Habits that Break the Bank

My kids have recently been on an anti-smoking campaign. When they see someone smoking on the street or in the car next to us the tell them something along the lines of "...if you smoke, you're going to die." My kids are young, so I'm ok with the directness of their message.

One day after they'd so tactfully told a stranger how smoking was going to kill them I got thinking about another big reason to not smoke. Smoking is an enormous budget killer.

I haven't been in the market for a pack of cigarettes for a long time, so did a little research. The cost of a pack of cigarettes in Utah is about $4.50. I had a tough time figuring out the average number of cigarettes someone smokes in a day, but found smokers posting online who said anywhere from 10-40. A pack a day (20) seemed to be a very common answer.

During my reading I ran across a forum on http://www.cigreviews.com/ talking about how much people are paying for cigarettes. My favorite quote from the forum is below.

"Sad as it is, I never buy cartons. I never have the damn money. I've bought them once or twice and I think they were about 40 bucks, but as far as packs go here they're about 4 and some change depending on what you buy."

Irony perhaps? Someone who smokes a pack of cigarettes a day is spending $135 per month on cigarettes. Imagine an extra $135 going into your retirement account each month. If someone took their $135 smoking habit and redirected it to retirement they'd have $201,000 in 30 years (assuming an 8-percent return on their investment).

A friend of mine who's wife quit smoking a year ago has been able to increase monthly savings by $500 per month just from not spending on cigarettes. She was a heavy smoker, but even for an average smoker the savings are great.

The costs of smoking aren't just the cigarettes themselves. Health care costs more, you age faster, your clothes wear out faster, your vehicles depreciate faster, etc. Smoking has many hidden costs. As you can see, even ignoring the hidden costs you'll end up far wealthier by not smoking than by smoking.

NOTE: My intent isn't to indict smoking, just to raise awareness about the long-term financial impact of seemingly small things. A cup of coffee from starbucks each day accomplishes the same thing.