Choosing the right car is a tough decision many adults face. Great looking cars cost a fortune. Budget cars do not perform as well as expected. Energy-efficient cars, as we learned from the recent Volkswagen scandal, can still hurt the environment.

Unless you live in a major metropolis though, when the argument to ditch the car completely comes up, it gets quickly dismissed by most as extreme or too inconvenient. How do people expect you to get to work on time, or take your kids to school or move around with your beloved dog? Quite frankly, the most important deciding factors have to do with the cost – financial and otherwise.

The infographic below shows that the true cost of car commuting not only goes beyond what we spend to maintain a car each year, but what we could have done with that money to ensure a better future.

When considering costs, we often forget the medium to long-term repercussions and the power of compounding. It will probably come as a surprise to you when you see that if they invested the money spent on long commutes, many car owners would retire as millionaires. But don’t just take our word for it, review the statistics for yourself.