Green Retirement Blog

New years is almost here, and one of the top New Years resolution, is always to quit smoking. There are many reasons to quit smoking, and here’s another reason you may not have thought of, the impact of smoking on your retirement.

You know that smoking costs you a lot of money, it may be one of the reasons why you want to quit, and that instead of smoking you could invest the money towards retirement. How much can you earn? Over a 20 year period at 10% annual returns, if you invested your $5 one pack a day habit, you would earn $115,000. That’s what you are giving up by smoking instead of investing.

The Green Retirement approach, takes the impact of smoking on your retirement further and asks, what is the cost of smoking in retirement. In order for you to continue smoking in retirement, it will require you to save an additional, $45,000 towards your retirement. That’s the amount of money you are going to need to sustain your habit.

So as you can see, by smoking you are not only giving up over $100,000, but you are also going to need to save an additional $50,000. That’s a lot of money to subtract from your retirement.

If you live in San Francisco, I’ve discovered a great way to quit smoking, hypnosis. This is a natural technique, that doesn’t involve drugs, groups, or wearing band-aids for 8 weeks. Silver Stoltsen owns a stop smoking hypnosis clinic on Union Street, and does a wonderful job, of helping patients help themselves. Hypnosis is nothing more, than entering a relaxed state, and allowing the power of suggestion to strengthen your resolve to remain a non-smoker. I highly recommend it over other stop smoking therapies. You can visit his site at Stop Smoking San Francisco.

If you are looking for another reason why you should stop smoking in retirement, the answer is obvious, you’ll have a longer, healthier, happier retirement.

Learn more about Green Retirement Planning - And find out how you can save your retirement and the planet!

Update:

An article in Science Daily on March 8, 2008, indicates that retiring, prompts many people to quit smoking.

“A study by Dr. Iain Lang and his colleagues has revealed that the point of retirement is one of the most effective times to try to give up smoking.  The research showed that a total of 42.5 per cent of those who had recently retired had quit smoking, compared with 29.3 per cent of those in employment and 30.2 per cent for those who were already retired. The results indicate those who undergo the transition into retirement are more likely to quit smoking than those who do not.”

So, there you have another excuse to retire early - it will make quiting smoking much easier.