by Conrad Daley FSA, MAAA

I’m a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries and I work as a consulting Actuary in the health insurance industry. I’m also a member of the American Academy of Actuaries. I primarily work on pricing commercial marketplace plans.

If you’ve ever purchased a plan on Healthcare.gov or through a state-based exchange, my job is to help determine what those premiums are for my clients. I also work on other ad hoc projects, but much of my time is spent on premium rate development and filing.

I’m going to walk you through my work desk setup as an actuary. The purpose is to show the typical items I use, things I’ve accumulated over time, and what I like using now.

When I was an actuarial intern for Select Health in 2017 while attending BYU, I had a MacBook Pro that I used for pretty much everything.

I bought the MacBook Pro back when I was doing door-to-door sales for Aptive Pest Control. My first year, I made around $30,000 total, with about $20,000 paid upfront in the summer and another $10,000 paid later that December.

Select Health let me use a VDI setup which allowed me to access the necessary over a network, allowing secure, flexible access from anywhere without needing powerful local hardware.

It was a little clunky and slow, but it was extremely convenient for me at the time. I could bring my MacBook Pro to the library, work for an hour or two, get paid, then switch over and study without moving.

That setup worked well for me at the time due to not juggling multiple devices. I had a coworker tell me that all actuaries only use PC because the Microsoft tools are superior.

However, I’m writing this blog post on my MacBook Pro today and I still prefer to use this device over any laptop or desktop I’ve ever used.

Once I became a full-time analyst in 2018, I had an actual office desk in a row of cubicles. It was a large manual sit-stand desk with a dual monitor setup, wired keyboard, wired mouse, and a ThinkPad laptop (I've linked the newer one).

After a few promotions in 2020, I finally had the confidence to ask for a better computer because the one I had was slow. I requested a high-performance machine with 32 gigs of RAM, this was a HP laptop (would not recommend).

Later, when I moved to the consulting firm in 2024, I went back to using a ThinkPad but it had the 32 gigs of RAM. My current ThinkPad has an 11th Gen Intel Core i7 processor and about 477 gigabytes of storage.

For actuarial work, it handles everything I need without issues. I primarily only use Microsoft Excel for analysis of data and Microsoft OneNote for communicating findings.

My current at home desk setup includes dual Dell monitors. Each monitor connects using a power cord and a DisplayPort cable, both running into a ThinkPad dock.

Everything feeds through the dock, which keeps things clean and simple. I use a Logitech Bluetooth keyboard, specifically the MX Keys S. I like it because it looks sleek and feels nice to type on.

Even though it’s Bluetooth-capable, I actually use the small USB receiver plugged directly into the dock, so it connects instantly without having to pair each time.

For a mouse, I use a Logitech mouse that was provided by the company. I bought my own keyboard, but the consulting firm provided the monitors, mouse, wired keyboard, laptop, and webcam.

The webcam is from Aver Media, and I really like it because it makes me look better than in real life. They also provided a Jabra headset, which has been solid for meetings and calls.

One thing I bought myself is a vertical laptop stand from Amazon. It holds my laptop upright, so it takes up less space on the desk.

Everything sits on a 48-inch-wide sit-stand desk from FlexiSpot. It has white legs and a natural-colored top that’s only about an inch or two thick.

The desk can go up and down, which I really like. It looks clean and modern, and it fits my space well.

Under the desk, I have a small heater that I use in the mornings. My boss recommended it during some small talk before one of our mentor meetings. It’s great for early mornings when the ground seems to be colder than any other time of the day.

Recently, I noticed I was arching my back a lot and had poor posture, so I upgraded my chair to a High Back Office Chair from Office Depot but you can grab the same one from Amazon. The one I had before was only $25 from Facebook Marketplace.

The new one cost about $200, which is a lot, but it was worth it for better posture. Same reasoning you should buy a really expensive mattress since you sleep on it for one-third of your life.

Being comfortable and maintaining good posture is important when you’re sitting at a desk all day.

On my desk, I also have a coaster for my coffee. I keep Refresh Tears eye drops because I had LASIK surgery, and my eyes get dry from staring at a screen all day.

I also wear blue light glasses. I don’t think they do much, but I wear them anyway. I’ve been told they are just trend to get people to buy glasses but I think the placebo effect is real.

Mostly, I wear them because they make me look smarter. And that’s pretty much it—that’s my desk setup as an actuary.