P.V. Subramayam: "Take away the terms asset allocation, long term and compounding from a financial advisor’s vocabulary, and he is pretty much tongue-tied," remarks a friend.

Let me show you exactly how much saving can help. Say you spend Rs 40 every day on cigarettes. Let us see what could happen if you stopped smoking.

Let's also make some assumptions and also suppose that these are valid for the next 30-years.

Take a looks at the Smoker's Chart:

Money Spent Per Day	Rs. 40	Rs. 80	Rs. 120
Money Spent Per Year	Rs. 14, 600	Rs. 29, 200	Rs. 43, 800

Money earned if invested over the next 30 years.

Sensex	Rs 11,547,841	Rs 23,095,681	Rs 34,643,522
Equity	Rs 21,099,200	Rs 42,198,399	Rs 63,297,599
PPF	Rs 16,53,935	Rs 33,07,870	Rs 49,61,805

Nice chunk of change, eh?! What would this money be worth? Let's see: You could afford an Ivy League education for your children. Or could buy out your neighbour’s flat, have a roomier home. You don't need to care how many times your banker looked at your Form 16.

Of course, if you spend Rs 120 per day on cigarettes, you probably won’t live for 30 years!

So you don't smoke? Maybe you're a frequent restaurant-hopper? That would easily mean Rs 2,000 per week.

Keep at it for 30 years, and you would have said goodbye to Rs 15 crore. Think of the penthouses you could have afforded with that kind of moolah!

Here is the Gastronome's chart:

Money spent per week	Rs. 750	Rs. 1500	Rs. 2000
Money spent per year	Rs. 39,000	Rs. 78, 000	Rs. 104, 000

Money earned if invested over the next 30 years.

Sensex	Rs 30,846,972	Rs 61,693,943	Rs 82,258,591
Equity	Rs 56,360,876	Rs 112,721,752	Rs 150,295,669
PPF	Rs 44,18,045	Rs 88,36,090	Rs 11,781,454