LASIK and Girl Math

Do you remember a couple of years ago when girl math was big? Well, I've been thinking a lot about the cost of LASIK in a girl math kind of way lately. And basically, you'd be crazy not to do it! For those who don't know girl math is where you break down the cost of something by how often you use it over the course of time you plan to use it. For example, if I buy a hairdryer for $300 but I have that hairdryer for 5 years, I'm hypothetically paying $60 every year. And if we break that down even more and say I use my hairdryer twice a week, then I'm only paying $0.58 every time I blow dry my hair. That's basically free. An even simpler way of explaining girl math is to say that it's a way of looking at how you spend your money. Do you want to invest your money in something that may be more expensive, but lasts longer or do you want what's cheap now, but that will break and need to be replaced much sooner? 

Today, we'll be talking about how the cost of LASIK compares with the cost of glasses and/or contacts. For the sake of simplicity, we won't be including specialty contacts or glasses that have bifocal, trifocal, multifocal, etc. lenses. These are contacts or glasses that would only be used after someone has started to struggle with their reading vision. The age that people start to really struggle with reading varies person-to-person. For arguments sake, we'll say that the individuals in our example will need reading glasses at age 50. After age 50 Refractive Lens Exchange would be a more appropriate procedure. 

We're going to talk about a few different people in our examples. Each example will have LASIK at a different age and we will only be comparing the cost of glasses and contacts during that range. For example, Bob had LASIK at 18 and he'll need reading glasses at 50. So, that's 32 years that he'll be glasses free! So, we'll compare the cost that Bob pays for LASIK to what he would have spent on glasses and contacts over those 32 years. Another important thing to note is that glasses and contacts fluctuate wildly in cost depending on a person's visual needs, but also depending on the brands they purchase. 

But, let's start with a real life example: me! I had a moderate nearsighted prescription with a minor astigmatism in both eyes. I would get a new box of contacts every year and I would get new glasses every other year (for the sake of this experiment Bob and Mary will also purchase new glasses every other year). I must admit, I don't remember the exact dollar amounts. But based on what I know, I would estimate that I spent $800 on each pair of my glasses (biennially) and $800 on each box of contacts (annually). So, if we split the cost of glasses between the two years, each year I would spend about $1200. 

Let's return to Bob. Bob has a mild-moderate prescription and no major astigmatism. So, he's going to be more on the lower end for the cost of his glasses and contacts. The average cost of his prescription glasses is about $250. And contacts for this sort of prescription range in cost from $600-$900. This means that if we divide the cost of glasses over the time he uses them he'd be paying $125 on glasses each year. This makes Bob's grand total $725 each year. 

Now, let's look at Mary. We're going to say Mary has a pretty significant prescription and she likes to buy designer glasses. So, for each pair of glasses Mary is spending $1000. She spends $1250 on her contacts each year. So, her grand total is $1750 each year. 

Let's break these numbers down a little more. 

Bob had LASIK at 18, and he won't be needing reading glasses until he's 50. That's 32 years. Mary had LASIK at 35 and also won't need reading glasses until she's 50. 15 years. And I had LASIK at 24. So, for this hypothetical. I'll have 26 years glasses free. Below are tables that show how much Bob, Mary and I would have spent on our glasses and contacts over those years. 

Now let's compare this to LASIK! Currently, our in-house promotional price is $5198.

So, I know what you're thinking... "Haley, how can I justify having LASIK when it's that much more expensive right now?" or "Haley, girl math is stupid and doesn't make sense." or "Bob doesn't get 32 years to pay off his LASIK. He has to pay it all now!" 

I will give it to you. That last point is fair. The longest financing term we offer is 2 years at 0% interest. As for why you hate girl math... I'm sorry that you're no fun and thief of joy. But we'll compare.