I wear corrective vision lenses. My vision started to decline when I was in college, so I got glasses. At first I only had to wear them when I was sitting in the back of a lecture hall or driving at night so it wasn’t that inconvenient. Over a very short period of time, my vision deteriorated to the point where I needed to wear the glasses all the time. I was finally convinced that I needed to move to contacts when I realized how problematic the glasses could be. I know lots of people wear glasses with no problems, but I wasn’t one of those people.
I tried out ROTC one semester in college. I decided not to enlist when I was offered a full-ride scholarship for the rest of college. I know, it doesn’t sound like it makes much financial sense, but I wouldn’t have been able to be in the reserves if I accepted that scholarship, I would have had to have gone active duty once I graduated, and I just didn’t want to do that. But for that semester, I had PT (physical training) every weekday morning at 5 AM. It was really cold most mornings, so we’d come in from running and my glasses would fog up. So I’d take them off while we were doing the floor exercises like sit-ups and push-ups. One morning I had to miss my classes for the rest of the day because my glasses got stepped on while they were lying next to me. That did it for me, well that and vanity. I ordered contacts that night when I got my glasses repaired.
I’ve never really been comfortable with contacts either though. I get dull headaches on a pretty regular basis. Of course it doesn’t help that I wear them from about 5 in the morning until almost 10 at night. So I decided that I wanted to look into corrective vision surgery. I am slightly nervous about it, after all there are risks associated with any surgery, and other than inconvenience, there aren’t any real risks with glasses or contacts. But my eye doctor was one of the first to start doing the surgeries in the area and so has tons of experience and a really good track record. The next obstacle was of course the money. It’s a fairly expensive procedure, but other than having to pay for it all at once, it’s actually cheaper long-term than purchasing contacts over my life-time.
After deciding that I wanted to pursue this option, I made an appointment to find out if I was a good candidate for the surgery and exactly how much it costs. I am fortunately a good candidate for the surgery, and after saving money for nearly two years I now have enough money to pay for the surgery.
I’ve had several people at work say to me, “Just use your flex account.” They are referring to the IRS-approved flexible spending account program that allows us to set aside tax-free money to spend on eligible medical expenses. This is a great option to save a little money, and I will be using it. However, because I live on a budget and my checks will be smaller after the money is withheld for the account, I still had to save for it.
I’ve written about saving up and delayed gratification before here. Even if you can find an alternate financing method, whether it’s a flexible spending account or a line of credit, it’s still a good idea to save first for anything that isn’t an emergency need. This coming fall I’ll be getting the surgery done and will know that it’s paid in full when it happens.
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