Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs) are powerful spending tools to manage certain out-of-pocket health care costs. Since the money in an FSA is not taxed, you save an amount equal to the taxes you would have paid on any money you set aside. (Do you qualify? Check with your HR department during open enrollment to make sure or to opt-in to an FSA that you previously haven’t used.)
FSA money can be used for all sorts of medical and dental expenses, including prescription medications, some over-the-counter treatments, eyeglasses, teeth whitening, acupuncture and more. Any money that you put into an FSA — up to $2,600 per year — generally must be spent within that same calendar year. That means that, come January 1, 2018, anything you haven’t spent in 2017 could be lost. It is time to spend it or lose it.
SAM has assembled a list of ways to use up that balance before the end of the year, including some you may not have considered.
