Our 20/20 LASIK Blog

When you are considering LASIK, you probably try to balance the benefits of LASIK against the cost of the procedure. After all, with an average nationwide cost of $1935/eye (in 2007, according to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)), it seems like a costly procedure, one that for many people is well worth the pay-off. Many people who have received LASIK consider the benefit of clear vision and freedom from glasses or contacts to be priceless. But if the cost is your main reason you haven't gotten LASIK, what if we told you that LASIK actually saves you money, and is one of the best investment opportunities around.

If you are a glasses wearer, aged 25, you may expect to pay as much as $26000 for glasses over the rest of your lifetime. If, instead, you invest in LASIK, paying $3870 to have vision corrected in both eyes, you actually save $22130. Or, to put it another way, if you consider LASIK like a certificate of deposit, where you put in $3870, and upon maturity it yields $26000 after 60 years, it's an investment with over 570% return, or an average percentage yield of over 9.5%.

The benefits are better for a contacts wearer, who might pay around $30200 for a lifetime of contacts. For this person, an investment in LASIK yields a return on investment of about 680%, with an APY of about 11%.

And if you are a glasses plus contacts wearer, LASIK is an even better investment. Saving the $37,400 you would otherwise pay for glasses and contacts is like an 866% return on investment, or an average of 14.4% annual percentage yield.

How good an investment is LASIK, then? If you go to your bank and tell them that you want to buy a CD with $3870, you will be lucky to get an APY of more than 2%. Perhaps if you have $50,000 to put down, you might be able push the APY up to 3% or so, still far less than LASIK will save you.

So if cost has kept you from getting LASIK, now is the time to reconsider LASIK as an investment, one of the best around. If you want to learn more about LASIK as an investment, please contact the 20/20 Institute in Denver, Colorado; Indianapolis, Indiana, or Portland, Oregon.