Invest in your looks

The average laser treatment costs $466, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, although more than one treatment may be needed and large areas can cost much more. Electrolysis costs vary widely, but $100 an hour is fairly typical. Both techniques typically require multiple sessions, with electrolysis usually involving far more visits that last longer. The costs for treating smaller areas ($400 to $800 for clearing an upper lip, for example) are comparable, although electrolysis is generally much more expensive than lasers for treating large areas. De-fuzzing a man's back, for example, could take 100 hours with electrolysis and cost more than $10,000, while a laser treatment might cost half that.

Because laser hair removal doesn't promise permanent or complete results, some people combine the two methods, opting for lasers to remove the majority of hair and electrolysis to zap the stragglers. The larger the area, the more sense such an approach makes.

Bottom line: If you're currently using at-home treatments, like razors or depilatories, you're not going to save money by opting for professional hair removal. If you're regularly getting waxed at a salon at $10 to $50 or more per session, however, you may be able to recoup the costs after several years.

Weight-loss surgery

Given that bariatric surgery is an extremely serious and last-resort kind of procedure, including it in this list may seem a little strange. Doctors typically don't recommend surgically reducing the stomach or digestive tract unless all other attempts to treat morbid obesity have failed. This is not a cosmetic procedure, but one designed to save the patient's health and possibly life. It's usually available only to people who are 100 pounds or more overweight.

But bariatric surgery does have an economic payoff, according to the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery. The cost of the procedure is usually offset by lower future medical costs to insurers and patients within a few years.

"Research shows the cost is amortized in 3½ years," said Georgeann Mallory, the society's executive director.

That includes fewer doctor visits and reduced prescription drug costs, since morbid obesity is associated with a welter of health conditions, including high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes. A 2004 research study by The Journal of the American Medical Association found that the surgery reversed diabetes in 77% of patients, lowered cholesterol in 70% and fixed high blood pressure in 62%.

Another study, however, found that bariatric surgery patients were twice as likely to be hospitalized after the procedure than they were in the three years prior to it. Not only could that offset some of the economic savings, but it gives another indication that the surgery, though often successful, has significant risks.

Still, bariatric surgeries are increasingly popular. Surgeons performed an estimated 177,000 procedures in 2006, three times the number in 2001, according to society figures.

And there's another potential savings: on life insurance. A 45-year-old, 5-foot-10 male who went from 300 pounds to 200 pounds with bariatric surgery and who had kept the weight off for at least a year could expect to pay $880 a year for a 20-year, $500,000 term life insurance policy, according to life insurance comparison site AccuQuote. Without the weight loss, said AccuQuote spokeswoman Denise Mancini, he would pay $1,710.

Essentially, the reward for losing one-third of his body weight is a reduction of one-half of his insurance premium, a savings of $22,400 over the policy's term.

Bariatric surgery may or may not be covered by insurance. Medicare now covers the procedure under some circumstances.

Bottom line: Your motivation for undergoing bariatric surgery is unlikely to be economic, but the future payoff in reduced expenses may offset or even completely cover your out-of-pocket cost.

Liz Pulliam Weston's latest book, "Easy Money: How to Simplify Your Finances and Get What You Want Out of Life," is now available. Columns by Weston, the Web's most-read personal-finance writer and winner of the 2007 Clarion Award for online journalism, appear every Monday and Thursday, exclusively on MSN Money. She also answers reader questions on the Your Money message board.

Updated Aug. 20, 2008

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