Smokers can’t not know about the high cost of smoking. After all, it’s written on each and every pack. But that little friendly reminder only concerns the high cost smoking has on a person’s health; it doesn’t address the impact the habit has on a person’s wallet.
Well, we’re here to tell you that monetary cost also ends up being considerable. Quite considerable. In fact, it averages out to the cost of a very nice home in a very nice city’s very nice neighborhood. The loss might also mark the difference between spending your twilight years in enviable comfort or on the floor of the poor house.
The High Cost of Smoking
Like so much edifying and enjoyable information these days, the following comes from the good folks at WalletHub. Whether the credit monitoring firm provides discerning surveys to help keep current with their Economic Index or simply to generate traffic is anyone’s guess. (We think it’s probably a good bit of both.) We’re just glad that they do. At the very least the content makes for interesting reading. At best, it can help you make better informed decisions about your life. Besides, it’s always fun to see how your state fares against the rest of the country, whatever the day’s rankings happen to be.
As you probably suspect, The Real Cost of Smoking survey though provides little opportunity to pick up any bragging rights. Then again, with 20 million Americans dead from smoking-related illnesses over the last half century and a good 10% of those not even smokers, there’s no reason for anyone to brag about anything. Even less so when you add the fact that smoking costs the U.S. economy at least $300 million every year.
But like we said, smokers already know all this. And they’ve known all this for a good long while. What smokers might not know though is the direct cost smoking has on their own personal bottom line. That’s right, how much money it costs you personally over the course of your own lifetime. When that number gets thrown into the equation, you’ll feel even more kinds of awful. We just hope you also feel like quitting.
The Numbers
Turns out Georgians lose the least over their lives (insofar as $1,752,212 can be considered least). WalletHub says their Out of Pocket costs are $96,886, their Healthcare Costs Per Smoker are $121,655, and the Financial Opportunity cost is $1,013,579. The smokers bear the brunt of those costs of course, but they don’t bear all of them. How could they? Someone has to pay for every patient who can’t cover their own healthcare. And while that revenue might come from higher taxes or higher healthcare costs; the point is, it’s coming from somewhere. At the end of the day, said somewhere is each and every Georgia resident’s pocket.
Mostly though, the smoker pays dearly for their decision to smoke. Between the money spent on cigarettes and the financial opportunities lost due to smoking, the total’s well over $1.5 million. That’s just for Georgia smokers. Rhode Island, New York, Massachusetts and Connecticut smokers each lose closer to $3 million over the course of their lifetime. So do their Washington D.C. compatriots.
Now, we don’t know about you, but damn few of our friends can stand to lose $3 million, even if it is over the course of four or five decades. Hell, most of our friends can’t stand to lose $3 million over the course of four or five lifetimes. (And that includes us.)
Your Money or Your Life
You know the old cliche… Guy walks up, puts a gun to your head and says “Your money or your life.” Well, cigarettes don’t give you that option. There’s no or, there’s an and. “Your money and your life.” Then again, you knew that already too. Everyone did. WalletHub simply added it all up.
And no matter who you are or what you think or where you come from, it all adds up to one big minus. In fact, it’s about as sure-fire a subtraction as you can get and still remain standing. Thing is, you may be standing tall today. But you’ll end tomorrow standing just a bit less taller. And the same goes for each and every day to come.
Yeah, we know: everybody ages. Everybody spends money too. But nobody ages as rapidly or as drastically as someone with a real bad habit. Nobody spends as much money either, let alone squanders so many economic opportunities.
But you also knew that too. In fact, if you’re reading this, you’ve probably already kicked the shit out of at least one real bad habit. In fact, chances are good that habit was so bad it made smoking look like kid’s stuff. So what’s to keep you from kicking the shit out of cigarettes?
Nothing. And don’t try the old “I’ve quit everything else, I can’t quit this too” line. We have. And the reasoning didn’t figure. And if it was a poor excuse then; it’s an even poorer excuse now. Especially now that you know your own inner strength.
That strength is considerable. So is the cost of smoking. You’ve gotta decide which you’re gonna let be the strongest.