Originally Posted by rickair7777

You can easily commute out of SLC, it's near the big west coast bases, DEN, DFW, IAH, and not that far from ORD/MDW.

$72K is trivial in this conversation. If you have a degree (preferably with a good GPA), are healthy, and personable, there is a clear potential ROI for you due to timing in history... the escalator is running, and running fast (which is not always the case). With all bonuses, retirement factors, you'd make $150-$200K second-year at a mid/upper-tier major.

The caveat of course is risk... health problems, catastrophic economic issues, unknowns. Or maybe the recruiters just don't like the way you part your hair... but I think most majors no longer have enough candidates where they can exclude people for trivial reasons, assuming you've punched all the big tickets they want. Risk is always present, and always a consideration for those pursuing aviation. What's different right now is that there's not much risk of stagnation.

Now for a guy making $200K+ in the white-collar world, it's a much harder decision... aviation would require a significant cut in lifestyle, without any absolute certainty of ever getting it back. If spouse/family is involved, they'd need to be VERY supportive. IMO you'd really have to hate what you're doing now (which could be understandable if you're doing 80 hour weeks on wall street or the like).