On (s)Tar Wars

I gave a presentation to fifth graders about smoking: how it is bad for you, how it makes your teeth yellow, how it makes your breath stink, how it makes you wrinkly, and how much it costs to maintain a smoking habit. (I skipped the long-term effects like emphysema, lung cancer, and death because they simply cannot grasp those ideas, and also, well, they cannot pronounce "emphysema".) To demonstrate the cost of a smoking habit, I asked them to calculate the money it takes to maintain the habit for a week, a month, a year, and fifty years. Using $4 for a pack of cigarettes and assuming one pack per day, smoking costs $28 per week, $112 per month, $1,456 per year, and $73,000 for fifty years. (I ignored the wise kid who informed me that my math should involve premium cigars at $23 a piece). I then asked the class what they would buy with those respective amounts of money. Most of the other presenters got answers like "comic books," "i-Dog," "Star Wars saber," and "Xbox 360 Pro with wireless controllers and wireless adapter and Halo III" from their fifth graders. My class said:

"I would invest it."

"I would put it in the stock market."

"I would save it in a bank and live off the interest."

"I would invest it in foreign currency."

After my presentation, I was made aware that my class consisted of children of financial advisers.