This reader story comes from SB, a regular reader and commenter on GRS. SB writes about personal finance and personal development topics at One Cent at a Time.

Some reader stories contain general advice; others are examples of how a GRS reader achieved financial success or failure. These stories feature folks with all levels of financial maturity and income. 

This is my second article at this blog. I am grateful to J.D. and his team's humble gesture in allowing me to do it. I hope to provide the same value regular writers of this blog provide to you.

On Saturday, I bumped into Rhonda at the local natural food market. Rhonda is one of Kris's co-workers and friends. I haven't seen her much since the divorce, although we live only a mile-and-a-half apart. For 20 minutes, she and I stood in the freezer aisle and chatted about life and the neighborhood.

"Do you know any other places to shop for groceries?" I asked. "We like this store, but it's pretty expensive. I know there's another market near your house, but its prices don't seem any better and the food quality is worse." (This is actually the subject of an already-written but yet-to-be published post I've produced for GRS.)

"I know," Rhonda said. "That store has great seafood at good prices, but that's about it. Their produce sucks. You could always hit the fancy supermarket across the river, I guess."

When I was considering leaving my full-time job, I had some concerns. My main concern? Health insurance. And it wasn't just me. Since my husband didn't have health insurance coverage through his job, he had been covered under my policy for years. Plus, we were going to be adding kids to our family, so we needed to think about them too.

First, we took care of my husband's needs. About a year ago, he started looking for a private health insurance plan -- and since he is a healthy guy, he found an inexpensive one rather easily. And once we adopted the kids, they could also go on his plan with no problems.

So that left me. If I quit my job, I had a few options: 1. Find my own private health insurance plan 2. Go without insurance 3. COBRA 4. Find a non-insurance alternative.

This reader story is by a longtime GRS reader Sumitha from afineparent.com, a blog founded on the simple belief that "Good Parents Are Made, Not Born."

Some reader stories contain general advice; others are examples of how a GRS reader achieved financial success or failure. These stories feature folks with all levels of financial maturity and income.

How much would you think it would cost to treat an ant bite?

I've been reading through some of my old posts and thinking about what I wanted for this, my very-end-of-the-year statement on money. And what I saw was a lot (a lot) of stress. It was appropriate, as I'd spent most of the day in a kind of crazy wound-up worked-up state, getting ready for what should be a lovely, restful retreat with a few friends from my writer's group.

Part of it was financial. I'd spent the week juggling money. I had plenty of money coming in, and I had even done a fairly good job of budgeting for once. But it was more than just the money going out -- it wasn't all coming in when I thought it would, and so some of it was going to have to wait to go out again. No big deal. It could work out in the end.

But I wasn't thinking, "no big deal."

I was thinking, whoa, Nellie! Oh no oh no oh no! I imagined what it would be like if that big check I wrote to a farmer bounced (it didn't). They would be so upset! And it would cost them. And it would cost me. And I'd be obliged to pay their fees, too, and then I would be out a hundred bucks or something more than I planned and maybe I would have to pay my babysitter late and… Continue reading...

Lately, my dad's been praising the benefits of having a health savings account. This year, he had the opportunity to get the most of his HSA -- bad news for his health, but good news for his wallet (side note: Dad is now doing OK health-wise). If you have one or are considering one, here are all the HSA pros and cons to consider.

But first, if you are looking for the 2016 and 2017 annual contribution limits for HSAs, here you go:

This article was written by Joanna Lahey, an associate professor of economics at the George H.W. Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University and the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER).

Ellen's note: Joanna has written four articles about health insurance. This is the first, and every Saturday for the next month, we'll be publishing one. Given the readers' concern over the cost of health insurance as well as the ability to get insurance, we think her articles will be a great addition to GRS.

What is Insurance?

We save for retirement in order to smooth our consumption over time. Money saved now when we have income allows us to eat more than cat food when we're retired and not bringing in as much.

Longtime readers may remember a few things about me:

• At various times, I've studied to be a priest, a doctor, a teacher, and a financial advisor (though I was only two of those).
• My posts can get so technical (okay, boring) that J.D. has to enliven them with cat pictures.
• I've tried to lose weight over the past couple of years, and have concluded that reducing heft is very similar to building wealth.

Regarding the latter, I reported in January that I was down about 25 pounds in 18 months. Not bad — at least good enough to get me on public radio's Marketplace (in case you're dying to hear my nasally voice). Managing your cash and managing your flesh both start with giving up short-term pleasure for long-term gain.

This occurred to me again as I met earlier this summer with Ben Sterling, my office's resident Wellness Fool. His scale told us that I had gained back almost seven of the pounds I had lost. I had still been exercising, but not as much and not as intensely, and I didn't pay any attention to what I ate. Ben, in his wisdom, knew he had to give me more motivation — and given my financial background, he knew that motivator was money (though for me it's the preservation of it, not the making gobs of it). So we made a bet: I would lose six percentage points of body fat by mid-September or I'd pay him $200 (which would go toward buying exercise equipment for the Fool office).

If you're anything like me, you're barely insured. I don't work for a company that offers benefits and so I've had to shop for individual insurance. Setting aside what a headache that was, I've ended up with catastrophic insurance. This means that if I step off a curb wrong and break every bone in my leg, I won't be in totally ruined. That said, I don't get any help with regular checkups or routine care.

There are lots of things I do every day to help keep the Doctor away that go far beyond a simple apple. Every day, I work toward more optimal health and have learned that prevention is far cheaper than treatment. Not only do I consider my health to be my greatest asset, but staying away from MDs is a financial reality I've had to learn to navigate. None of this is groundbreaking, but let it serve as a reminder that just like your financial health, your mental and physical health requires daily attention.

Get Insurance
Yes, it's expensive and you'll probably never use it. I haven't had to go to the Doctor since college. The what-ifs however, are too disheartening to ignore. Any sort of grave accident or surprise diagnoses, without insurance, would have me sunk. I have an extremely high deductible and not surprisingly, it matches my emergency fund. If you feel like you don't need insurance at all, you don't necessarily need get much, but get yourself something.

I am sick. For the past ten days, I've been wrestling with a high fever, a cough, a persistent sore throat, and a general malaise that's kicking my ass. Basically, I'm the sickest I've been in over a decade. (The last time I was this sick? The evening that The Fellowship of the Ring premiered. I went to see it with friends, but don't remember a thing about that night because I was sick with a high fever. High fevers suck!)

Normally, I don't go to the doctor. My family has a funny thing about doctors, and usually prefer to let an illness run its course rather than to pay a doctor to tell us to "let the illness run its course". Last Tuesday, though, I decided that sometimes discretion is the better part of valor. After four days with a high fever, and after sensing that something wasn't quite right with my lungs, I drove myself to urgent care.

"You have the flu," the nurse practitioner told me. "And it'd be even worse if you hadn't had your flu shot. As it is, you may have pneumonia. It's been going around."