Hey at least you fly jets and aren't addicted to whirly birds. Those pay-scales, schedules, locations, and career outlooks will make you cringe.
As far as pay goes, if I can make it to $150,000 a year with a good schedule I will be exceeding my expectations at the start of this aviation journey. Anything beyond that I'll be living a dream.
In the mean time while I make this transition, my wife works and is picking up my slack. We'll cut back what we have to in terms of lifestyle, and while we haven't been frugal we've tried to make wise life choices.
My small family is living very comfortably near Seattle on $100,000 a year with plenty of wiggle room to keep a roof over our heads. Few people I know my age are making what we make and they seem to be very comfortable also.
My blocks are all checked and I can uncheck quite a few of them and still be perfectly happy. Do I sometimes wish I had a M-F 9-5 job? Sure, just about every weekend my friends and family are out on their boats or camping in the hills and I'm off to work. But whatever. It's still better than my life was in the Army!
Also, I've lived in rural America as well as urban America. Anyone calling Seattle a ****-hole must be using some interesting metrics.