Deciding to Use the DCFSA, Dependent Care Credit, and Divorced Parents

Enrollment for the new Dependent Care Flex Spending Account is now open until December 11th, 2023. According to the Office of Financial Readiness, the DCFSA is a pre-tax account used to pay for eligible dependent care services such as child or adult day care. If you have kids, you know childcare costs can break a family’s budget and determine a military spouse's ability to work or go to school. Using the DCFSA to save for your childcare expenses can help, but how do you know it’s right for you and how much money to save? 

In this episode, Brandon Lovingier breaks down some of the math and planning you should do to decide if enrolling in the DCFSA is right for you. 

We talk about:

• Factors to include in your decision-making
• What you should know about the Dependent Care Credit
• The role your income plays
• What divorced service members should think about

Brandon, aka The Enlisted Money Guy™, has served over 18 years in the Army – including deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. He established his blog, Enlisted Money, to help enlisted service members avoid the same mistakes he made and achieve financial freedom. He earned his Chartered Financial Consultant® designation in 2022 and is one of the first Military Qualified Financial Planner® designation holders. He’s been a speaker at MilMoneyCon and loves mentoring other service members on their own financial freedom journey.

The show notes can be found here: https://laceylangford.com/podcast/Deciding-to-Use-the-DCFSA