Open Enrollment through work: Dependent Care FSA

The deadline to enroll in FSA (Medical) and Dependent Care FSA is tomorrow. I'm going to max out the FSA (Medical) but I'm wondering about how parents of newborn twins have used the Dependent Care FSA IN THE FIRST YEAR.

 

As long as you plan to spend more than the maximum amount of dependent FSA on childcare, it's smart to max it out. I have been maxing out dependent FSA for 3 years now. It's a tremendous savings!

 

Yup, I max mine out too. It works nicely in that I only get paid once a month, aside from the $416.67 that comes in the middle of the month from Flex.

 

If you will spend more than $5K in childcare next year (we spent WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY more than that), you should max it out.

 

Just to give you an idea, we are underpaying (and not paying in a way that makes us FSA eligible) but we would still max out the FSA if we could use it. We do have 3 kids but we only pay for 3 days a week (my MIL covers one day and my DH is home one day during the week).

 

We max out. I think we paid $24,000 for childcare first year. More like 20,000 subsequent years.

 

We max it out every year. I will not say how much we pay in childcare a year for three kids 3 and under because it makes me cry and think I'm making all the wrong decisions about my career/schooling, etc.

Yes, if you pay more than $5000/year in childcare, max it out. You will need to submit a receipt from your care provider for how much you paid that year that includes their Tax ID number to your employer/benefits person at the end of the year to get the money.