Stub it out and do the treble

With the smoking ban now looming, insurer NFU Mutual explains how the savings made from giving up your daily nicotine fix can not only run into thousands of pounds, but over the longer term, could also help to ease the burden of retirement provision.

Figures from the life insurer show that a 35 year old male who smokes 20 a day, could expect to save approximately £168 a month by kicking the habit. On top of this, an additional benefit is that after a year of not smoking, the cost of taking out £100,000 of life cover over 20 years, can drop by just under £8 a month. This would lead to a healthy increase of £175 a month in his back pocket.

However, NFU Mutual explains that his savings could extend way beyond this if he were to go on and ‘do the treble’. By investing the £175 saved from giving up smoking into a stakeholder pension plan each month, he could expect to increase his pension pot at 65 by up to £156,000. This equates to an annual income of £8,480 on top of any other pension provisions he may have.

Laura Wood at NFU Mutual commented, “Really, with the ban just days away, there is no better time to try and kick the habit. The health benefits go without saying, but by putting money away rather than shelling out on cigarettes each day, you have the added incentive of saving for your retirement. The best bit is that by automatically switching the money you used to spend into a pension, you probably won’t even notice.”