Hopefully someone here can steer me in the right direction.
Ok, so Jack is going to start orthodontic treatment this week. He's getting an expander put in because his mouth is too small for his giant teeth (he gets those from me LOL). So it's an expander and 6 months of braces, and the total I owe after insurance is $2280. I can pay it in 12 interest free payments, three due this year, with the $1750 balance due next year.
So here's the dilemma:
I am luckily at a point in life where I can just pay the bill in full (with a tiny discount, makes it $68 less).
But, I also know that there are advantages to using a Flexible Spending Account. I have one set up now, take about $1700 out each year to pay for co-pays and prescriptions. It works out to something like $67 out of my paycheck every two weeks. If I add in the orthodontic bill and take out the maximum (I think it's $3200 next year), it will basically double the amount taken out. Between health insurance, life insurance, health FSA, dependent care FSA (Jack's after school), etc. I already have $400 coming out of my paycheck every two weeks as it is. I don't particularly want to add another $70 to that, but if the tax savings are significant I guess I can suck it up.
explain it to me like I'm 5, lol.
