As many as 42 million adults in the U.S. smoke cigarettes today, according to recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This isn't a health blog, though, so I'm not going rail on about 480,000 cigarette-related deaths that occur per year or the 16 million Americans who live with a smoking-related disease. I already know you probably want to quit. According to the CDC, more than two thirds of smokers do.
Instead, if you're one of the almost 18% of Americans who have yet to quit, I'm here to incent you by drilling down and showing you exactly how much money you could be socking away — if you weren't spending it on cigarettes. (See also: Here's How Rich You'd Be if You Stopped Drinking Expensive Coffee)
Not All Cigarette Prices Are Created Equal
Interestingly, the price of a pack of cigarettes is dramatically different, depending on where in the country you live. Each year, The Awl tracks the cost of a pack in each of the 50 states. The least expensive places to smoke are Virginia and Missouri, where a pack costs an average of $5.25. In New York, meanwhile, the price is a staggering $12.85. Everywhere else is somewhere in between.
I searched for the average number of cigarettes a smoker smokes per day, but the best I could uncover is a recent poll by Gallup, which indicates that 68% percent smoke less than a pack a day while 31% smoke a pack per day (1% smoke more than a pack every day). Without clear data to use as a guide, I decided to guesstimate for this project that the average smoker goes through a half pack (10 cigarettes) per day.
For Those of You in the Cheap States
If you live in Virginia or Missouri, where it's relatively cheap to smoke, a half pack a day habit will run you $18 a week, $78 per month, and $958 per year. That's according to QuitNet, a free online resource for tobacco users looking to break the habit.
Now, say instead of buying the equivalent of half a pack of cigarettes a day, you instead invest that amount in a mutual fund that averages 8% per year.