Well gentlemen - I come to ask for advice in our never ending search for the right thing to do.

I currently work as a service advisor for Toyota here in Connecticut. It's a pretty lousy job , but the pay is acceptable. I (like most other people here) have the hots for flying big shiny jets. Whether it be airlines , corporate , cargo, etc. I currently have 272 hours and am just short of my Comm Multi / Comm Single. I would like to get my CFI / II and build hours to get my minumums.

The pickle I seem to be in, at 29 years old, am I doing the right thing by jumping careers and taking a better than 60 percent pay cut? I have my parents / girlfriend who stand behind me, but sometimes I read all these horror stories and I feel like i should run in the other direction. I know tenured pilots can make a pretty penny, but getting there seems to be a very arduous task (furlough / lay off / significant others leaving you)

My girlfriend truly believes that if I buy an aircraft (archer / mooney m20) that I would be a much happier individual than worrying about the stressors of living month to month with no money. I can agree with her on this, but the whole point is to get away from my job that half makes me miserable.

I am just looking for some feed back from some other folks on here. What would you guys do at 29? I just don't wanna be 54 and say s*%t , i should have done it this way