For Alcoholics, Quitting Drinking Will Net You Over One Million Dollars
It’s True: Quitting Drinking will Net You Over a Million Dollars.
How long a time frame are we talking about here? According to my research, only 16 years.
Here’s the breakdown:
1) Money Spent on Alcohol and Other Drugs
According to this study done by the American Medical Association, alcoholic drinkers account for just under 50 percent of all alcohol purchases. Combined with sales data, this gives us a yearly average of about 4 to 5 thousand dollars per year that an alcoholic spends on alcohol, or about 10 to 15 dollars per day. This is right in line with what I averaged when I was still drinking, by the way, so this estimate seems right on the money to me.
Photo by aprilandrandy
It is difficult to estimate the additional cost of other drugs consumed along with alcohol. From consuming illicit substances to simply buying Tylenol for hangovers, we will give this a very low estimate of 5 dollars per day. Note that there are some alcoholics who indulge in a variety of other drugs, and there are some who simply stick to alcohol. In spite of the research indicating the prevalence of cross-addiction, this estimate of only 5 dollars per day is indeed quite low.
Total Cost per Year: $7,300 = $5475 (alcohol) + $1825 (other drugs)
2) Costs of Consequences – such as court costs, DWI charges, Lost Work opportunities, Employability, etc.
These consequence costs can include a wide range of opportunities. For example, I personally obtained a college degree after quitting drinking, which will change my earning potential significantly. This would also include the difference between someone who is working a steady job and earning money in recovery versus someone who is still drinking heavily and spending time in jail due to drunk driving charges. Many alcoholics have reached a point of being unemployable altogether. Also included in this category are court costs, lost jobs as a result of legal problems and time spent in jail, and so on.
Remember that even if an alcoholic is managing to hold a steady job in spite of their drinking, they are still missing out on the opportunity cost of getting a better paying position, particularly through more education or training. The “average” alcoholic is not in a position to increase their livelihood in this manner. The total average cost reflects this lost earning potential.
Total Cost per Year: $5000
3) Lost Productivity, Sick Days, and Health Care Costs
Alcoholics call in sick to work more often than others, and also have significantly higher health care costs due to both major diseases, as well as being sick with more common ailments simply due to a compromised immune system.
Total Cost per Year: $5000 (This is a much more conservative estimate than is given by the U.S. Government research)
Photo by AZAdam
4) Potential Life Lost Averages and Value of a Human Life
What is the monetary value of the life lost when a person dies early due to Alcoholism? Before we can answer that question with a dollar amount, we must first determine how much life the average alcoholic loses due to heavy drinking. This government website states that the average alcohol related death results in 30 full years of potential life lost. At first, this number might seem unusually high, but it takes into account a whole range of possible early deaths. Alcohol overdoses, drunk driving accidents, suicides, cirrhosis of the liver, and a number of other possibilities go into this average. By the raw numbers, it seems the toll for heavy drinkers is indeed an average of 30 years of life lost!
Knowing this, how can we determine what the value of those 30 years are?
Researchers at Princeton University have determined that the value of a human life is $1.54 million dollars. If we divide this value by the average human life expectancy of 77 years, we get a value of $20,000 per year.
Now, multiply that $20,000 per year by 30 years of life, and we get $600,000 dollars. That is over half a million dollars down the drain, based on the years of life that an alcoholic will sacrifice. Most people would estimate that the value of their life is greater than $20,000 per year, which is understandable. That makes this a fairly low estimate.
Total Cost per Year: $20,000
Photo by elle rigby
Adding it All Up
Each year, the average alcoholic is sacrificing $37,300 dollars due to their drinking. Investing that money at a modest 5 percent interest will net you your million dollars in only 16 years. I understand that most recovering alcoholics will not be able to invest this money due to other responsibilities, but the point of the exercise remains clear: the cost of addiction is staggering.
I also realize that the money value of potential years of life lost is not a tangible thing that could be invested on a year-to-year basis. However, this should be a mute point, as virtually every person declares the monetary value of one year of their life to be worth much more than a mere $20,000 dollars anyway. The years of happiness and freedom from sobriety will pay dividends far beyond a mere 5 percent return on your drinking money.
The bottom line is that substance abuse is extremely expensive when accumulated over the long term because of these costs:
1) Cost of the actual drugs and alcohol themselves.
2) Cost of the consequences, especially legal and health care costs.
3) Years of potential life lost (a near infinite value by most people’s measure).
4) Opportunity costs (quit going to school, not pursuing a better job, etc.).
Photo by a tai
Implications for the Recovering Alcoholic
1) Gratitude – Appreciate the gains you are realizing in recovery – both financially and health-wise. Take joy in your new prosperity. If you are living a sober life in recovery, any amount of money or good health you enjoy is a blessing. Take gratitude in your productivity. Be thankful that you can be of service to others.
2) Recognize the responsibility that you’ve gained by spending your money and life appropriately, instead of selfishly wasting it on chemicals. Recognize also the shift you make with your “footprint” on society when you get sober: instead of being a burden, you become a productive member of society.
3) Reward yourself in responsible ways by treating yourself to the good things in life that you truly enjoy in your recovery. Allow yourself to rationalize a few of these extravagances. You deserve it!
Esh Says:
This really helped me with my project, thanks!
Elbereth Says:
As a sober drunk, it is my opinion that this article is bullshit.
Patrick Says:
Hi there Elbereth
I take it you don’t have your million dollars just yet. Might I suggest you take a look at the creative theory of recovery.
I’ve got more money than I know what to do with!
Princess Says:
Thanks this was very helpful for my project thank you again
Rico Says:
I agree with Elbereth. I’ve never had a drop of alcohol in my entire life. I don’t drink, don’t smoke, rarely take tylenol and other drugs.
Also, your flawed analysis states that $20k is wasted in lost life each year. That’s based on the false assumption that each and every single alcoholic is going to kill someone. Take that $20k out and THEN add it all up…
I’ll just briefly mention as well that not all illnesses an alcoholic faces are alcohol-related, nor do all alcoholics wind up in court every year. Your analysis is deeply flawed.
Rico Says:
For obese people quitting over-eating will net you over one million dollars!
Fat people eat at McDonald’s for three meals a day and spend over $20 per meal. Plus they snack all day consuming more than 72oz. of soda.
Money spent on food: If they removed all their snacks and start eating a bowl of Special-K for breakfast, a PB&J sandwich for lunch, and a sensible dinner, they would save $80-100 a day.
Money spent on failed weight loss: Since each and every lard-filled, Crisco can with legs has tried countless weightloss programs (all having failed), and them trying them all over again each year, that adds up to $5000.
Dept of Health estimates over-weight problems costing the U.S. over $800 million in medical-related costs, and since >70% of Americans are pounding down those cuppy-cakes, that adds up to $5000 a year.
Money spent on extra plane tickets since they can’t fit in one seat… $5000 a year.
Money spent on oversized furniture… about $5000 a year (since they break theirs every time they sit down).
By my calculations, each roly-poly out there will net over $1,000,000 by the time they are done reading this post.
See how foolish I can sound as well?
Patrick Says:
Wow, this article really seems to get people riled up for some reason! Usually when that happens it is because there is at least a grain of truth that is making people look at something they are uncomfortable with.
Rico, I don’t think you are foolish, but your comment is insulting enough that I almost took it down. But I do appreciate your counter example, and I think it helps prove my point: this stuff adds up. Over a lifetime, it adds up to a lot.
Just ask compulsive gamblers how much they’ve lost over their lifetime….not exactly chump change, in most cases.
And I’ve met several recovering addicts who have spent well over a hundred thousand on their disease so far, all costs included. Shoot, even the younger people at treatment have spent that much. The middle aged clients are always at half a million or more.
Some treatment centers have the clients do this as an exercise, you see. They sit down and try to add up each and every cost to figure out how much their addiction has cost them.
I thought it was a useful exercise and an interesting idea, so I shared it here. Sorry you didn’t see any value in it!
Rico Says:
Patrick,
I apologize. It was very rude of me to jump on your case when you are obviously helping struggling individuals. I was immature in my tone and I’m sorry.
Alcoholism is one of the greatest maladies to affect our world today. It destroys families like few things can… and your words do far more to help others than my words to condemn the above example.
Instead, I should have tried helping the issue, not ridiculing it. Good luck sir.
Patrick Says:
That is alright, Rico. I appreciate your comment and it made me do quite a bit of thinking.
I’m glad you apologized….you are welcome to comment here any time you like. I appreciate your opinion, truly. Good luck to you too!
Duncan Says:
Hi Patrick,
Interesting reading this with Obama pushing forward all the health reforms. The benefits to a society without excessive drinking, obesity and smoking is immeasureable but that alone needs a huge investment in the short term and, as prohibition isn’t the answer, education and affirmative acton are the only way. The cost of alcohol related and smoking related illnesses to the Healthcare system in the US is estimated to be more than 300 billion dollars a year. It is impossible to quantify the social cost on families, workplaces and society from addiction but it could easily be the same amount. What your article does do is show that “self-destuctive” is too much of an indulgent term for any addict as addictions can destroy much more than just the person who has one.
I like your creative theory and have applied it in my own way to giving up drinking and smoking. I don’t think I was an alcoholic but it took giving it up to find out.
When I gave up smoking, I started on a new path of life and the same with drinking. I found other things to do, mostly fitness related. I haven’t looked back since.
I would say that alcohol has been the hardest becuase of the social pressure. Some of my friends were really supportive; others were actually mad at me.
I must say that I don’t feel richer for it but when I think back to when I was buying a pack of ciggies a day and a bottle of wine, I must be $10 – 15 a day better off.
Patrick Says:
Hi there Duncan
Yeah I agree you and I both are at least 15 bucks a day better off, all things taken into consideration.
I’m currently struggling with a strange issue: I gave up caffeine several months ago, and I am flirting with the idea of going back to it. Not sure how to weigh out the pros and cons on that one. But there is an obvious money factor involved. Have to think on it for a while.
A. Says:
I am a substance abuse counselor and I absolutely love this article. I have always asked my clients to add up the cost of their addiction in money and time (such as time spent driving, buying, and planning to get the alcohol or drugs). My clients most often agree with your calculations and I will most certainly be directing them to your article! Thank you for this interesting math!
Craig Says:
Funny, nobody in my recovery group fits the post alcoholic life as described here. 4 to 5 thousand dollars per year spent on drinking? Quote Investing that money at a modest 5 percent interest will net you your million dollars in only 16 years.”
Really?!! And what should I invest in? Because I invest more than that in a 401K and company stock will never see that amount in return.
Patrick Says:
@ Craig – Most recovery groups do not have people who are truly pushing themselves to grow and achieve great things in recovery. They are just trying to stay sober and maintain the status quo. You ask “what you should invest in?” I am investing in my own business right now and have been for the last few years…..I have money coming in at this point that I do not even need. Plus I continue to work a decent job at a rehab center.
As a recovering person, I would say to invest that money into yourself. It is working for me and I am realizing all of the projections found in this article and a whole lot more to boot. This is based on the creative approach to recovery that goes beyond the traditional method of focusing exclusively on spiritual growth.
I do have investments with a financial firm as well and they tanked along with everything else. But it doesn’t matter because I made all that money back and a whole lot more by investing in myself and investing in my own recovery.
If you or anyone else would like any ideas about how to invest in themselves and grow in their recovery, feel free to contact me and we can discuss it via email….I am always open to talking about exciting growth opportunities with people who are seeking to move beyond their usual 9 to 5 existence…..
Jared Oates Says:
Although I think some of your estimates are off and unrealistic, a lot of this really did help me with a research paper I’m doing on alcoholism. Thanks for the help!
Tim Says:
This article is great. I quit drinking five years ago and my life is sooo much better. I was always calling in sick, getting arrested, etc. I can now be as productive as God will allow me to be.
There are some ignorant comments about this letter such as from Elbereth, referring to it as “bullshit”. Maybe she could go to college now that she is sober, and learn to express herself in a more educated manner.