Written by Stuart Stevens | Wednesday, 09 April 2008
Firstly, check all of your insurances!
Firstly, check all of your insurances. The chances are you have a mortgage, life insurance or health insurance which you pay regular premiums for. The good news is that as a non-smoker you can inform the insurance company and tell them you want to pay a lower premium. As a smoker you have been paying an extra risk premium on your life and your health and this is no longer necessary to pay.
Make a specific effort to do something with the money that you have saved. For example after having not smoked for a year you will probably have saved enough money to go on an amazing holiday. You could alternatively go and buy yourself a completely new wardrobe or depending on what you like to do maybe you’ll just satisfy yourself by buying the watch of your dreams.
With cigarettes costing around £6 per packet in the United Kingdom and many people smoking a pack a day that equates to almost £2,200 every year. In fact the real saving is more as you save on your insurances so you could be saving in the region of £3,000 a year directly and indirectly benefiting from health benefits and in quality of life.
At Ukmedix News we hear people complaining about the costs of smoking cessation counselling or medication. This is the most ridiculous thing we have heard for a long time as the costs of smoking are far higher in the long term.
Healthy people on the whole have a much better quality of life and you should invest in your health by taking some of the money that you have saved from not buying cigarettes and put it towards a gym membership. If you are not the exercising type you could always go for a leisurely swim followed by a sauna and maybe a massage.
At the end of the day quitting smoking is about preserving your health and not saving money but the financial incentives are sometimes a motivation because they are more readily apparent. Whatever happens if you get sick from smoking you will regret the day that you ever lit that first cigarette and it is possible that no amount of money will be able to save you.
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