Well, if I "suck it up and fly", I can't pay my bills while on first year pay. Second year and subsequent pay matters not if I'm in bankruptcy from not paying my bills for a year.

No, I can't make the equivalent of that as a regional FO. I make $26.78 at the moment, plus another 10K / year in bonuses. $65,700 before taxes. No regional is paying me that in the right seat. Some aren't going to pay me that in the left seat. Obviously getting on with a legacy / LCC would top that, but with the amount of qualified guys at the regionals I'm not going to get the call from an airline I can afford to work for. If it was just a matter of sucking up first year pay, it might be doable. In my case though, it's more like sucking up 3 or more years of regional flying (no turbine PIC).

Just south of 40 with a family is no time to hop (back) into the airlines. I'd be much better off going back to school and working on a masters degree than starting over in the airline business. Or, I can wait for my NJA recall and see what happens. That's also a dead end at the moment, however. It's just a good paying dead end.