Cigarettes really do keep you poor both in wealth and health!

If you live in New York, cigarettes can cost you over $10 a pack!  For a carton, that would come to $100 since there are 10 packs of cigarettes to a carton.  In the rest of the country, the average pack of cigarettes cost about $5.00.

On the surface, It’s easy to calculate the annual cost of cigarettes.  If you smoke a pack a day, it could cost you $5 x 365 = $1,825 a year.  And if you live in New York, it would cost you $3,650 a year.

Since my grandfather smoked about 2 packs a day, it also cost him about $3,650 a year.  Both my grandfather and grandmother smoked about the same, it would have cost them $7,300 a year if they were still alive today.  In the end, my grandmother did wise up and stopped smoking about 5 years before she died of a nonsmoking related illness.

But my grandfather (who never stopped smoking) had emphysema, and eventually died of lung cancer.  To make matters worse, their friends also smoked, so when I would visit them, the house would be filled with so much smoke that it actually would look like fog inside of the house.

With respect to wealth, my grandparents didn’t do all that badly since they had a few small businesses that they were running.  However, I have to wonder if they would have had a lot more money if they invested that money they spend on cigarettes instead.

If they had invested $5,000 a year in a decent mutual fund for 30 years, they would have had at least an additional half a million dollars of wealth.  Cutting out the cigarettes would have extended their livespan and improved the way they lived!  This would have enabled them to do more in retirement than they did.

They did do some traveling, even visiting Hawaii back when it wasn’t nearly as common.  But they never went to Europe, like my grandmother always wanted to do.  Perhaps with that additional half a million dollars, they could have squeezed in.

Other cost associated with cigarette smoking are the following:

• Limited dating partners.  I dated one girl who smoked, but after that experience, I weeded out females that smoked out of how I would consider dating.  I’m sure there are females that would do that same as I did.
• Decreasing physical fitness.  It’s hard to jog when you smoke.  Eventually you start to become more sedimentary and settle to mainly watching TV after your day job.
• You health declines in almost every area.  There are too many health ailments to list, check out this smoking info site if you are interesting in learning more!
• You constantly smell like smoke.
• If your hair is white, it will start to yellow, as will your teeth.
• Since you smell like smoke, people will dislike the smell of you, so you limit your pool of potential friends.
• If you go on a job interview, the interviewer might know that you smoke base on visual cues and may be more inclined not to hire you.
• The list goes on and on.

Since there are so many negatives, I’ve never considered smoking.  Even when many of my family members did and still do.

Is it possible to become wealthy while smoking?  Sure, but you have a better chance of being wealthy if you don’t, not to mention the healthier life you’ll live!

-MR

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