Stopping smoking can pay off big over a lifetime

How are you doing with your New Years resolutions?

If they included saving money and getting healthier, here’s an idea for killing two birds with one stone.

Personal-finance website WalletHub crunched some numbers and released a report showing just how much smokers, by state, might be able to save by giving up their habit.

They are some sobering numbers.

The total estimated financial cost of smoking over a lifetime is just above $1.5 million per smoker.

The out-of-pocket cost per smoker is $120,432 to buy the tobacco products, ranging from $194,341 in New York, $93,633 in Nebraska and $84,140 in North Dakota.

Each smoker will suffer an average of $228,607 income loss over a lifetime, with Maryland the highest at $310,353, Nebraska at $221,887 and Mississippi $265,354.

Smoking-related health care costs over a lifetime will cost the average smoker $172,055 over a lifetime; $285,966 in Massachusetts, $168,711 in Nebraska and $116,115 in Arkansas.

Those are just the hard numbers, of course, and the importance of dollars pales in comparison to life and death.

Tobacco use accounts for nearly half a million deaths in the U.S. each year and is the leading cause of lung cancer, according to the American Lung Association.

Even those around tobacco smokers aren’t safe from its harmful effects. Since 1964, smoking-related illnesses have claimed 20 million lives in the U.S., 2.5 million of which belonged to nonsmokers who developed diseases merely from secondhand-smoke exposure.

Find out about ways to kick the habit here or {QuitNow.ne.gov here.}