Millions of American workers are sitting on money they will never see again.
It's tucked inside a flexible spending account, or FSA, and if the balance isn't spent by the plan's deadline, it vanishes.
The catch is that the deadline isn't the same for everyone.
While many plans follow the calendar year and require funds to be used by December 31, a large share of employers offer a grace period that pushes the cutoff into March 15 of the following year.
Others use a carryover rule, which lets a limited amount roll into the next plan year.
The IRS sets the ceiling on that carryover each year, and it's typically a few hundred dollars, not the full balance.
That gap between "grace period" and "carryover" trips up a lot of people.
A plan can offer one, the other, or neither.
So a coworker who brags about rolling money over may be on a different plan design than you.
The only reliable answer lives in your own benefits portal or summary plan description.
Here's why the stakes are higher this year.
FSA contribution limits have climbed, meaning workers who maxed out set aside more pretax dollars than ever.
Every unspent dollar is money that already came out of your paycheck, so losing it feels less like a missed perk and more like a pay cut you volunteered for.
The good news is that eligible expenses go well beyond doctor visits.
Prescription glasses, contact lenses, dental work, hearing aids, bandages, sunscreen, menstrual products, and many over-the-counter medicines qualify.
Some plans even cover travel-size items, which makes a pharmacy run an easy way to drain a small leftover balance.
Reimbursement claims usually must be submitted after the expense is incurred, and some plans give you a short window into the new year to file paperwork for old purchases.
Miss that filing deadline and the money is gone even if you bought the right things.
Read the fine print on both dates: the spend-by date and the submit-by date.
A few practical moves can save a balance fast.
Book that dental cleaning or eye exam now, since appointments fill up in the final weeks.
Refill prescriptions early if your plan allows it.
If you're close to the line, a dependent care FSA works differently and follows its own rules, so don't mix the two up.
One more thing worth checking: whether your employer offers a grace period at all.
Some companies quietly dropped it in recent plan years to simplify administration.
If yours did, December 31 is a hard wall, and there's no appeal.
The bottom line is that an FSA rewards planning and punishes procrastination.
If you're unsure what's left, log in today rather than the last week of the year, when everyone else is scrambling and appointment slots are gone.
A 20-minute review now beats watching hundreds of dollars evaporate.
The uncomfortable truth is that these accounts are designed to be used, not saved, and the forfeiture rules exist precisely because some people won't.
Final Thoughts
Treat the deadline like a bill that's due, because in a real sense, it is.