Obviously a lot of debate can be made on the health benefits of quitting smoking. But, is there a time that smoking could be good for you? It is pretty much universally accepted that smoking creates major health risks and reduce life expectancy, so how could it possibly be good for you?

The health implications this habit is great news for smokers who have a limited retirement fund or have plans to spend their retirement frivolously. As health risks go up, their life expectancy decreases, which means less money is needed to get through retirement. But then again, health costs increase.

This is not intended to persuade you to quit smoking, but to show you how small, incremental expenses ad up to large expenses. Likewise, small, incremental investments turn into large investment portfolios.

For example, here’s a look at a person who smokes one pack of cigarettes a day. A $5 pack of cigarettes costs roughly $150 a month, or $1,825 a year. If our one-pack-a-day smoker starts smoking at age 18 until he is able to access his 401k at 59 1/2, that’s $76,000 in life-time smoking expenses. This does not even account for inflation and regular tax hikes imposed on tobacco.

If our smoker decided to quit at 19 and invested his $150 in the stock market every month, this would increase his retirement account by almost $1,200,000.00.

Whether your vice is smoking, expensive coffee, or eating out regularly, these expenses are impeding your ability to reach your financial goals. The only down side to quitting smoking is that our former smoker might need more money for retirement to get through their increased life expectancy.

Millionaire Money Habit: While it is important to spend money and treat yourself to the finest things in life once in a while, over-indulgence is never a good thing. The cost, and often health, implications are costing you too much in too many ways. If you have a habit that is flushing money down the toilet, set yourself a goal to kick that behavior. Better yet, create some millionaire money habits. -RT