Put 5k in an HSA. If you're lower middle, you should be able to achieve this in a year (remember it's pretax). If you can't make it work, you are either wastin

Put 5k in an HSA. If you're lower middle, you should be able to achieve this in a year (remember it's pretax). If you can't make it work, you are either wasting money somewhere significant (e.g. housing costing more than 25% of your income), or you aren't lower middle class for the area you live.