When Kenneth, now 35, was a student at the Mona campus of the University of the West Indies (UWI), he was determined that if he did not own a home by 30 he would go into peddling drugs. "I couldn't see the sense of going to school from I was three or four years old and not owning a home by 30. Then what over 20 years of going to school was for?" he asked.

At 35, though, he has not yet owned that home, although he and his wife do own the land and the building is in the process of being constructed in a prestigious area of Kingston. Kenneth gives a rueful chuckle when he looks back at his earlier pledge to go into 'pharmaceuticals'.

Rent reality

"I was serious at the time, but I was young. Not only that, but I was looking at the wrong examples because I was measuring myself against people who were either into drugs or their parents had it already, so they did not even have to work, really," he said. "When I started working now, I looked at the reality of rent and student loan and car maintenance, plus for the first time I was among people who were working in the system for some time and trying hard and not able to buy a house at even 39 and 40."

Having reset his goals, including adding the dimension of family with two children, Kenneth is very comfortable with where he is now and looks back at his earlier commitment to the criminal alternative with a grin.

"Bway, when you are young, you say these things, but it could have led to desperation and depression and I could have ended up in prison or dead," Kenneth said.