Tips to lose weight and live a healthier life can be found all over. Pack your own lunch, eat more fruits and veggies, etc., but did you know that how you eat also affects your wealth? Recent studies show that kicking a couple of bad habits can improve both your health and your budget.
Coming in at the top of the list, smoking is one of the worst habits for both your health and your wallet. The average cost of a cigarette costs 31 cents, which at the average of 12 cigarettes a day, adds up to over $1,300 in the cost of the cigarettes alone. The financial burden doesn’t end with the purchase of the packs. Insurance companies raise the price of insurance premiums substantially as well as lowering the coverage smokers get, which brings the total cost for smokers to be between $6,500 and $13,500.
Smoking isn’t the only common offender on the list. Eating fast food on a regular basis is not only bad for your health, it can get quite expensive over time. Over half of 18-29 year-olds eat fast food on a weekly basis. Even children eat larger amounts of fast food than ever before. Fast food adds up to an average of $1,200 a year just for buying the food. To make matters worse, each meal contains about 2,000 calories. Healthcare costs skyrocket as well due to obesity, which costs an extra $5,500 a year.
Eating fast food and smoking usually lead to physical inactivity as well. According to the World Health Organization, physical inactivity is the 4th leading risk factor for death around the world. The top five inactivity-related diseases alone combined for more than 67.5 billion dollars annually.
Whether you are trying to lose a few pounds or make your paychecks go further, quitting these costly habits can improve both your health and wealth. Check out this infographic on Investment Zen to find out more on how these habits are affecting you in ways you may not realize.