Re:Ask HN: Parents, what are you doing for school this fall?
by shaftway on Tuesday August 18, 2020 @04:52PM
(#24204201)
I separated the cost issue so it wasn't lost in the other wall of text.
I use a DCFSA (https://www.fsafeds.com/explore/dcfsa) to pay for it. Au pair expenses are a valid expense for this. Our marginal income tax rate is around 35%, so this helps a lot.
Without DCFSA:
Pre-tax Cost: ~$32,300
Post-tax Cost: $21,000
With DCFSA:
Pre-tax Cost: $21,000
Post-tax Cost: ~$13,650
This is all an estimate of course (like increased insurance or rent on a larger place can't be paid for using a DCFSA), but it makes the point. So I think of the cost as around $13,650 for 45 hours / week, 50 weeks / year, 2250 hours in total. No matter how many kids you have.
If that big chunk is hard to swallow, the agency fees are ~$8000, and most agencies will let you break that up into a payment plan. The au pair is paid $200 each week, so that ~$10,000 is naturally spread out. The remainder is what we estimated our additional costs to be, like food, insurance, etc. and that gets spread out as well.
I use a DCFSA (https://www.fsafeds.com/explore/dcfsa) to pay for it. Au pair expenses are a valid expense for this. Our marginal income tax rate is around 35%, so this helps a lot.
This is all an estimate of course (like increased insurance or rent on a larger place can't be paid for using a DCFSA), but it makes the point. So I think of the cost as around $13,650 for 45 hours / week, 50 weeks / year, 2250 hours in total. No matter how many kids you have.If that big chunk is hard to swallow, the agency fees are ~$8000, and most agencies will let you break that up into a payment plan. The au pair is paid $200 each week, so that ~$10,000 is naturally spread out. The remainder is what we estimated our additional costs to be, like food, insurance, etc. and that gets spread out as well.