It's Benefit Time

It's that time of year when your employer will start to send out information about your benefit package for 2008. One thing I have found that many people don't opt in too is the dependent spending account. Basically, you have money taken out of each pay check pre tax that reimburses you for child care and summer day camp. The company I work for gives you 20% of what you request to be reimbursed for. For example, the maximum allowed is $5,000. You would have $4,000 held pre tax during the year and the company would add $1000 to bring you up to $5,000. I can not believe the amount of people with kids where I work that don't take advantage of this. It's too much trouble,too much paperwork, I have to put the money out up front are some of the excuses I hear. I just think this is an awesome benefit and well worth the time it takes to fill out one form to get reimbursed.

If you have children under the age of 14, you should definitely check and see if your or your spouse's employer offers this benefit.