot better with each other by doing that.
Jon Gay (17:53):
I love it. Alright so key takeaways as we wrap up, Amy.
Amy Walls (17:57):
First one, doing nothing feels neutral, but it's not neutral. It has cost as we've talked about. But the problem is those costs are generally quiet, so we don't recognize them. Second, the goal is not to do everything. We don't need to overwhelm ourselves any more than we already are.
It's to notice what's been sitting for too long and take some sort of action to move it forward. And that's all because the biggest financial costs are often the result of the things that never happen.
Jon Gay (18:33):
I think it's a good place to leave it. So, as we said at the onset here, if you work in healthcare, you already understand what delays can do. It's just whether you're applying that same thing into your own financial life.
And again, the symptoms may not be as overt as in healthcare (laughs), but thanks for walking us through this, Amy. How do our listeners get ahold of you at Thimbleberry Financial?
Amy Walls (18:53):
Yeah, they can reach us online at thimbleberryfinancial.com, or by giving us a call at 503-610-6510.
Jon Gay (19:04):
Great stuff, Amy. We'll talk again in a couple of weeks.
Amy Walls (19:05):
Sounds great. Thanks, Jag.
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Jon Gay (19:23):
Securities offered through registered representatives of Cambridge Investment Research, Inc., a broker-dealer, member of FINRA, SIPC. Advisory services through Cambridge Investment Research Advisors, Inc., a registered investment advisor. Cambridge and Thimbleberry Financial are not affiliated.
Discussions in this show should not be construed as specific recommendations or investment advice, always consult with your investment professional before making important investment decisions.
Securities offered through registered representatives of Cambridge Investment Research, Inc., a broker-dealer, member of FINRA, SIPC. Advisory services through Cambridge Investment Research Advisors, Inc., a registered investment advisor. Cambridge and Thimbleberry Financial are not affiliated.