Gregory Karp

“Smoking: Your Money, Up in Smoke A decision about $3 million is a big deal, even to the richest among us. The decision to smoke cigarettes is even bigger. Here's how: A pack-a-day smoker will spend about $2,000 a year on cigarettes, which is $5.50 a pack times 365 days in a year. If that person smokes from age 18 through age 65 and the price of cigarettes never goes up, he will have spent $96,000 on cigarettes. That sounds like a lot—that is, until you examine the opportunity cost, or what else he could have done with his cigarette money. If he instead put that $2,000 a year in a Roth Individual Retirement Account (IRA) that earned an 11 percent return, he would accumulate $3 million in tax-free cash at age 65. Three million dollars!”
― Gregory Karp, Living Rich by Spending Smart: How to Get More of What You Really Want

“Spending Smart is the only way to get out of debt and build wealth. That's a bold, but true, statement. It's like calories are the key to a weight-loss diet. It doesn't matter what the new diet fad is. A diet to lose weight only works if you burn more calories than you consume. Everything else is just window dressing and hype.”
― Gregory Karp, Living Rich by Spending Smart: How to Get More of What You Really Want