opportunity cost-related (such as costs related to employment and potential healthcare costs), Then there are those expenditures hardcore smokers really don’t give a futz about, what I consider stuff that can be pretty much categorized as “ammo non-smokers use to help badger the smoker into quitting.” Note that I didn’t say they weren’t correct… what I did say more or less is that real smokers couldn’t care less. So I didn’t bother adding those on to this collection.
Here, I’ve stuck with more practical and immediate here-and-now cost information that in all probability, all smokers will shell out as a result of their cigarette smoking. And, as you can see, for the most part these are recurring costs at that:
* As of this writing (2009), a pack of cigarettes costs an average of $4.50 to $5 each. So the typical pack-a-day cigarette smoker will spend $1642.50 to $1825 a year on cigarettes alone.
* If you like to smoke in your car, the cigarette smoking-related expense will usually come when you try to sell or trade-in the vehicle. I do not have any hard info – in fact, I do not know where I got the following numbers from; I just had them written down in my notes.
On a direct sale, figure on spending $150 to have a car detailer try to remove your car’s cigarette odor. And that may not even bring the car’s price up to what a comparable non-smoker’s vehicle will bring.
On a trade-in, expect the dealer to take off a few hundred from your car’s trade-in value, maybe even all the way up to $1,000 or more for higher-end vehicles.
* To give you an idea on the difference in cost for life insurance, I went to Geico to get instant quotes on $500,000 20-year term life insurance for a 40-year-old healthy male. The lowest annual premium for a non-smoker was $335. The lowest annual premium for a smoker was $1,435… a difference of $1,100 annually.
* For health insurance info and test quotes, I went to eHealthInsurance. For a healthy 40-year-old m