Hi, all,
I recently found a site where hundreds of people are helping one another stay with their resolution to quit smoking.
One of the major topics is when someone quit, and the trials and tribulations that follow on the decision. And finding which of the people that you meet daily support you and which don't. I'd pretty well forgotten that I was a smoker - for about 6 months, when I was 16. Didn't like taste or cost (friends say when I open wallet, moths fly out!) so quit: found it no big deal, as I recall.
It seems a lot like A.A., except less emphasis on the spiritual help to see it through. www.quitnet.org
Sometimes I say to a group of young people, "How would you like to come to my house and be my slave for an hour or two a day?" I try to be rather light-hearted and whimsical about it.
Expressions of dismay, shock and horror - and utter rejection, of course (especially by the girls!)
I continue, "I agree. No way do I want to be a slave to another person."
Then I add, "But much less do I want to become a slave to a thing. If you're not careful, you may become a slave to that little white paper tube between your fingers that's full of broken, dead leaves. It often takes place very quickly and is very hard to stop."
And finally, "If you don't believe me, ask the next twenty smokers that you meet how many have tried to quit, and how many would start smoking, if they had it to do over."
Some interesting conversations have resulted.
Or I've gone up to a group where one or two are smoking, smile, hold out my left hand, palm up, and say,"Is your imagination in good working order tonight? Imagine that I hold a million cigarettes in this hand".
Then I hold out the right hand, palm up in similar fashion, "And imagine that I hold a million dollars in this hand. You can have the contents of one hand or the other - which would you choose?"
Of course, EVERYONE chooses the content of the right hand. And often one will say something like, "But that's not a fair comparison - smoking doesn't cost a million dollars."
I look at the (usually a) guy, sometimes wink and grin, and say, "I'm glad that you brought that up. I'm a financial planner. If you start at age 20 to invest $4.99 a week, and either because you're smart enough, or trust someone who is, to earn 15% per year, when you reach age 65 you'll be out of pocket under $11,700. Apart from the erosion of income by taxes and the erosion of assets by inflation, you'll have a million dollars."
We usually agree that most smokers start young and that the habit soon costs more than $5.00 per week.
If you start at age 15, it requires about $2.50 per week (31 cents per week in the week that you were born, or $114. once only). Every time that you wait five years to begin, must double weekly invested amount.
Divide rate of growth into 72, tells you how many years it takes amount to double.
Learning how money works is an interesting hobby - and it pays well.
Ed Baker eddbaker@yahoo.com
I recently found a site where hundreds of people are helping one another stay with their resolution to quit smoking.
One of the major topics is when someone quit, and the trials and tribulations that follow on the decision. And finding which of the people that you meet daily support you and which don't. I'd pretty well forgotten that I was a smoker - for about 6 months, when I was 16. Didn't like taste or cost (friends say when I open wallet, moths fly out!) so quit: found it no big deal, as I recall.
It seems a lot like A.A., except less emphasis on the spiritual help to see it through. www.quitnet.org
Sometimes I say to a group of young people, "How would you like to come to my house and be my slave for an hour or two a day?" I try to be rather light-hearted and whimsical about it.
Expressions of dismay, shock and horror - and utter rejection, of course (especially by the girls!)
I continue, "I agree. No way do I want to be a slave to another person."
Then I add, "But much less do I want to become a slave to a thing. If you're not careful, you may become a slave to that little white paper tube between your fingers that's full of broken, dead leaves. It often takes place very quickly and is very hard to stop."
And finally, "If you don't believe me, ask the next twenty smokers that you meet how many have tried to quit, and how many would start smoking, if they had it to do over."
Some interesting conversations have resulted.
Or I've gone up to a group where one or two are smoking, smile, hold out my left hand, palm up, and say,"Is your imagination in good working order tonight? Imagine that I hold a million cigarettes in this hand".
Then I hold out the right hand, palm up in similar fashion, "And imagine that I hold a million dollars in this hand. You can have the contents of one hand or the other - which would you choose?"
Of course, EVERYONE chooses the content of the right hand. And often one will say something like, "But that's not a fair comparison - smoking doesn't cost a million dollars."
I look at the (usually a) guy, sometimes wink and grin, and say, "I'm glad that you brought that up. I'm a financial planner. If you start at age 20 to invest $4.99 a week, and either because you're smart enough, or trust someone who is, to earn 15% per year, when you reach age 65 you'll be out of pocket under $11,700. Apart from the erosion of income by taxes and the erosion of assets by inflation, you'll have a million dollars."
We usually agree that most smokers start young and that the habit soon costs more than $5.00 per week.
If you start at age 15, it requires about $2.50 per week (31 cents per week in the week that you were born, or $114. once only). Every time that you wait five years to begin, must double weekly invested amount.
Divide rate of growth into 72, tells you how many years it takes amount to double.
Learning how money works is an interesting hobby - and it pays well.
Ed Baker eddbaker@yahoo.com