Smoking kills your financial future: what €150/month of cigarettes could have earned you

Smoking 10 cigarettes a day costs €150 a month, i.e. €36,000 over 20 years. But the real cost is far higher: those same €150 a month, invested at 16.48%/year, would have produced €277,487 in 20 years. The real cost of smoking is therefore not €36,000, but €277,487 of wealth never built.

1 cigarette, €0.50. A dose of happiness, calm, peace of mind. It’s nothing.

Except that 10 cigarettes a day at €0.50 each is also:

• 1 pack every 2 days at €10
• €150/month
• €1,800/year
• €36,000 after 20 years

What does a 10-cigarettes-a-day habit really cost?

Simulation based on €150/month invested with The Rise™, average return of 16.48%/year observed over the past 30 years.

Now, if those €150/month had been invested with The Rise™ — over 16%/year, with no particular knowledge, in 5 minutes a day — here’s what you would have obtained after 20 years:

€277,487

All of that thanks to €5 a day.

€5 isn’t much. But €5 every day, repeated for 20 years, changes your life.

What is compound interest?

Compound interest is interest calculated not only on the starting capital, but also on the interest already accumulated. Each gain swells the capital, which in turn produces gains. It is this mechanism that makes an investment grow exponentially rather than linearly.

If you put €100 in an account paying 5%/year:

• After 1 year: €105
• After 2 years: €110.25 — not €110, because the €5 earned in the first year also earns 5%
• After 20 years: €265 (against €200 without compound interest)

The magic is that the higher the return, the more the effect amplifies exponentially.

With The Rise™, which shows 16.48%/year average return over the past 30 years, that same starting €100 becomes:

€2,113 after 20 years

That’s almost 10 times more than at 5%/year — even though the return is “only” 3 times higher. That is the power of compound interest.

How do you calculate compound interest on a monthly contribution?

To calculate the capital obtained with regular contributions, apply the following formula in 4 steps:

1. Convert the annual rate into a monthly rate: i = annual rate ÷ 12 (i.e. 16.48% ÷ 12 = 1.373% per month)
2. Count the number of contributions: n = number of years × 12 (i.e. 20 × 12 = 240 months)
3. Apply the formula: Final capital = Contribution × [((1 + i)^n − 1) ÷ i]
4. Check the gap against the total contributed to isolate the share coming from interest

Example: €150 × [((1 + 0.01373)^240 − 1) ÷ 0.01373] = €277,487, of which €36,000 contributed and €241,487 in interest.

How much do €150 a month produce depending on the duration?

At 20 years, 87% of the final capital comes from interest, not from your savings effort. Time does the work, not the amount.

How long does it take for capital to double?

The rule of 72 gives the answer in a single division: divide 72 by the annual return in percent to get the number of years needed for capital to double.

• At 2%/year (regulated savings account): 72 ÷ 2 = 36 years
• At 5%/year: 72 ÷ 5 = 14.4 years
• At 16.48%/year: 72 ÷ 16.48 = 4.4 years

In other words, every four and a half years spent out of the market costs you a doubling of capital. Waiting 5 years before starting means ending up with €277,487 instead of €642,860: €365,373 of foregone gains for 5 years of delay.

The lesson

Many things look insignificant taken in isolation. But repeated every day, they produce tenfold effects — in one direction or the other.

50 cents smoked every day makes you poorer. €150 invested every month makes you richer. In both cases, time and consistency do the work.

Frequently asked questions

Past performance does not guarantee future results. All investments carry a risk of capital loss.