u/YuzuAllDay

I've always lived fugally. I work in the nonprofit sector, have been consistently wildly underpaid (even by nonprofit standards), and had clear financial goals I prioritized: paying off my student loans, paying out of pocket for my Masters, and a healthy retirement fund. I've avoided anything I thought was 'extra'.

A year ago I started my dream job, a job I didn't think I'd get for at least 10 years, if ever. I got a 65% pay increase (apparently I'm still underpaid).

Anyhow, the point being: after 15 years of scrutinizing every dollar I spend, I'm now meeting all my savings goals and actually starting to spend on non-essentials. It's taken time, but I'm finally starting to feel comfortable buying a new dress just for fun or getting an afternoon ice coffee.

I'm considering getting corrective eye surgery (similar to LASIK) and am really struggling with the financial part of the decision.

My eyes are bad bad, so bad that my contacts are considered 'medically necessary' and are covered by insurance (-11 in both eyes). Only in the last 2 years did my eyes stabilize enough for corrective eye surgery to be an option. And now I finally feel like I can afford it.

But, it's $10k. That's so much money for a non-essential surgery. I've been wearing contacts for nearly 30 years, they don't bother me. This would simply mean that I don't have to deal with contacts or glasses. I'm completely nonfunctional without contacts/glasses so this surgery would be game changing, just...not essential.

I have the savings to cover it up front and also buffer in my monthly budget if I wanted to put it on credit for 0% and pay it off over 2 years (without impacting other saving/spending). This wouldn't significantly impact my progress towards my financial goals in a meaningful way. I've hit CoastFI but am still contributing max to all retirement accounts. It's roughly 1% of our net worth (not including real estate). But $10k is still a lot of money and so far outside of my comfort zone.

Thanks for anyone who has read this far. Even just writing this out has helped me get some clarity. I think what I'm looking for is:

• Hearing from others who faced a similar decision out of your comfort zone, how did you think about it and ultimately make your decision?

• A sanity check- am I thinking too hard about this? Do I need to just do the thing?

• General comments and perspectives.

Thank you!!

Update Well, the clear consensus is I should just get it done. Thank you all for taking the time to respond. I literally started tearing up reading some of these comments. I've had non-functioning eyes for so long that I needed the reminder that sight is one of the basic senses and if I have the ability to restore them I need to just do it. Sometimes a girl just needs a kick in the pants ❤️ Thank you!!

Age :40

Perscription: Roughly -11 both eyes, slight astimatism in one eye

I recently went for a Lasik consultation and, as expected, they said I wasn't a candidate for Lasik due to my high perscription so my options are ICL now or RLE later.

Request: Please fact check my pros/cons and share what else I should be considering.

From what I understand, in comparing the two:

Pros of ICL

• Can get the correction now and be contacts/glasses free
• Will have great, crisp, vision
• Maintain my natural lens, option for reversal if absolutely needed

Cons of ICL

• Will need to use readers eventually (I'm not sure this is that big of a deal, it's just part of aging, but other people seem to think it is).
• Likely will have cataracts later on and will neeed another surgery to correct.

Pros of RLE

• Corrects for both distance and near
• No cataract surgery later on

Cons of RLE

• Vision at all distances isn't as crisp as you'd get just correcting for one
• Removing natural lens
• Tradeoffs depending on the lens you get.

Additional Questions

• How big of a deal is it to remove your natural lens once you've developed presbyopia? Are there other things you lose in removing your natural lens other than the ability to focus on both near + far objects?
• Does ICL make cataracts develop faster?
• When people say that you are trading super crisp vision at one distance for good vision at all distances, how big of a difference is it? Are people who have had vision correction their entire life (me!!) and expect super crisp vision bothered by it or do they get used to it?
• Not entirely a question, but I'm still working to understand the different lens options for RLE so I'd appreciate any info folks could offer around that.

Thank you in advance!

Just discovered this sub, apologies for posting on so many similar subs but trying to reach a wider audience. Thank you in advance!

Age :40

Perscription: Roughly -11 both eyes, slight astimatism in one eye

I recently went for a Lasik consultation and, as expected, they said I wasn't a candidate for Lasik due to my high perscription so my options are ICL now or RLE later.

Request: Please fact check my pros/cons and share what else I should be considering.

From what I understand, in comparing the two:

Pros of ICL

• Can get the correction now and be contacts/glasses free
• Will have great, crisp, vision
• Maintain my natural lens, option for reversal if absolutely needed

Cons of ICL

• Will need to use readers eventually (I'm not sure this is that big of a deal, it's just part of aging, but other people seem to think it is).
• Likely will have cataracts later on and will neeed another surgery to correct.

Pros of RLE

• Corrects for both distance and near
• No cataract surgery later on

Cons of RLE

• Vision at all distances isn't as crisp as you'd get just correcting for one
• Removing natural lens
• Tradeoffs depending on the lens you get.

Additional Questions

• How big of a deal is it to remove your natural lens once you've developed presbyopia? Are there other things you lose in removing your natural lens other than the ability to focus on both near + far objects?
• Does ICL make cataracts develop faster?
• When people say that you are trading super crisp vision at one distance for good vision at all distances, how big of a difference is it? Are people who have had vision correction their entire life (me!!) and expect super crisp vision bothered by it or do they get used to it?
• Not entirely a question, but I'm still understanding the different lens options for RLE so I'd appreciate any info folks could offer around that.

Thank you in advance!