How Much Money Can You Save by Quitting Smoking?

How much money can you save by quitting smoking? You might be surprised: quitting smoking could save you $750,000.

Smokers can save a staggering amount of money by quitting the habit. The average price of a pack of cigarettes in the U.S. is $6.32, although in some parts of the country it’s as high as $8.

But, based on the average price mentioned above, for someone who used to smoke a pack a day to quit, the savings are:

Week – $44.24
Month – $189.60
Year – $2,300.48

Those are numbers that can certainly affect a person’s or family’s budget. If you invested the same amount of money as what used to support a pack-a-day habit, that might be enough to retire on, depending on how early in life you quit.

Consider an example with the following parameters:

A 30-year-old smoker with a one pack a day habit
This person quits smoking and invests the $189.60 a month that previously went toward cigarettes
This person invests this amount every month from their 30th birthday, until retirement at age 67
The average long term return on stocks is 10% annually, but we’ll use a slightly conservative figure of 8%

Using Dave Ramsey’s retirement calculator, this person would retire with nearly $750,000 saved, simply by quitting smoking.

Smoking is an expensive habit. How much you can save will vary by how much you smoke, the actual cost of cigarettes in your location, and your age.

However, the example here clearly illustrates stopping smoking will add a significant amount of funds to your budget. If you decide to invest the same amount you could be sitting on a huge nest egg by retirement.

Are a smoker? If so, have you ever calculated how much money you spend on cigarettes?