Medical expenses flexible spending account tips

October and November are usually months to sign up for health insurance and other benefits.  One of the benefits I make sure my husband signs up for is a flexible spending account.  . My husband has $2500 pre tax taken out of his pay over the year .  Since he is paid twice a month, he  has $104 taken out each paycheck.  It is a kind of a pay yourself first for medical expenses.

We can use ours for any co-pays for doctor or dentist visits, co-pays for prescriptions, medical procedures not covered by insurance. My oldest is in braces and have been able to pay using the flexible spending account and set up an automatic payment right from our FSA.  We have a Mastercard debit card  to use. We do have to keep receipts because we have to submit them several times primarily for a dentist or dermatologist visits.

For my family, it is really a no brainer to sign up because we have medical expenses.

If you are signing up  you need to figure out how much you will actually spend on those things in a year and not over estimate because if you do not withdraw all the money in the account by year's end you will lose it.

You give your employer a total of what you want put into the account and they divide it by the number of paychecks you will receive in the year and then they take that amount out of each check and deposit it into your account before they tax your income. This works out well if you have monthly medicines  you know you will need.  Luckily, my husband company has the medical debit card, but some companies you need to submit the receipts for reimbursement.