SPEND THE FSA

Use-it-or-lose-it season is glasses season.

If you have a Flexible Spending Account, December is the most expensive month to forget about it. FSA dollars are use-it-or-lose-it — whatever you don't spend by the deadline (with, sometimes, a short grace period) vanishes back to your employer. And prescription eyewear is one of the best FSA-eligible purchases there is: frames, lenses, prescription sunglasses, even contact lens solution in many plans.

The strategy is simple. **October: audit.** Check your FSA balance and your plan's deadline. **November: decide.** Second pair? Prescription sunglasses? Backup frames for the car? This is the moment for the pair you'd never buy with "real" money — the fun color, the bold shape, the experiment. FSA dollars are the perfect risk capital for eyewear. **December: execute.** Order early enough to beat the holiday lab rush; December is every optical lab's crunch month.

HSAs are more forgiving — the money rolls over — but the same logic applies: pre-tax dollars for something you'd buy anyway is a discount your future self will appreciate.

One caution: don't invent needs to burn the balance. But if you've been putting off prescription sunglasses or a backup pair, the deadline isn't pressure — it's permission.

Also worth knowing: many FSA administrators now accept online optical receipts without a fuss, and some plans let you buy in December for a January delivery as long as the charge hits this year. Check your plan's specifics — "incurred" versus "paid" matters. And keep every receipt. An FSA audit without documentation is a special kind of pain.

FSA dollars are the perfect risk capital for eyewear. Spend them on the fun pair.