Quit-smoking plan helps Winnipegger retire

WINNIPEG – Imagine turning a deadly habit into $65,000. That’s what a Winnipeg woman did when she quit smoking 21 years ago.

“I was the worst smoker, I couldn’t cut my grass unless I was smoking,” said Chantelle May, who started smoking at just 13 and smoked heavily for 32 years.

It was her daughter’s 16th birthday wish and persistent cough that finally made May break the deadly habit, one that was costing her everything she had.

“The fact that I was ruining my daughters health by smoking really led me into a lot of guilt,” said May. “I hated being a smoker but I couldn’t stop because of the addiction.”

She figured she smoked about 40 cigarettes a day. That cost her $150 each week and added up to about $8,000 a year.

Each week, she put away $100 and marked it off on her calendar. After the savings reached $65,000, May used the extra money to help her retirement and stopped adding to the account.

“Being addicted to cigarettes is insidious. Being non addicted to cigarettes is euphoric… because if you’re a true smoker it affects every aspect of your life,” said May.

Just this week, the University of Manitoba released a study on the cost of smoking to the health care system and the benefits of butting out.

READ MORE: New study finds smoking costs Manitoba $244 million a year

“If they stop smoking for a long amount of time, their health care costs do also go down and their health care use goes down, so a smoker begins to look like a non smoker,” said Nathan Nickel, a research scientist at Manitoba’s Centre for Health Policy.

May is now encouraging others to turn their smoking habits into a retirement savings plan.

“You become happy because now you’re free, like you’re out of jail, you’re out of that horrible addiction ,” she said. “It’s such a liberating freedom.”