How much does smoking cost you over a lifetime? It’s likely you wouldn’t guess more than $1 million. But it’s actually well over a million, according to a new study by WalletHub.
The study puts the lifetime cost to a smoker in Virginia at $1.35 million, which is, yeah, wow.
To encourage the more than 66 million tobacco users in the U.S. to kick the dangerous habit, WalletHub’s analysts calculated the potential monetary losses — including the cumulative cost of a cigarette pack per day over several decades, health care expenditures, income losses and other costs — brought on by smoking and exposure to secondhand smoke.
Smoking costs: Breaking it down
- Out-of-Pocket Cost per Smoker – $91,418
- Financial Opportunity Cost per Smoker – $864,459
- Health-Care Cost per Smoker – $128,766
- Income Loss per Smoker – $264,351
- Other Costs per Smoker – $9,861
- Total Cost Over a Lifetime per Smoker: $1,358,856