Many people who want to quit smoking are concerned about their health, but there are other things they are concerned about. Finances are one of these other concerns, because especially if you have a family, cigarettes could be an unwelcome addition to any household budget.
Smoking is a very expensive habit, and it’s worse when you smoke more than one pack per day. Smokers may start out smoking relatively few cigarettes per day, but as the addiction goes on, they start upping the number of cigarettes they need to use each day in order to feel the mood enhancement, so the cost of their habit goes up accordingly until they make the decision to quit smoking.
Right now, you can calculate the money you spend by figuring out how many packs per day you smoke and multiplying that number by 365. That’s your yearly cost of the nicotine habit, which would fall to zero if you quit smoking instead.
For instance, if you live in a state where a pack of cigarettes is approximately $3.58, which is low compared to many state prices, and you smoke one pack per day, then you’re racking up a $1,306.70 a year habit.
If you’ve been smoking for a decade, that’s more than $10,000 over ten years and that’s big money that is better off spent on more productive, or more extravagant (albeit healthy) things. Hard-core smokers who live in states where the cost of living (or dying, since smoking is a nasty habit, after all) is more expensive end up spending much more than just $10,000-plus a year.
You could earn a quarter of a million dollars in thirty years – that’s big money, if you ask us – if you were to stop your smoking habit and deposit the money you would usually use for your nasty habit into a 401 (k) fund.
You could also have to pay more costs related to your smoking habit if you don’t quit – and these would be health-related costs. For instance, smokers have a heftier bill for teeth cleanings and dry cleaning, just to get the stains and odors out.
Your health insurance could also end up costing more because health care providers are aware of the menace that cigarette smoking can be to your health.
Do you need to sell your automobile for extra cash? If you’ve been smoking in it, you won’t get as much for your trade-in as you would if you had quit smoking. Smokers aren’t too employable either as compared to non-smokers, according to researchers who have surveyed several companies with a no-smoking policy.
And please, don’t get us started on the potential health care charges smokers may incur. Smoking can cause emphysema and lung cancer, and the costs to treat these diseases could be quite steep. Quit smoking for your health, but also to reduce your financial waste and put that money toward your lifelong dreams.
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