The True Cost Of Smoking

We'll admit it – we're guilty often as not of 'shiny-itis' – the overwhelming urge to pick up the latest and greatest new box mod or atomizer, or to add an extra bottle of top-shelf e-juice when placing our own vape supply orders, even though we've already got backups for the backups of our backups when it comes to devices and vape juice.

Sometimes, it's easy to think 'Hey, wait. Wasn't vaping supposed to save me money over smoking?'

Rest assured, unless you're the guy buying a diamond-studded eGo battery, it probably is.

A recent study from financial data aggregator WalletHub has estimated the estimated lifetime cost of smoking in each of the 50 states (plus DC). What they find is a little shocking, but nonetheless believable.

Over the course of a lifetime, the cost of a smoking habit for an American ranges from $1.1 million (Kentucky) to more than $2.3 million (New York)!

There's a lot more to consider than a daily pack of smokes and an occasional lighter ($88,794-$194,341), after all. There's also the financial lost opportunity cost (instead of buying those cigarettes, you could have invested in saving or something that would make you money), income loss from extra time spent sick, and the skyrocketing cost of health care that costs money not only for smokers but for everyone else in society whose health insurance rates have to rise to cover smoking-related disease.

Even setting all that, along with your health, aside, just the cost of cigarettes is expected to range from between $1650 and $3811 per year, and many states are eyeing even bigger taxes that will only make that cost keep climbing - prices are set to jump by $2/pack in California following a ballot initiative, and three other states attempted tobacco tax increases last year.

With that in mind, why feel bad about a little splurge on something that's a lot healthier (and tastier) in the long run?