Early Retirement Extreme Forums

General questions:
1. Do you believe in ,,better" sight after ,,stronger" lenses?
a) I see that nowadays about 30% of young people (of 20-25 years old) wear glasses. It was probably much smaller number. What is the future ?
2. How do you care of your sight?
3. How do you finance such expenditure in your ,,settings"?

Practical example for you to solve:
How to buy new glasses cheaply in my case?

Background:

My sight deficiency is permanent (I am asked to wear them ,,all-time").
I can spend no money on no glasses, but I won't be able to work ,,with eyes".
I can wear stronger and stronger glasses but I will be dependent on evil profit-based opticians (it is like a drug!).
I can save on frames, but shop will ,,payback" on lenses (in my country there is custom that you buy this set at once).
In my country I can make 5 minute pause after each 1 worked hour (in white collar jobs and only employment contract )
I will work as white collar.
I live in EU.

So much friction in this system

Parameters/variables:

In my country minimum wage is 1350 (160h workload/month).
I will pay 600 for frames. (2yr guarantee) (there I prefered shape connected to my face shape; I would be able to pay 300 for something less fashionable; I wear them all the time; ,,this" the fancy thing I want to ,,have" [as an ERE appretiance] now ; I have no problem with clothes from thrifty stores; eating less meat; using bike etc.) ( after my market research I saw that most ,,physical" shops offer only ,,fancy" brands)
I will pay 600 for lenses (probably 200 reimburment from my school) (3yr guarantee) (market monopolisation from lenses distributor)
Last glasses I have used for 5 years; but ,,planned obsolence" made it difficult after third year (but it was doable and I have not taken care of them with ERE accuracy).

6000 is for ,,life-time" fault correctness (but from my knowledge ,,science" [probably ,,my science'' also] is there is not sufficient data to back it up; I will wait few generations to observe them as rabbits and ) (no possibility to reimburse that in my national health coverage)



So I am waiting at your solutions for:
f(given_variables)=Pareto efficiency



,,My solution"/Long term plan:
Buy proposed set (after such rant) and after 5 year do ,,correctness" (I was advised that minimum age for that is 30-35) (and during that time acquire private health care from ,,good" job to finance that).

Here in the US there are a bunch of companies that do lens replacement like this one.
http://lensesrx.com/293-supply-your-own-frames.html

They normally charge $19.95 for new prescription lenses plus $4.95 shipping to the U.S. You send them the eyeglass frames. You can buy frames second hand on ebay or at flea markets. There must be something similar in your country.

Ego wrote:Here in the US there are a bunch of companies that do lens replacement like this one.
http://lensesrx.com/293-supply-your-own-frames.html

They normally charge $19.95 for new prescription lenses plus $4.95 shipping to the U.S. You send them the eyeglass frames. You can buy frames second hand on ebay or at flea markets. There must be something similar in your country.

Heh, I overcomplicated problem. Typical for INTPs!
I learn ERE the hard way

but anyway can anyone such solution for EU?
we live in our google search bubble and I can miss something mentioned by ego (and I think it is not popular in my country, but I will check websites of UK/DE).

I believe http://www.zennioptical.com/ ships to Europe for $9.95. I don't know if they allow you to use your own frames but you can order frames from them for $6.95.

Ego wrote:Here in the US there are a bunch of companies that do lens replacement like this one.
http://lensesrx.com/293-supply-your-own-frames.html

They normally charge $19.95 for new prescription lenses plus $4.95 shipping to the U.S. You send them the eyeglass frames. You can buy frames second hand on ebay or at flea markets. There must be something similar in your country.

@Ego Have you actually used that company? This is what I prefer to do, but I've done it twice now with two different places. First time worked great, the other was terrible (I did get my money back though). Just curious if that was an endorsement or random link.

1. Do you believe in ,,better" sight after ,,stronger" lenses?

When I was in high school and unwilling to admit that I had bad eyes (I really wanted to be a pilot) I tried using over-corrective lenses that were supposed to strengthen the muscles in my eyes and improve my vision at a distance. I did get results, but not to the degree that I would have need to get into the Navy's flight training program. Which is to say I got results somewhere in the borderland between, "yes I can tell things have gotten better" and the "I think it's working" optimism of the the placebo effect.

@luxagraf, yes. I have used both companies above.

I had to go back and search my email to figure out how long it has been since I ordered a pair of glasses from Zenni... 2011. They were $25.95 back then plus $4.95 shipping. I just looked on their website and the same pair are cheaper today. They were simple cheap rimless glasses that broke after about a year.

I have ordered three times from lensesrx. All three times I sent them lenses I had purchased second-hand. One of the frames I sent were very old (maybe 100 years) and had a slight crack in a weld. They didn't want to risk damaging the frames when removing the lenses so they sent them back to me for free and refunded the full amount I paid. I rotate between the other two pairs and I have no complaints. The lenses were scratched on the pair I am wearing right now but that was my fault as I put them in my handlebar bag without a case (I didn't buy the anti-scratch coating).

Ego wrote:@luxagraf, yes. I have used both companies above.

Thanks for the info, that's great to hear. I'll go for it then. I really like the frames I have, but, after 15 years of no change, my eyes have finally become worse so I need new lenses. sigh.

Do we have a MD on board?
Could someone provide bullet points what will happen if I stop using glasses now and then come back in 10 years?
I read AAO faq about wearing glasses, but ,,you should do that" is not enough for me and dwelling into pro papers without medical framework is pointless.
I liked jacob #rekt of climate change deniers and I was very interested in that thought process which stands behind it.
I bought this super glasses, but I think my sight is worse. Argh.