If you have money sloshing around in a Flexible Spending Account, you may be feeling some pressure to spend it by Dec. 31.

An FSA is a pretax fund for health care expenses, similar to a Health Savings Account. Industry estimates suggest more than 70 million Americans have one or the other.

“They’re both ways for people to stretch their health care spending a little further,” said Jake Spiegel, a research associate at the Employee Benefit Research Institute, a nonprofit research firm.

But there is a key difference. HSA money carries over from one year to the next. Most FSA funds do not.

HSAs are paired with health insurance plans and belong to the covered individual, Spiegel said. FSAs, by contrast, are “accounts that don’t really exist on paper until the money actually needs to be spent,” he said. “They are technically owned by the employer.”

At year’s end, unused FSA money “technically goes back to the employer,” Spiegel said.

Many of us leave Flexible Spending Account funds on the table

Some FSA plans include a grace period of up to 2 ½ months, allowing the employee to spend the money in the next year. Some plans allow a portion of unused funds to roll over into the next year. This year, the maximum carryover is $610, or one-fifth of the annual contribution limit of $3,050. (Next year, the FSA contribution limit rises to $3,200.)

But many employees leave FSA dollars on the proverbial exam table. In a 2019 analysis of its own FSA database, the Employee Benefit Research Institute found that 48% of accounts had money remaining at year’s end and that the average amount forfeited was about $370.

But here’s the good news: Even if you leave FSA funds unspent, you can still save money in the end. Because they are pretax dollars, FSA funds boost the employee’s spending power by the amount of tax they don’t pay. At a 25% tax rate, putting $2,000 into an FSA would yield $500 in savings.

“You could have a few hundred dollars left at the end of the year and still come out ahead,” Spiegel said.

If you need to spend FSA money now, America’s retailers are here to help.

Amazon has an FSA store. So does Walmart. There is even an actual FSA Store, an online clearinghouse for all things FSA-eligible.

“We have everything from your over-the-counter medicine to menstrual care products to high-end skin products to treat acne,” said Rachel Rouleau, chief compliance officer at FSA Store. “There are literally thousands of ways you can spend your FSA dollars.”

We, too, are happy to help you spend your FSA dollars. Here are 10 ideas:

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