New Jersey Smokers Spend Over $2 Million On Cigarettes In Their Lifetime

It has been quite some years now since the legal age to buy cigarettes here in New Jersey was changed from 18 to 21. The age change was probably an effort to stop young people from smoking. Throughout the years the prices of cigarettes have gone up a ton.

It was recently stated on Wallet Hub that smoking costs the country (USA) over $300 billion a year. That is a ton of money. We learned that New Jersey is in the top 20 most expensive states to smoke in the United States of America. When it comes to yearly cost, Wallet Hub shared that in the state of New Jersey smokers spend around $54,941 a year on cigarettes.

Want to know an even crazier number? According to Wallet Hub, New Jersey residents spend about $2,637,168 on cigarettes throughout their lifetime. It was also stated on Wallet Hub that the 2 million dollars throughout the lifetime of smokers also includes health care expenditures, income losses, and other costs.

That is insane just thinking about it. I don't smoke but I would like to save all that money for retirement. I guess I will start putting away about $6 a day to save all that money since that is the average cost of cigarettes.

I wonder now that New Jersey has voted to legalize marijuana if the lifetime cost of smoking will go up even more.

For Pennsylvania in both categories annual and lifetime smoking cost, the state lands as an expensive one as well. Pennsylvania took the 14th spot overall, right next to New Jersey.