The health costs of smoking cigarettes and using other forms of tobacco are well documented and scientifically proven.
Elevated risk of lung disease, heart disease, cancer, and emphysema—for both smokers and their loved ones—is a steep price to pay.
But smoking impacts a person’s finances too.
If a person smokes 50 cigarettes a day, at the price of $5 per pack, he or she will spend more than $4,500 a year and nearly $23,000 in five years.
If a smoker took the $4,500 spent on cigarettes and invested it that amount every year for 30 years at a 5 percent interest rate, he would end up with $298,974.81.
Use the Family Health and Wellness Cost of Smoking Calculator to find out how much of your money is going up in smoke.