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The story
An article introducing a financial planner’s estimate that “going out drinking five nights a week and smoking a pack of cigarettes a day for 30 years adds up to roughly ¥46 million” became a hot topic on 5ch’s News Express+ board. Centered on the case of a single man in his 50s who bar-hops every night at standing bars in Shimbashi, the piece asks whether people should rethink their spending on alcohol and cigarettes as part of retirement planning. On the thread, many criticized the premise — ¥5,000 per outing, five times a week — as wildly exaggerated, while others pointed out the risk that seniors struggle to rent apartments, or noted that quitting drinking and smoking would just shift the spending to other hobbies. Opinions were split over the assumptions behind the calculation.
Quit drinking and smoking and you could “build a house” or “buy a Mercedes” — a line smokers and drinkers alike are sick of hearing. They fire back with “What’s a life without booze and cigarettes,” “It’s essential downtime for earning a living,” or “Quitting would just stress me out and be worse for my health.” But when you actually put a number on these costs, the reality is no laughing matter. So what should people do about drinking and smoking costs as they plan for retirement? We asked financial planner (FP) Chikako Uehara.
[Case Study] Bar-hopping through Shimbashi’s izakaya row, a single man pushing 50 realizes he’s drinking away ¥100,000 a month
“To blow off steam from work, I head straight to a standing bar in Shimbashi almost every night after work. Chatting with the regulars is fun, so I end up hopping to a second and third place. Standing bars are cheap per round, but I probably spend around ¥5,000 a day. I smoke along with the drinking too, so it might add up to quite a sum (laughs).”
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
mostly die in their 60s
Which is better — living long while worrying about dementia,
or a shorter life?
It's a contribution to the nation
No doubt today's 20-to-50-somethings living past 80 will just be in the way
Well there's nothing else that relieves stress for just ¥500
Landlords won't rent to old people
it's a hassle if you die in the room
and you'll get kicked out even from an apartment you've lived in for years
Even if my lungs turn black, my heart's still clean, so I'm fine
Even when I'm full I have to keep eating just to cope.
Feels like I'm gonna end up with some other illness instead.
Just give up on that pointless quitting already
My old boss quit and it stuck, but he said it took 2 years to feel settled without cigarettes.
You've still got a ways to go. Though I've never smoked so I wouldn't really know.
I've heard that smoking suppresses your appetite, so when you quit your sense of taste changes, your eating shoots up, and you start gaining weight
No thanks, real cigarettes have gotta be rolled paper
Yeah it dirties up the room too
my parents and siblings were heavy smokers so back home the wallpaper, the exhaust fan, the dust — it was all brown and sticky
I get that drinking out 5 nights a week until your 50s makes marriage impossible, but if you've got nothing else you want to do and you're not out drinking, wouldn't you just be suicidal? If the guy himself is having fun doing it, then there's nothing wrong with it.
I bought a game called Skyrim on sale ages ago and fell into the mod rabbit hole, I've sunk at least 2000 hours into it lol
Lately I've finally gotten a bit tired of it and stepped away, but I might get hooked again once I forget about it lol
Booze and cigarettes as your idea of entertainment?
What are you, some Showa-era old man?
Everyone's hobbies are different
some people get into bonsai, some get into keeping reptiles, some make music with DTM software, some play instruments, some do YouTube, some love train trips, some love movies on Netflix or Amazon Prime — it's all over the map.
Booze, cigarettes, cars, women, gambling —
way better than being some Showa-era trash who thinks that stuff is what life's about
And calculating cigarettes at today's ¥600 price even for 30 years ago when they cost ¥200
The premise is just way too sloppy
What a garbage fantasy article
It's annoying when people actually believe this stuff and look down on you for it
Hmm, kind of, kind of not
You could say this about literally anything
And if you gave up everything, you'd probably end up so empty you'd wonder what the point of living even is
I get the risk that it gets harder to rent once you're older,
but that doesn't mean buying some decades-old used condo out in the countryside is the answer either.
And a pricey Tokyo condo running into the hundreds of millions of yen is way too expensive.
For now I'll just make do with UR housing (public rental housing) or the housing safety net program.
but I love spending on my favorite idol/character and on the sex industry,
and I love gambling too" — there's a lot of people like that
I don't drink, smoke, or gamble,
but I love porn and spend money on that kind of stuff
guess that's just how it goes
For me it's just cigarettes.
Aside from a few social drinks a year, I haven't really drunk in 15 years,
and I only went to a brothel twice, back in my 20s.
But for some reason cigarettes are the one thing I can't quit.
Health checkups all clear, I jog 6km twice a month. My one joy is a sauna trip every 2-3 months.
Only 20 more years to grit through. Hang in there, me. I refuse to die before I see my grandkids.
Younger generations are increasingly losing their illusions about marriage too,
so maybe all 3 of your kids will say marriage is dumb and never tie the knot lol
I managed to buy a used condo in central Tokyo.
If I sold it now I'd get back what I paid, maybe even a bit more.
Meaning 20 years of housing basically came free.
Though I won't actually sell it since then I'd have nowhere to live.
That one you could seriously buy a house with
and now I only go through a pack every 4 days
it's ¥440 for a pack of 14
comes out to about ¥3,000 a month, so no house is getting built off that
factor in the lifestyle diseases they cause and the treatment costs, and you're wasting over ¥100 million over 30 years
Get it?
Quitting alcohol and cigarettes doesn't just make you healthy, it can make you a multimillionaire
Background and Points of Debate
The “quit and you could build a house” style of calculation is a simple projection that assumes every yen saved by quitting alcohol and cigarettes would automatically go straight into savings — and commenters on the thread pushed back, noting that in reality the money would likely just shift to other hobbies like gaming, fan spending, or the sex industry. On the other hand, the difficulty elderly single people face in renting apartments is a real social issue that Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism has flagged as well, and securing housing for retirement is an issue that needs to be considered separately from cutting back on drinking and smoking. The article’s case study is a model based on one man who bar-hops in Shimbashi, so it’s worth noting that the figures can’t simply be generalized without accounting for individual differences in spending habits and health.
*This article is compiled as an excerpt and summary of the 5ch (News Express+) thread “‘Drinking 5 Nights a Week Plus a Pack of Cigarettes a Day’ Comes to About ¥46 Million Over 30 Years — Is It True That Alcohol and Cigarettes Could ‘Build You a House’? A Single Man in His 50s Attempts a Comeback [FP Advice].”
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