Up in smoke

It is enough to make you choke but the average British smoker spends £92,000 - the equivalent of a two-bed holiday home in Devon - on cigarettes in their usually-shortened lifetimes.

That sobering statistic comes courtesy of number crunchers at Clerical Medical, who helpfully also report that the total number of cigarettes smoked in Britain each year (72 billion) would circumnavigate the earth 154 times if laid out in a line.

Presumably, this is before they have been smoked rather than after.

Even social smokers – who only light up when they go out to bars, clubs or restaurants – spend more than £11,000 in a lifetime, according to the company that advertises its services using a holier (and healthier)- than-thou vicar-doctor couple.

The financial services group claim that by saving rather than smoking, cigarette-lovers could buy a pension worth £6,000 a year when they retire.

John Hiew, the managing director of Clerical Medical, said: "It’s a staggering amount of money British smokers spend, and that’s a hell of a lot of disposable income just going up in smoke.

"If people were to consider putting the money they spend each month on cigarettes into a savings plan not only would they probably live longer, but they could have an extra income of thousands of pounds a year."

It's enough to make you want to give up. Let’s just hope that Clerical Medical don’t invest any of their policy-holders’ money in British American Tobacco.

For help giving up smoking visit givingupsmoking.co.uk

Comments

[Martin Bamford]

Smoking generally makes poor financial sense during your working life. The cost of being a smoker highlighted here is further increased by the higher price of life assurance, private medical insurance and even content insurance premiums!

When you get to retirement, being a smoker can actually start to pay dividends. If you use an annuity to convert your pension fund into a guaranteed income for life then the annuity rate available as a smoker is much better than that available to a non-smoker. The life assurance company definitions of smokers vary for annuity purchase purposes so even if you have given up within ten years of taking pension benefits it is worth asking your adviser to seek better rates based on your smoker status.

[Jim]

I would like to know if smokers are net contributors or expense to the country, through tax paid on tobacco products or health services used. If they are contributors, may they long keep puffing. If not, then ban smoking; the sooner the better.

[Christine Bret]

What should people like me say to insurers? I smoke off and on, never more than one cigarette a day, sometimes none at all for two or three months but I may suddenly have two at a party. I always tell people this but there is no category, so one insurer put me down as a smoker and one as a non-smoker. If it is important, they need a classification for people like me. Can anyone help?