Never have been a smoker. My mom once handed me a lit cigarette when I was six years old and told me to take a puff. Of course I coughed so hard I thought I was going to die. Never wanted to smoke again, plus I'm not one who felt a lot of peer pressure as a kid. Kids could call me a pussy all the wanted for not smoking or not popping pills with them and I just didn't care.

When I first started work in the late 80s an older guy I was working with told me about a huge investment account he had that was going to allow him to retire at least five years early and live more comfortably. He explained that 30 years earlier he quit a three pack a day smoking habit and ever since put an equal amount of money into the savings plan instead of into the cancer sticks. As cigarettes and the taxes increased over the years he would adjust the amount of his monthly investment. He was a pretty savvy investor so this grew into the hundreds of thousands of dollars before he retired. With cigarettes $6 a pack or more even one pack a day is over $2K a year. Not to mention the cancer and smelling like shit all the time.