u/AmbagRJTL

These last several weeks have been absolutely crazy. One month ago, I was down to $29,900 from my February peak of $33,200. Everyday I checked my account and it was further in the red each time. It's really hard to have the mental fortitude to not sell when you're going down by hundreds of dollars every single day, but that's the mistake a lot of people make and they shoot themselves in the foot by doing so.

Last month, I made the decision to delete my Fidelity app off my phone because I had developed an unhealthy obsession with checking it all the time, and constantly seeing red every time I checked my account certainly wasn't helping. Removing the app off my phone has greatly reduced the rate at which I check my account, and my mental state has improved dramatically.

I'm of course still contributing to my account to take advantage of the recent dip, but now I'm only checking my account when I make my contributions (once or twice a month) rather than multiple times every single day. Now that I'm not looking at it so much, I feel like I'm a lot less prone to making an irritational financially destructive decision by selling when everything is down, like a lot of people do.

I have strong mental fortitude, so I know I would never actually do such a thing, but when all you see is red for weeks at a time, even the strongest people will start sweating a little. It was super stressful. Removing the ability to check my account so easily reduced my stress-factor significantly. I deleted the app off my phone, held through the volatility, and now my account is sitting at $35,200, which is $2,000 above my previous ATH and only $600 of that is new contributions.

$1,400 in gains in one month is nothing compared to a lot of people on here, but that's by far the most I've earned in a single month since I invested my first $100 in August 2023. I'm up $5,300 from my March low. If I had sold instead of holding, I would've locked in my losses and basically flushed $5.3K down the toilet. It's so important to not panic sell.

I've been wearing glasses since November 2020. My first two pairs I got through brick and mortar opticians. My first two pairs were great, but my prescription was off which caused light halo/scatter issues in the lenses. It was only really noticeable at night or when watching television in a dark room, but it was still quite annoying.

I went to the eye doctor and got a new prescription in January 2024, and decided to try a pair of Zenni glasses since they were so much cheaper than the frames at my local optometrist office. My first two pairs were $250/$500, whereas my first pair of Zenni glasses was around $100.

At first, they were great. They were solidly built and super clear, but then issues started appearing and it was evident why the glasses at my local optometrist were more expensive.

After about three days of use my new pair of Zenni glasses developed pretty significant scratches on the lenses, and that was despite being exceptionally careful and only using a microfiber to clean them.

There were no more light halo/scatter issues thanks to my new prescription, but the scratches were super frustrating after such a short amount of time. It only continued to get worse over time, and after about a year they were noticeably less clear. The scratches also caused light to bounce off the glasses in a way that was super distracting. Then one day at work, my lenses popped out of the frame.

I'm nearsighted and need my glasses to drive as everything is a blur beyond what's directly two feet in front of me, but thankfully I carpooled to work that day, so that was super lucky.

Once I got home, I bought another pair of Zenni glasses, this time opting for a pair with thinner lenses, better anti-scratch coating, anti-glare, as well as water resistant and blue light/infrared protection. They still only cost me around $100, which was surprising given the upgrades over my previous pair. I reverted back to my old pair of optician glasses while I waited for this new pair to arrive.

Once they arrived, like the first time, they were great for the first few days. Then like the first time, I started noticing scratches in the lenses despite only using a microfiber and glasses cleaner to clean them. It continued to get worse over time, and they actually scratched even worse than my first pair of Zenni glasses did despite having the "better" anti-scratch coating.

I also noticed they smudged super badly. I could never get rid of the smudges entirely, it seemed.

I bought this pair at the beginning of last year. I used them up until two days ago, and in the last year or so of use, the arms have gotten so loose and flimsy to the point where the glasses fall off my face whenever I look down. That plus the lens scratches is what drove me to replace them.

After my not-so-great experience with Zenni, I decided to try EyeBuyDirect this time, and based on these first couple of days, EBD is SIGNIFICANTLY higher quality.

I spent $170 on my pair of EBD glasses after discounts and coupons, and they're the most well-built and premium feeling glasses I own, even surpassing my $500 pair of optician glasses. They feel like they cost 4x what I paid.

The lenses are way better, too. It's been a couple of days at this point, and they've yet to develop a single scratch even after multiple wipes with a microfiber — unlike my Zenni glasses which developed scratches pretty much immediately.

I've also noticed they smudge much less and are generally far easier to clean. They also fit my head nicely, so I can actually look down now without my glasses falling off my head. They're also so rigid and so solidly built that they should hold their form for a long time and not get all loose and misshaped like my most recent pair of Zenni glasses have.

My prescription is identical between my Zenni pairs and my new EBD pair, with the only difference being that my EBD pair doesn't have a blue light/infrared coating like my most recent Zenni pair has. I don't think it even helped much and ultimately just made the lenses smudge worse and made it so they're significantly harder to keep clean.

Only time will tell how my EBD pair holds up long-term, but so far, they're light-years ahead of my Zenni pairs in both construction and lens quality.

I'm tired of spending money on a new pair of glasses every year. My new pair of EBD glasses should hopefully stop that pattern, if these first couple of days are any indication into the long-term standing of the glasses.

You really do get what you pay for in the realm of glasses. I had read online that EBD is generally higher quality than Zenni, and those statements are factual from what I've experienced so far. I can't see myself ever going back to Zenni.