One of the things I try to focus on with Air Health Our Health is also Our Wealth. People often think that breathing unhealthy air does not cost us as individuals or a society. Whenever we talk about cleaning up the air, people focus on how much it would cost to do so, rather than how much we are already spending. A similar conversation crops up around tobacco, focusing on how much tobacco taxes cost someone who smokes or how much tobacco enforcement costs, rather than the cost of smoking to their health, lost income, healthcare costs, etc. Usually I am interviewing scientists and health researchers and advocates on the podcast, but today I am interviewing a financial analyst for Wallet Hub, a personal finance site that publishes an annual analysis of the true cost of smoking. This is a purely financial look at how much smoking costs an individual. Think about it multiplied across all the people in your own state who smoke. Think what else that money could fund, how it could circulate in the economy and provide for financial security.
Today on the podcast, I was joined by Jill Gonzalez, who is a consumer finance expert and a financial literacy advocate. She normally appears on venues such as Fox Business Network, the Wall Street Journal Live, C-Span, and Fortune. Today she joins me on an air quality podcast to talk about WalletHub’s analysis about how tobacco affects an individual’s finances. One thing that was staggering was to realize that someone afflicted with a tobacco addiction spends the equivalent of a fully funded and generous retirement plan over the course of their lives- from 1.7 to over 3 million dollars to fund their habit. We have senior citizens with insufficient funds for retirement across the country, and I know too well that my patients who smoke are frequently those who can least afford to do so. It is sad that we will often make decisions for our wallet and not necessarily our health, but it is helpful to have this kind of analysis from Wallet Hub to help people quit.
It is amazing the death grip that tobacco has on our economy, from personal finances to the finances of our country and world. Listen to the podcast with Jill Gonzales to learn more. We dive into how tobacco costs are not just from how much somebody pays for cigarettes, but also in the opportunity cost of lost income due to missed sick days, higher premiums for home insurance, and more.
If you or someone in your life is smoking, consider visiting Wallet Hub’s tool to see how much a lifelong habit might cost and think of other ways to invest that money. If you or someone you love needs help to quit, call 1-800-QUIT-NOW or go to Smokefree.gov.
To Do:
1- Find out what grade your state gets for tobacco control with this tool from the American Lung Association.
2- Calculate the lifetime cost of smoking in your state using the Wallet Hub tool and share that information with anyone who needs to know.
3- If you or someone you love needs to quit smoking, check out Smokefree.gov or the ALA for more information.
References-
Women.smokefree.gov– source of Quitting Smoking image
