Smoking can cost you good health. But if that doesn’t convince you to quit, here’s another price to consider: money.
In Florida, the lifetime cost of smoking totals nearly $3.8 million per person, according to a new analysis by personal finance website WalletHub. That includes about $159,000 spent directly on cigarettes, more than $222,000 in smoking-related health care costs, and roughly $620,000 in income lost due to illness and early death.
But the largest expense is money smokers never see — an estimated $2.78 million in lost investment gains, based on what that cigarette money could have earned if it had instead been invested in the stock market. Altogether, the total cost works out to about $79,000 per year per smoker, placing Florida 35th nationwide.
ALSO READ: CDC: Teen smoking and other tobacco use dropped to lowest level in 25 years
WalletHub’s estimates are based on the lifetime and annual costs associated with smoking a pack of cigarettes per day, including out-of-pocket expenses, health care costs, lost wages tied to smoking and secondhand smoke, and the financial opportunity lost by not investing that money. To calculate investment losses, analysts assumed the money spent on cigarettes was invested over the same period using the historical average return of the S&P 500, adjusted for inflation.
“Buying cigarettes for your entire adult life can cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars, but that number pales in comparison to the hidden costs of smoking,” WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo said in a press release. “Over a lifetime, smokers lose out on millions of dollars they could have made if they’d invested the money they spent on tobacco. Smokers also tend to have lower wages, higher health care costs and higher home insurance premiums.”
Nationally, WalletHub estimates smoking costs the U.S. economy more than $600 billion each year. Washington, D.C., Maryland and New York ranked as the most expensive places to smoke, while Mississippi, North Carolina and Missouri had the lowest overall costs.
ALSO READ: ‘It’s dismal’: Why Florida struggles to diagnose and treat lung cancer early
WalletHub said its report, “The Real Cost of Smoking by State,” was released in hopes of encouraging the estimated 49.2 million tobacco users nationwide to quit.
Beyond finances, tobacco use remains a major public health threat. Smoking is responsible for nearly half a million deaths in the United States each year and is the leading cause of lung cancer, according to the American Lung Association. The risks extend beyond smokers themselves: since 1964, smoking-related diseases have claimed more than 20 million American lives, including 2.5 million nonsmokers exposed to secondhand smoke, WalletHub reports.
Click here to read the WalletHub report.
