anine loves him dearly. She doesn't think of him as what he really is - an it, a thing - but their year-old relationship has been marked by stress.

Over half a million dollars a year worth.

So, if she follows the advice of the counsellors, the affaire would be over and divorce could be in the offing.

Then it would be bye, bye Honda Fit. Make way for public transportation, big savings and Janine's prospects, if she is diligent, of making millions.

Here's the low-down on this affaire. Janine paid $1.4 million for her car, for which she borrowed at the bank.

She now pays $29,000 a month to service the seven-year loan. Her insurance is $120,000 a year and each quarter she forks out $16,000 for service. He is not a heavy user, but still drinks $5,000 a month in petrol.

He's no cheap guy. Indeed, by abandoning the relationship and putting her cash where it really makes money, the experts say, Janine will soon be laughing and skipping all the way to the bank.

Jerrold J. Johnson, a financial adviser at JN Fund Managers, says, for instance, that assuming Janine's car depreciates at approximately $100,000 a year, by the end of her seven-year loan, she would have spent $4,144,000 on an investment that would then be worth $700,000.

Millionaire

Had Janine placed the cash spent on paying her loan maintaining the car in a high-yield investor account over those seven years, by the most conservative estimates, she would be a millionaire several times over.

"Should she put the $592,000 annual expenditure in an account conservatively yielding, say 11 per cent over the seven years, she would have $5,792,000 at the end of the period," said Johnson.

In the meantime, Janine could ride the bus, and occasionally use taxis, says Dave Dixon, branch manager of Scotia DBG Investments Limited, while she saves.

Bus fares, Dixon estimates, would be around $1,500 weekly, plus an additional $500 a week for taxis when necessary.

Her monthly transportation bill: $8,000. Without the loan-repayment obligation, she would have J$41,333 a month for investments.

In other words, over seven years she would have saved $3,471,972. And that does not include returns she would have made on the investment.

Email Jerrold: jerrold@jnbs.com. Dave: ddixon@scotiadbg.com, avia.ustanny@gleanerjm.com.

Alternative transport

While you save and invest for your dream car and other goals, alternative transport comes in the form of the JUTC Premium express. Features of this form of transport, which costs $120 per trip, include: