This year, for the first time ever, my mom asked me to review her employee benefits and provide her with recommendations. Just like many people, looking through the information that her employer provided to her has always been overwhelming. When she sent me the email that she received from the employee benefits provider so that I could review her options for her, it provided a list of available products and services with links to each one. The links take you to a general overview of what each benefit provides, but there is no specific information.
Open Enrollment
Guide to Employee Benefits Open Enrollment 2020
< 1 minute read
Employee benefits open enrollment can be confusing for a lot of people. There are a lot of options to choose from that probably seem like they’re in a different language. My past 5 blog posts have dived into various employee benefits including health insurance, disability insurance, group term life insurance, Dependent Care FSA, and other ancillary benefits to help empower you to make a more educated decision when making your selections for the next year. Personal finance is just that – personal.
Guide to Employee Benefits Open Enrollment 2020: Ancillary Employee Benefits
5 minute read
Have you ever looked through your employee benefits options during open enrollment and chosen to pay for something just because you weren’t really sure what it was, but it sounded important or you thought you might need it since it’s being offered to you? No one wants to pay for what they don’t need, but when it comes to employee benefits that are offered to us that we’re not sure whether we need or not it seems like we often “play it safe” and pay for them instead of going without. This can mean spending money on things that may not provide the benefits we thought they would.
Guide to Employee Benefits Open Enrollment 2020: Dependent Care FSA
5 minute read
When I was a little kid, my daycare was my grandma’s house. When I got a little older, before and after school care was at one of my set of grandparents’ houses as well. That’s where my sister and my cousins and I would go after school to get a snack and play until our parents got off of work and were able to pick us up (I don’t seem to remember too much homework getting done there). I’m pretty sure I’ve never spent a day of my life in a day care facility or preschool or before/after school care (besides at grandma’s, of course).
Guide to Employee Benefits Open Enrollment 2020: Group Term Life Insurance
7 minute read
Group term life insurance is a very common employee benefit that many people take advantage of. However, not many people think beyond the scope of the coverage offered through their employee benefits to consider why they need the coverage, how long they’ll need it, and if the maximum amount they can get is enough. If there are people who depend on your income who would be financially devastated if something were to happen to you, then group term life insurance is a benefit that you should seriously consider.
Guide to Employee Benefits Open Enrollment 2019
< 1 minute read
Over the past 6 weeks we’ve explored many of the employee benefits that may be offered to you from those that you may be over looking but should be considering, to those that you may have in place but aren’t optimizing, to those that may not make sense for you at all. Taking the time to be more intentional with your employee benefits elections and doing your best to optimize what’s offered to you while also making sure to not spend your hard earned money on those benefits that may not add you much value can go a long way in creating a better financial life.
Guide to Employee Benefits Open Enrollment 2019 Part 1: Employer-Sponsored Retirement Plans
7 minute read
This is part 1 of a series where I’ll be providing general education on many of the employee benefits elections that you’ll be faced with during open enrollment season. While there are some employers whose employee benefits open enrollment has already closed, many companies don’t have open enrollment until October or November. I find that many people take their best guess at making their enrollment elections, but have never really been well-educated on the decisions that they have in front of them or what might be best for their personal situation and don’t necessarily understand everything that they’re opting into or out of. Something that can make this even more confusing is having a spouse who’s employed at a company that provides benefits and trying to figure out how each employer’s benefits can work together for you. I’m hoping that this series of posts can help provide some education around some of the common benefits offered by employers and help people make better decisions for what might be best for their personal situation.
