1. Not taking advantage of work benefits.
If you're not taking full advantage of your employee benefits, you're leaving money on the table. Some of the more overlooked, yet incredibly advantageous, benefits include:
Healthcare flexible spending account (FSA). This type of account is a pre-tax benefit account you can use to cover a variety of healthcare products and services, from acupuncture and physical therapy, to vaccines and over-the-counter medicine. You can put up to $2,550 of tax-free money into this account in 2015, and save about 30% on healthcare expenses with the tax break, WageWorks reports.
Dependent care flexible spending account. If you have young children, dependent care FSAs are worth considering. This account works very similarly to the healthcare FSA, in that you can contribute pre-tax money, but is specific for dependent care services, such as preschool, summer camp, daycare, or before and after school programs.
Commuter benefits. These are often overlooked, but they can save you over $600 each year, WageWorks tells the Wall Street Journal. The concept is simple: Employees can use pre-tax money from their paychecks to cover mass-transit passes — including the train, subway, bus, and ferry — and parking.
It's worth it to research and talk to your human resources department to understand the scope of what's available to you, as these benefits could save you thousands of dollars each year.