alcohol

Alcohol Is Killing More People Than Opioids

November 18, 2018 By Amanda Blankenship Leave a Comment

Alcohol is killing more adults in the United States than the opioid epidemic, according to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington. The surge in alcohol-related deaths is new and, for many, it is surprising.

Deaths From Drinking

The opioid epidemic has gotten quite a bit of news coverage. However, it turns out the drinking epidemic may be more harmful to the U.S. population. Opioids kill around 72,000 people each year. Alcohol kills 88,000. All in all, drinking leads to 2.5 million years of potential life lost.

Over the past decade, the number of alcohol-related deaths has increased by 35 percent. Surprisingly, the demographic being affected by the alcohol epidemic is young women. Among this group, alcohol-related deaths rose by 67 percent, compared to only 27 percent for men.

Alcohol Is Killing More Women

The National Institute on Alcohol and Abuse and Alcoholism says women are more susceptible to these types of deaths because they generally weigh less than men. This makes women feel the effects of alcohol faster and those who drink excessively are prone to liver damage, heart disease, breast cancer, and possible pregnancy complications.

The Institute has also found that 9.3 percent of women said they drank alcohol while pregnant. Another 51.1. percent drank alcohol in general, compared to 61.3 percent of men. Twenty-two percent of those surveyed said they engaged in binge drinking in the past month, compared to 32.1 percent of men. Only 5.4 percent of female drinkers and 7.4 percent of men received help for an alcohol disorder.

Researchers did have some good news to uncover in the report though. Overall, teen drinking deaths are on the decline (down 16 percent in 10 years). However, deaths attributed to drinking for people between the ages of 45 and 64 have increased by 25 percent.

Who Cares?

Although it seems like women are drinking less than men, overall, they are still experiencing a higher rate of mortality associated with drinking. It is important to note that most of the alcohol deaths included in the report are not instantaneous. Many of them develop over time.

Location is also a factor. At the top of the list for most alcohol deaths is the District of Columbia, followed by Georgia and Alabama. Other states on the list are general places with lower alcohol control policies (Nevada, Wisconsin, South Dakota, Wyoming).

The bigger question here is, with alcohol-related deaths on the rise, why do Americans still feel that drinking in excess is acceptable? Psychologist Benjamin Miller noted, “Culturally, we’ve made it acceptable to drink but not to go out and shoot up heroin,” he said. “A lot of people will read this and say ‘What’s the problem?’”

Readers, what do you think about the latest report? Are you surprised alcohol-related deaths are on the rise?

Don’t Spend Your Tax Refund on These 7 Things

April 9, 2018 By Jackie Cohen 2 Comments

Don't spend your tax refund like this Congratulations: If you’re like 80% of the population, you are getting a tax refund, and it’s averaging $1,600 this year. A financially responsible person might opt to pay down debt or invest the money — but temptations to spend it are everywhere. But someday you might regret not putting your windfall to better use, and that’s why you don’t want to spend your tax refund on any of the following things.

Gambling

If you gamble the money, you might lose the entire tax refund — and then some. Gambling can become addictive, and as a habit it’s a wealth killer. The myth of the career gambler is — well, it’s a myth that you only see in movies.

Most people who gamble full time end up breaking even at best but more often they go broke. If you want to turn your refund into more money, put it into the stock market.

Partying Too Heartily

It’s one thing to celebrate a windfall and another to turn the celebration into an ongoing thing. Intoxication typically weakens your inhibitions and makes you prone to make decisions you might regret later.

Just ask anybody who’s gone shopping while drunk how they felt about their purchases the next day (unless, of course, they opted for the hair of the dog, which would be even more bad news for the pocketbook — don’t spend your tax refund this way).

Don’t confuse this particular warning one with any kind of moralistic trip about inebriation. Rather, this is a type of spending that can snowball quickly and in a bad way.

Contraband on the Dark Web

Speaking of which, might feel the temptation to go shopping on the Dark Web for — well whatever the vice might be that you have in mind, it’s easier than ever to get caught.

Although you supposedly enjoy anonymity when you surf this part of the internet, in reality there’s actually plenty of law enforcement types doing surveillance who manage to track people down this way.

Furthermore, even paying for things in cryptocurrency doesn’t necessarily afford the same degree of untraceability that is used to due to the advent of blockchain — the same technology that has been cutting down on fraud helps the authorities nail people buying illegal goods on the Dark Web.

Impulsive, Excessively Risky Investing

While investing your tax refund is always an astute move, rushing into any investment doesn’t bode well — especially under current conditions. With market volatility rising, professional investors and algorithmic trading make it hard for individual investors to get ahead — so the last thing you want to do is go overboard with risk right now.

For certain asset classes, prices can move against you faster than you might be able to unwind the position. Examples would include leveraged exchange traded funds, options, futures, any other type of derivative and even cryptocurrency exchange transactions.

Pay attention to the risk disclosures for anything you’re considering putting money into, and while you’re at it, read as much as you can about any investment before buying. Don't spend your tax refund on things you'll regret later.

Loan Collateral

Before you go take out a loan for anything, remember that borrowing costs have reached a ten-year high — in terms of interest rates. If you’re looking at mortgages or academic financial aid, an additional cost comes from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

The law capped the deductibility of mortgage interest to the first $750,000 in principal value; it made student interest nondeductible and also put a $10,000 ceiling on deductions of state and local income, sales, and property taxes.

New Car

Although using your tax refund as any kind of loan collateral is bad news, auto loans are a different headache than mortgages and student financial aid. You simply cannot rationalize this one an investment because autos depreciate quicker than most other types of assets you could buy.

Adding insult to injury, the prices have gotten a bit steeper because dealerships have drastically cut back on offering buyer incentives over the past year or so.

And with interest rates rising, financing criteria has gotten stricter so you may have to pony up additional funds just to make the down payment. Make do with the vehicle you already have and put the tax refund to more productive use. Or if the kind of work you do requires a new-looking vehicle, consider leasing instead of buying.

Loan It to Flakes

You might be feeling generous because of your windfall but try to think critically before saying “yes” to a request for money right around the time that tax refunds go out.

As noted already, eight in 10 households are getting refunds this year — so did the person who wants to borrow money from you already spend theirs?

If they didn’t get a refund at all, of course it’s a fallacy to presume they don’t have the means to repay a loan — but you might need to assume that you won’t see the money again.

Don’t Spend Your Tax Refund Foolishly

Rewarding yourself now and then can help you stick to a budget longer term, but if you go overboard on the indulgences you might regret it later.

If you have outstanding debt, make paying down the balances your first order of business. Then if you have any money left over from your tax refund after that, invest it or set up an emergency fund if you don’t have one already).

Readers, how much are you getting as a tax refund and what are your plans for the money?

Learn more about taxes by checking out these other stories from our archives:

Starbucks Evenings: Bring on the Booze

March 20, 2014 By Jeffrey Strain Leave a Comment

Does Starbucks (SBUX) want to be your local bar? Not exactly, but they sure would love to be your destination for beer and wine…

Your local Starbucks may soon offer you something even stronger than a shot of caffeine. According to an article in Bloomberg, Starbucks plans to add alcoholic drinks to thousands of its stores over the next few years as another way to boost sales. They will be launching this initiative under the name “Starbucks Evenings.”

The company has already begun testing the Starbucks Evenings concept, and it hopes to expand it to 40 stores by the end of 2014. The results thus far indicate that the concept works, and it brings added sales to the stores during hours that aren’t normally as busy as other times of the day. The company realizes that the concept won’t work in all of its 11,000 retail outlets, but does hope to have it in thousands of its stores where it makes sense. The concept works better in urban areas where people are already out for the night, such as areas near theaters or restaurants.

In addition to serving beer and wine, the company will expand its food offerings for the stores where this plan is implemented. For example, in the Chicago test market where a number of stores have been serving alcohol since January 2012, you can get chicken skewers and truffle Mac & Cheese with your glass of Chardonnay. If that doesn’t whet your appetite, there is always chocolate fondue.

As you might imagine, stopping in to buy a beer or grab a glass of wine on a regular basis from a store where $5 cups of coffee are common won’t be a good way to save money or stick to your budget. That being said, it might be a way to save a bit of money on drinks while out on the town with a little ingenuity. A lot will depend on the pricing of the alcohol at the stores compared to other nearby establishments that also serve wine and beer. I can imagine opportunities to buy Starbucks gift cards on the secondary market at a discount. These are often available at a discount of 20% or more. If you’re able to get the gift cards at a good discount, that might make their evening offerings competitive with other establishments serving alcohol in the area.

Of course, by far the best way to save money would be to take the same actions that will save you a ton of money when it comes to buying coffee. Buy and make your own drinks at home. This won’t be possible in every circumstance, and it does take a bit more planning, but it will save you a ton of money over buying the same drinks at Starbucks or any other drinking establishment.

The Financial Benefits of Giving up Alcohol

December 23, 2008 By David G. Mitchell 6 Comments

In my youth, I liked to live life well and, admittedly, to excess. My friends and I ate out often and we did not limit ourselves to salad and sparkling water. We enjoyed fine meals that we could not afford and the full range of alcoholic beverages that the world’s distilleries, wineries and breweries had to offer.

By the time I was in my early twenties, I had gone from drinking Riunite on ice (That’s Nice!) and Schlitz with my high school friends on the beach to building a wine cellar full of bottles that I had identified in Wine Spectator magazine. The beers and ales that I enjoyed came from microbreweries and I was spending as much on a six pack as I previously had spent on a case. When I wanted to relax at the end of the day, I would decant a bottle of Macallan’s Scotch or enjoy a cocktail with a high end vodka or gin. I had become a student of alcohol and its consumption and, although I rarely drank to excess (perhaps three times in my life, all of which I painfully remember and regret), I was hurting myself in more ways than I realized.

By the time I was in my thirties, my wife and I had a substantial liquor closet. I was also significantly overweight, had high blood sugar and no muscle tone. When my wife and I looked at our weekly expenditures, we realized that we were spending more than $100 per week on alcohol, and much more if we went out to dinner and ordered a bottle of wine.

My wife and I realized that we could live much more healthily and put our money to much better use if we just stopped drinking. Neither of us enjoyed being around people who drank to excess and neither of us felt particularly good about ourselves when we drank “empty” calories. We also wanted to buy a new car and giving up wine and other alcoholic beverages seemed like a good trade.

So instantly and completely, we gave up wine and spirits. We agreed that when we went out to eat, we would not order from the bar. When we were at home, we would not drink any more alcohol. We would only purchase alcohol when we needed it for a recipe that called for it. The transition was easy for us and the benefits were substantial.

As soon as I gave up alcohol, I saw immediate benefits. Even on days when I previously might have had a single glass of wine, I would feel less than wonderful when I got up the next day. After I stopped unwinding with a drink at night, I began to feel great each day when I woke up and I became much less reliant on my alarm clock to get me out of bed. I also dropped several pounds in the following two years without any real effort (although I needed to make other dietary changes in order to get back to the weight that I needed to reach).

From the perspective of sensible spending, giving up alcohol had significant benefits. We immediately saved the $100 or more per week that we had been spending on alcohol. That more than covered the monthly car payment plus insurance for the car that we purchased at the time. There were unexpected financial (and health) benefits as well. For example, because we were not ordering “drinks” when we went out to eat, we found that we really did not feel the need to order appetizers, either. We realized that we had been ordering appetizers primarily because we were hungry and did not want to finish our food before we had finished our wine. Without wine, we could move right on to the main course!

We also found it interesting that our social opportunities declined a great deal after we gave up alcohol because, it seemed, that for most of the people we knew, “going out” usually meant going out for drinks or dinner and drinks. Our invitations declined and our social costs decreased materially. (Of course, we found that we enjoyed having more time for “us” so this was also the beginning of our non-social way of life).

Being teetotalers does not make us prohibitionists, of course. If you enjoy the responsible consumption of alcoholic beverages, I do not stand in judgment of you. That said, have you really taken the time to consider the cost of drinking beer, wine and spirits? Do you find that such beverages are really worth the cost and the empty calories? Have you ever tried to give up alcohol for a day? A week? A month?

Where does alcohol fit in your budget? Do you think you are a moderate drinker? A casual drinker? A heavy drinker? A prohibitionist? Where do you fit on the spectrum and how much do you think is reasonable. Would you rather enjoy a fine aged Scotch or a case of cheap beer? Does quality matter?