Employer's Flexible Health Care Spending Plan

This month is open enrollment for flexible spending accounts.Opening one of these accounts saves you from paying taxes on medical spending by setting aside a predetermined amount of your pay for reimbursement. We use this tax deferred program every year which even allows reimbursement for over the counter drugs.

According to Billeater.com, flexible spending accounts "saves you between 10-35% of your bill, depending on your federal tax bracket." Read more here.

The only down side is that you must use up all the money in your account or lose it, so estimating yearly expenses on the conservative side is wise. We tend to underestimate our expenses each year by 30%, but the tax savings on the small amount we defer are still a bonus.