Quit Smoking and Get Rich!

If you are thinking about quitting your smoking habit, you probably have a variety of good reasons.  You know that the nicotine is staining your fingernails and skins with an unhealthy yellow color that not even fingernail polish can successfully cover up.  You know that smoking causes fine lines around the mouth that may look quite unattractive with advancing age. You know that smoking will stain your teeth and also contribute to the development of gum disease.  Of course, you most certainly know about the cancer risks that smoking causes you as well as your loved ones around you.  Yet, did you also know that if you quit smoking you might get rich?

It’s the truth! Follow along and be amazed!

A smoker may smoke one pack of cigarettes per day.  Let’s assume that the trip to the store (gas, etc.), the purchasing of a brand name package of cigarettes, as well as the applicable sales tax make this little excursion cost $5.

Let’s assume that the smoker will not increase her or his habit, but instead remain steady at one package of cigarettes per day for an entire year.  Therefore, let’s multiply $5 by 365 days.  The result is a staggering $1,825 per year. If you were to average this over a 12-month period, you will have a savings of about $152 per month. 

If you were to invest this money in an investment savings account with a six percent annual return, and if you were to continue annually adding to this account $1,825, in thirty years your investment could total $66,621!

Still not convinced?  Imagine the savings of a heavy smoker with a two pack a day habit.  $10 per day for 365 days adds up to an amazing $3,650.  Invest this amount annually for thirty years in an interest bearing investment account with a six percent yield, and in thirty years you will have saved a staggering $133,241! Now there is a little nest egg we’d all like to enjoy!

What would you do with an extra $66,621 or $133,241?  You may be able to pay off your home, buy that sports car you always wanted, take an incredible cruise in the lap of luxury, or spend a year just bumming around the country or Europe, taking in the sights and sounds of states or countries you have never seen in person.  Of course, these figures to do nothing to speak of the enrichment you receive from better health, a longer life, and all the social and psychological factors that improve when you quit smoking for good. 

If you are still not convinced, consider some of the costs of smoking that go beyond the $5 you spend on a pack of cigarettes.  For example, if you will purchase life insurance, as a smoker you will have to pay about $1,000 per year more than a non-smoker.  If you purchase your own health insurance as a smoker, you will quite possibly pay about $350 per year more on the premiums than a non-smoker in a similar state of health as you are.

Similarly, homeowners’ insurance carriers quite often not only ask if there is a big dog on the premises whose bites may result in suits against the policy, but they now also question if a smoker is occupying the premises.  Home fires caused by negligent smoking cost a small fortune, and the insurance rates for smokers are usually about $60 per year more on a policy. Add an additional annual $50 for your car insurance rate as well, since smokers tend to engage in behaviors while driving that may lead to accidents. Suddenly, our one-pack a day smoker is no longer just saving $1,825 per year, but an actual $3,285!  Invest this over a thirty year period at six percent a year and you are looking at $119,917!

Our heavy smoker with the $3,650 a year habit can accumulate an amazing $186,538. Who says that quitting smoking won’t make you rich?  Of course, all of these calculations have not even begun to factor in the savings of healthcare co-payments and medication expenses that are not being incurred simply because you have quit smoking. Similarly, you will not lose time at work due to smoking related illness, which also will not mean lost wages and lost social security payments that will later on affect your retirement benefits.  All things considered, quitting smoking is a fiscally sound decision all the way around.