Also Brian, you can explore how much pilots make using the calculator on APC:
Airline Profile Categories | AirlinePilotCentral.com . Plug in the pay rate and monthly guarantee, multiply by 12 and voilą. 2nd year FOs at a major airline are making $100k+. So the money is definitely there.
Regionals are where the money's not. Correct me if I'm wrong but AF AD pilots have a good chance of going right to the majors, correct?