Bankrate follows a strict editorial policy, so you can trust that we’re putting your interests first. Our award-winning editors and reporters create honest and accurate content to help you make the right financial decisions.
Key Principles
We value your trust. Our mission is to provide readers with accurate and unbiased information, and we have editorial standards in place to ensure that happens. Our editors and reporters thoroughly fact-check editorial content to ensure the information you’re reading is accurate. We maintain a firewall between our advertisers and our editorial team. Our editorial team does not receive direct compensation from our advertisers.
Editorial Independence
Bankrate’s editorial team writes on behalf of YOU – the reader. Our goal is to give you the best advice to help you make smart personal finance decisions. We follow strict guidelines to ensure that our editorial content is not influenced by advertisers. Our editorial team receives no direct compensation from advertisers, and our content is thoroughly fact-checked to ensure accuracy. So, whether you’re reading an article or a review, you can trust that you’re getting credible and dependable information.
You have money questions. Bankrate has answers. Our experts have been helping you master your money for over four decades. We continually strive to provide consumers with the expert advice and tools needed to succeed throughout life’s financial journey.
Bankrate follows a strict editorial policy, so you can trust that our content is honest and accurate. Our award-winning editors and reporters create honest and accurate content to help you make the right financial decisions. The content created by our editorial staff is objective, factual, and not influenced by our advertisers.
We’re transparent about how we are able to bring quality content, competitive rates, and useful tools to you by explaining how we make money.
Bankrate.com is an independent, advertising-supported publisher and comparison service. We are compensated in exchange for placement of sponsored products and, services, or by you clicking on certain links posted on our site. Therefore, this compensation may impact how, where and in what order products appear within listing categories. Other factors, such as our own proprietary website rules and whether a product is offered in your area or at your self-selected credit score range can also impact how and where products appear on this site. While we strive to provide a wide range offers, Bankrate does not include information about every financial or credit product or service.
Quit smoking
Cigarette prices vary by state, running from $10.06 (New York), to $4.50 (Missouri), according to a 2010 survey by Orzechowski and Walker, an Arlington, Va., consulting firm.
The average pack costs $5.95, according to the survey. Your savings on a pack-a-day habit amount to about $180 each month or more than $2,100 annually.
Quit smoking, and that money could buy an eight-day luxury Caribbean cruise or a 60-inch LED flat-screen TV.
The savings don’t end there. Nonsmokers pay 14 percent less for health insurance, according to eHealthInsurance.com estimates. The only financial downside is you’ll likely have to be smoke-free for 12 months before your premiums decrease, says Carrie McLean, consumer specialist for the company.
Women can save $45 a month or $540 annually, according to eHealthInsurance.com estimates. Men can save $21 a month or $252 annually.
For women, that could buy five half-day packages at a spa; a pair of Manolo Blahnik suede heel pumps (with enough left over for a first-class pair of running shoes), or an iPhone 4 with three months of unlimited service.
For men, that money could buy a pair of box seats at a Major League Baseball game or a Wii console plus three games.
Share