I have an airline job, a bachelor of science (non-aviation), and I should be making 65K+ in a year. Many of my friends work 8-5, 5+ days a week, and they are earing incomes of $28K-$55K.

The only debt I have is the credit card debt I inherited by getting married, and that will be gone in 2 months. I work less than 15 days a month, and average over 20 nights a month at home.

This is not a bad job at all (depending on who you work for, of course), I have zero regrets about my career choice or the path that I took to get here. My feeling is that many people choose the wrong method for entering into this profession. IMHO, aviation degrees and pilot factories are completely worthless. Get a scholarship, get a non-aviation degree, get a decent part time job, live as cheaply as possible, and learn how to fly airplanes. Get your CFI as soon as possible and get paid to fly. The way regionals are hiring, you will be eligible for a job before you finish college (that does not mean you shouldn't finish college). The total process will take longer, as it did for me, but in the end you will come out way ahead. You have 1/10th the debt of an average regional FO, and you will have a fall back degree in case you lose your medical.

-Quag