We all have some bad habits that are slowly emptying our pockets; being a sweet tooth is one of them. An average American spends more than $2,000 a year on a warm brownie, surprised? However, many bad habits are not only taking way too much money from your accounts but also making you sick. Let’s find out the top harmful habits that are enemies to your budget.
Habits That Are Costing You Lots Of Money
Here is the list of bad habits you must quit as they take lots of your hard-earned money.
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Smoking
Leader in the list of bad habits that fundamentally undermine the foundation of our financial well-being is smoking. Smoking one pack of cigarettes daily, the average cost of which today is $5-$12, a supporter of this bad habit deprives his personal budget of $200 a month. The total cost of smoking per year is $2,400.
This amount is comparable to the cost of a two-week vacation in a foreign country like Thailand, shocked? Now let’s calculate how much a smoker spends on his addiction throughout his life. Let’s take the period from 18 to 48 years (the conscious age of a heavy smoker) which is a total of 30 years. The total is about $72,400.
Now ponder how much more you could do with this money which you are just wasting on cigarettes. Is it worth it? No! Besides, you are also harming your health as smokers are at higher risk of getting cancer.
What To Do?
The only solution to cut this cost is to give up smoking; it will save your money as well as your health. But, first, you must consult a counselor for cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), which works quite effectively in combination with medication. Then, get details from your doctor and take the first step towards a better life.
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Alcohol
We all know how alcohol damages our heart, liver, and brain; but still, many are involved in the regular consumption of alcohol. The amazing thing is that we pay money with our hands to get this poison that is going to kill us in the near future. Do you know how much you spend on buying alcoholic beverages?
The consumption of five bottles of this intoxicating drink every week, at the cost of one drink of a minimum of $6 (depending on the drink), leads to monthly costs totaling about $180. Thus, for a year, this rather harmless habit draws $2,160 from the budget of its owner, over 30 years of stable consumption – $64,800. This means that for a whole year of your life, you work for a very dubious pleasure.
What To Do?
You must quit alcoholic beverages not only to save your money but also to restore your well-being. Alcohol addicts spend far more than the amount we mentioned above to harm their health. There are special insurance-covered facilities across the US; the most prominent ones are in Texas. Thus, if you are Texan, you must avail this opportunity of taking help from rehab facilities in Texas as they are surely one of the best in the world.
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Fast Food
Many people find it difficult to cope with their appetite as sweets and fast foods literally brainwash them with amazing flavor. However, eating fast cost is expensive to your wallet as well as to your health. The average cost of fast food meal is $4-$15 per person, costing a minimum of $150 per month.
It means an average person spends more than $1800 per year on fast food, which adds up to $54,000 in 30 years. And this is the cost of a mixture of calories, preservatives, fats and dyes that is completely unnecessary and of little use to the body. But this is an estimate of the minimum spending of a normal person; reality is far worse.
What To Do?
You must not spend so much money on fast food weekly; try to minimize the consumption of such unhealthy foods. Instead, eat homemade meals and take them with you to the office as well. It will save you from eating outside and spending unnecessarily on unhealthy meals.
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Coffee
Let’s pay close attention to the most popular- aromatic steaming coffee, and we will not consider expensive drinks in cafes and coffee houses, but we will study the costs of average coffee. The coffee drinker consumes an average of two hundred gram cans of instant drink per month.
If we take the figure of $2.70 as the standard of the average cost of a can of coffee, this expense item requires $81 a month, or $871 annually. Let’s calculate the expenses for 30 years of active life again. It turns out that only $29,160 is spent on this habit, justly recognized by doctors as harmful.
What To Do?
It’s alright if you love coffee so much and don’t want to give it up; try to minimize the number of cups you have per day. It will not only help to keep you active but would also reduce the annual money you spend on this not-so-healthy drink.
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Gambling
Since the real amount of expenses in all these cases is usually known only to the player (if he has not yet completely lost account of his debts and total monetary losses), it is difficult to identify the exact statistics of expenses among the players. However, according to the NCPG (National Council on Problem Gambling), more than 85% of American adults have gambled at least once.
The number of gamblers is only increasing in America, which is frightening. Gambling addiction can completely deprive its victim of the will, and then not only the player’s personal funds but also family money, valuables, household property, and even real estate can be at stake.
What To Do?
Not many people know, but gambling can be addictive. There are many behavioral therapies available to treat a person suffering from it. Thus, if you or anyone in your family has this addiction, you must consult a rehab expert for help.
Summing Up
If you have any of the above habits, you are surely ruining your own as well as the lives of those around you. It is the right time that you quit such harmful habits as these will help you become wealthier as well as healthier. So what are you waiting for? It is never too late to improve your life, so take the first step today!