$300 Billion A Year: The Mind Boggling Cost of Smoking

In the United States, the annual cost of smoking related issues totals a mind-boggling $300 billion a year and that number is on the rise.

Disclaimer: This is not an anti-smoking rant, just sharing some facts.

According to WalletHub, 20 million lives have been lost to smoking related illnesses since 1964, including more than 2 million non-smokers who have fallen victim to second-hand smoke. Tobacco use accounts for nearly a half million premature deaths in the U.S. every year.

Smokers tend to either deny or ignore the findings that smoking causes cancer. The American Lung Association says men who smoke are 23 times more likely to develop lung cancer, while women who smoke are 13 times more likely to get lung cancer than women who don't.

This all breaks down to more than $116 billion in direct health care costs, nearly $70 billion in workplace productivity losses, and nearly $120 billion in early deaths related to smoking.

WalletHub figured the financial cost of smoking in each state by calculating the cost of cigarettes, health care costs, income losses, and other expenses related to smoking and exposure to second-hand smoke.

Nationwide, Colorado is ranked 23rd in the nation in smoking-related financial losses. The total cost per smoker in Colorado is nearly $1,400 per year. For that amount of money, I could play a lot of golf, eat a lot of tacos, or take a vacation and maybe live longer.

Obviously, the loss of life and the diminished quality of life related to smoking is more significant than the financial cost of lighting up. However, if the threat of getting cancer and dying a horrible death doesn't provide the motivation to kick the cancer sticks, the cost related to smoking is certainly a good reason to quit the habit.

[WalletHub/Lung.org]