Weighing the Costs and Benefits

Being a practical sort of person, I tend to try and weigh the costs and benefits of major decisions. Not all costs or benefits will be tangible. Sometimes the benefits can't be measured in terms of dollars but in terms of flexibility, freedom, or similar benefits.

As I thought about having lasik surgery done, I began to think about the costs and benefits. Having worn glasses for so long, I was well aware of the cost of prescriptions, frames, etc. I was also aware of the cost in terms of inconveniences such as walking in the rain or trying to watch tv while laying on your side! And having broken more than one pair of glasses while playing sports, I knew there was a cost involved there, too.

Lasik surgery, on the other hand, isn't cheap. So I began to weigh the cost of having it done with the benefits I would derive. Those benefits included:

• The freedom to move around without worrying about my glasses slipping or falling off.
• The ability to wake up in the middle of the night and to see clearly ... immediately.
• Being able to take a shower and see which bottle was shampoo without having to stoop over and hold it three inches from my face.

But did I tell you I'm a practical kind of guy? Assuming I had to buy a new pair of glasses every three or so years -- and that I live another 30 years -- that would be another 10 pairs of glasses I would purchase over the rest of my life. The last pair of glasses (including prescription, lenses, and frames) cost just under $300. Let's round it up to make the math easier.

That would work out to be a cost of $3,000 over the next 30 years, assuming that prices remained static. And you can still get gas for 75 cents a gallon!

But would cost alone be the determining factor or do certain benefits carry a "price tag" of their own? By choosing to have the surgery, I was deciding that those benefits are important and weighty enough to matter.