Yesterday i had some issue with a smoker and i was already very aware on how bad smoking is for your health and also finances.
However today i put together a small spreadsheet showing the financial outcome of opportunity costs, and whow, that blow my mind. I did not recognize until then, what big deal this is, even for moderate smokers...
I assumed that one pack costs 5 EUR and contains 20. Prices and ammounts vary around that (i verified this today).
Also assumed is that the saved money would be collected under the mattress over the year and invested as lump sum at its end.
When one smokes 25 pieces a day, i got the following numbers:
- at 1%: ~24k at 10 years, 50k at 20 years
- at 3%: ~26k at 10 years, 61k at 20 years
- at 6%: ~30k at 10 years, 83k at 20 years
Not smoking for 60 years and investing the difference at 6% would make one a EUR millionaire (Despite the real chance to be alive when that number hits...)
Not smoking for 30 years and at moderate 3% would give >100k EUR, equalling a small flat here.
Wow, just wow. I must have a calculation error somewhere, i cannot believe this.
As smoking is really just burning money, one could also bet the savings on very risky assets... so the returns assumed may be realistically too low.