The Real Cost of Smoking

The other day, we were watching a speech by a government official. They plan to cut down the number of smokers by half by 2020. My friend instantly remarked, “Sure, just give them more cigarettes”. We all had a good laugh about it.

However, there is an underlying truth to it. The warning on the package is real. It does cost you your life at the end. As it turns out, smoking not only costs you your life, but also makes living it costlier. Let’s do the math. Considering you are a heavy smoker, you must be smoking 3 packs a day. The price of your pack might vary as per the city you live in. Say, you live in the metropolitan city of New York. In that case, you are paying $14 per pack. So, three packs a day puts your spending at $1260 in a month. For 12 months in a year, it sums up to $15,120!

Boy, you are putting all that money into cigarettes which might ultimately cost you this very life. Quite illogical, isn’t it? Imagine, what you could do with this money, if you had invested it elsewhere. If you have been a smoker for past 10 years, then you have already spent $151,200 on smoking. This could make up half of your savings for buying a house. If this money was invested in big stocks of companies like Apple and Google, you would be on your way to becoming a millionaire. Even if you don’t invest and just let that money sit in your savings account, the returns are huge. With the 0.05% interest rate, an initial balance of $1000, a monthly deposit of $1260, at the end of 10 years, you stand at $152,580.47 in your account, by the grace of compounding power of money.

There is more. The cost incurred doesn’t stop here. If you start smoking as early as 17, and continue for the next 10 years, you will surely develop a plethora of medical problems. Cardiovascular deterioration, respiratory problems such as bronchitis, malfunctioning of reproductive system, and the big daddy of all-Cancer. FYI, Cancer still accounts for maximum number of deaths. Scientists are still experimenting with different combinations of drugs to mitigate it, but we still have a long way to go. For the ladies, it can contribute heavily to ageing. Dr. Oz has been propagating that whatever you ingest affects your appearance. Therefore, those anti-ageing creams won’t do any good if you are still smoking. These health problems can result in multiple visits to the doctor. This definitely leads to a burden on your earnings, which means lesser money for vacations, dim prospects of a career change option, and delayed decision of starting a family. All this because you chose smoking.

If you are a pragmatic person you will quit smoking right now. It neither helps you physically, financially or emotionally. It isn’t worth continuing it at all.