If you have a costly addiction, it can be difficult to see life without it. Whether it’s using a credit card for impulse purchases, gambling, drinking, eating out at fancy restaurants, or a host of others, an addiction can be a difficult thing to quit — such as smoking cigarettes.
In addition to being an expensive habit, smoking cigarettes is unhealthy and has other high costs, such as for medical care and life insurance.
Here are some of the high costs of smoking cigarettes:
Buying cigarettes
A pack of cigarettes costs $5 to $15 per pack, depending on what state you live in. A pack a day at $10 per adds up to $3,650 per year.
Work productivity while smoking cigarettes
Ohio State University researchers found that smokers average five breaks per workday, resulting in less productivity at work than nonsmokers. Smokers also take 2.5 more sick days per year than nonsmokers.
That lost productivity and extra health care costs for smokers costs employers $5,816 more per year, the researchers found.
Health care
Health insurers can charge smokers 50 percent more than nonsmokers under the Affordable Care Act. Why the higher cost? Because people who smoke cigarettes spend more time in the hospital and will likely die sooner than nonsmokers.
Dental care also increases for people who smoke cigarettes, with an increased risk of gum disease, among other ailments.
Higher insurance costs
Because smoking causes people to die younger, they’re more of a risk for a life insurance company and their premiums will cost more. People who smoke cigarettes They die 10 years earlier, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
BestLifeQuote.com reports that a 45-year-old man who smokes cigarettes will around $300 per month for a 20-year term life insurance policy of $500,000. A nonsmoker would pay about $80 per month for the same policy.
Homeowner’s or renter’s insurance is 20 percent higher for smokers, mainly because they’re a bigger risk for starting a house fire. Auto insurance rates can be 5 percent higher for smokers.
My father passed away partly from lung cancer, and I can definitely say that they are expensive in terms of both money and your life. Sadly, this still doesn’t stop many people.
Sorry to hear, Michelle. The financial cost adds up, but it’s still obviously minor if it costs a smoker their life. Life insurance could be one way to help their heirs deal with it.
I feel so great that I am a nonsmoker. Imagine how much money is wasted in every cigarette used and I just don’t get what pleasure they can get out of it.
It must be an addiction, I guess. I don’t smoke either, and am grateful for the savings.
I am thankful that I have never had that addiction. The health and financial ruin is just not worth it.
Thanks for the comment, Jackie. Unfortunately, I’ll bet a lot of people know someone who was affected by smoking. A horrible, deadly thing.
I finally got my husband to quit January 2014. He started back up again in September, but quit on November 1st. So far so good.
And yes, it’s amazing how much money it freed up. He was paying around $12 for two packs of cigarettes, and of course he didn’t pay attention to how much he was actually smoking. It was a long, drawn-out argument. But eventually he had enough of my nagging and enough of hacking constantly.
I’d bet that nagging and coughing constantly are bigger incentives to quit smoking than the cost. Congrats!