Smokers giving up their habit could save thousands of pounds by doing so, a leading financial services company has claimed.
Research by Clerical Medical says cigarettes cost the average smoker in the UK some £92,000, which it believes is enough to buy a pension of £6,000.
The financial services provider says that every year, British smokers collectively spend £17 billion on smoking 72 billion cigarettes.
It states that if laid out in a line, these cigarettes would circumnavigate the globe 154 times.
The amount spent on smoking is a "staggering amount", according to the managing director of the financial services company, John Hiew.
"That's a hell of a lot of disposable income just going up in smoke," he comments.
Mr Hiew urges people to give up smoking and put the money they would have used for cigarettes in a savings plan.
"Not only would they probably live longer, but they could have an extra income of thousands of pounds a year," he concludes.
The financial services company's research shows that those in Northern Ireland are the biggest smokers, ahead of London and people living in the north-west of England.




