I'll spare everyone the obligatory speech about how much appeal aviation has. If you didn't share that passion you probably wouldn't be reading this now.

So, here's my framework for getting into a cockpit full time.

Work a boring yet well paying job in finance , saving my sheckels along the way.

Save up $200k. Use half to pay for training, park the other half in an interest bearing account whose payouts I can live off of when working on "volunteer wages" at the regionals.

Build hours, upgrade, then move on to the majors.

I'm 27 now, and have literally two hours of Cessna 172 time to my name.

Any constructive advice to make a career happen-including "forget about it kid" - is appreciated.