Stop Smoking to Save Money

Here's a way to save money on your medical expenses -- stop smoking. The details from Money magazine:

You know those coffin nails aren't cheap ($4.35 a pack on average or more than $1,500 a year if you smoke a pack a day). But consider the extra costs of lighting up: $1,600 more a year in health-care costs than for nonsmokers, plus a 10% surcharge on homeowners insurance and up to 300% on individual life policies, not to mention higher dry-cleaning and dental bills. And you may soon be paying more for health insurance at work too. By 2008, 25% of companies expect to impose penalties for bad health behavior, such as higher deductibles and premiums for smokers.

Yep. If you stop smoking, you can save a bundle of money on all sorts of expenses -- not to mention help you live longer.

So, if you set a New Year's resolution to "stop smoking," you might as well set one to "save money" too, as the latter will happen naturally by achieving the former. ;-)