Save money
Smoking is unbelievably expensive. A 20-a-day smoker is thought to spend around $5,000 each year on their habit. Plus, if you think about all the cigarettes that you give away to fellow smokers, the cost to you is actually even higher. And just imagine what you could do with an extra $5,000 every year! It’s also worth noting that if you have life insurance, it will be significantly cheaper if you are a non-smoker.
Protect your health
If anything, you should give up smoking for your own health’s sake. Tobacco smoke contains addictive nicotine, as well as a whole range of other harmful chemicals, including carbon monoxide, formaldehyde and hydrogen cyanide. Smoking causes a very long list of problems including various cancers, heart disease, strokes, impotence, and osteoporosis — so stopping now will reduce the risk of being affected by these conditions in the future.
Protect the health of others
Not only is smoking bad for you, it affects others too. Passive or second-hand smoking means other people are put at risk by your habit. Pubs and bars are typical venues where passive smoking is at its worst, but at least steps have been taken into minimise the risk to customers and staff by the enforcement of smoking bans. Plus if you smoke at home, then you’ll be putting your family at risk too.
Save your looks
Smoking causes premature ageing. Take a look at fellow smokers, and then compare them to non-smokers of similar age that you know. It’s likely that the smokers’ skin will be far more wrinkled, pale and generally damaged. And think about this: a single cigarette is thought to reduce the blood supply to the skin for up to an hour. Smoking also stains the teeth — so you can usually spot a smoker just by the staining on their ‘not-so-pearly whites’.
Smell better!