Originally Posted by kfahmi

I know that sounds easy, but...the number of people with Ivy League degrees, whose net worth is enough to own and operate a turbine aircraft, is extremely, extremely small. To attain that level of wealth requires that you either be a very successful entrepreneur, or in the C-suite at a Fortune 500 company. It also requires many decades of 90-hour workweeks, usually with endless days on the road.

I say this as someone with two Ivy League degrees, my own (piston) aircraft, and nearly two decades in Fortune 500 style jobs. Heck, I'm writing this from a cube at Google*. But none of my Princeton classmates have come anywhere remotely near that level of wealth, and unless you get very, very, very lucky and work very, very, very hard for multiple decades, the odds of getting to the point where you can afford your own turbine aircraft are very slim. Realistically, to own even an entry-level jet (call it $2M acquisition and $400K/yr operating costs), you'll need a net worth well north of $10M and a yearly income in excess of $2M. There are very few people in this world who can touch those numbers.

Bottom line: If you just want to fly, I'd agree that there are better options than the airlines. Do a non-aviation job for money, and flight instruct on evenings and weekends, maybe pick up some charter gigs. But if you want to fly jets, I have never seen an easier time for pilots to get into the right seat of a jet, if they go to the regionals. It is many orders of magnitude harder to rise into the rarefied ranks of turbine owners, as it is to get a job in the right seat of an RJ...

*And yes, I'm leaving that career to go fly for the regionals. Call me insane, but there you have it ;-)