Smoking or Millions

A while ago while watching TV, I smelled something unpleasant and saw some smoke. Then I found out that it came from a cigarette. It reminded me of how addicted I was to smoking until I stopped around 5 years ago. I used to consume about 8 sticks per day.

Aside from the health benefit, I've always wanted to share how quitting smoking makes us lots of money. According to the 2009 Philippines' Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS), 13.8 million Filipinos smoke everyday(adults 15 years old and above). They consume 10.6 cigarettes per day on average.

As of this writing, a stick of cigarette cost around 3 pesos. For one who takes 10 sticks a day, he can accumulate 1.1M pesos in 22 years. This is possible if he put his money in an investment vehicle that earns 12% per year such as Mutual Fund (Equity type). If your target retirement fund is P1M and you're 15 years old now, you can already retire at age 37. See illustration below.



Now you got one more reason to quit smoking.