As one of those "new guys," this is excellent advice. In the years leading up to my airline job, I spent years talking to guys at major, regional, corporate, fractional, and international jobs. I also spent years trawling these and similar forums. There's a lot to sift through, from bitterness to rumors to complaints about contracts and any other topic you can imagine, but buried in those pages is excellent wisdom such as this post. Between networking and sifting through forum info that more or less corroborated what I was hearing first and second hand, I had a very good idea of what I was getting into before starting flight training as well as in the months and weeks leading up to the start of airline training. My expectations and hopes were set, and I feel that I've had an excellent run so far and really haven't been too disappointed because of that. No expectations of bonuses, premium pay, quick upgrades, major retirements, etc. Sure, they were out there. But plan for and assume it won't happen to you. I just want to add my support to all 3 of these points.

1. When I passed training and was out on the line, I was very fortunate to have only a few weeks of reserve. Even that month, I managed to credit in the high 80s. And for the next 5 months in that base I was being awarded lines in the mid 80s and crediting anywhere from 85 to 95 hours per month. Between that and the per diem, I was blowing way past my expectations for pay, even with commuting and paying for parking and a cheap hotel sometimes in base. Then I got my home base and it's been great. My seniority plummeted. But I've mostly been able to hold a minimum credit line and pick up some stuff on my days off. With the exception of 1 month, I was seeing 78-83 hours on average, and not quite as much per diem. But that's fine because I lived in base, parking was paid for, no commuting and hotels, etc. So I still came out the same or ahead. One of these months, I actually credited over 100 hours and like $600 in per diem, which was outstanding. But I still plan for and try to live as if I'm getting my min guarantee. It's come in handy, due to all the coronavirus panic, because our min guarantees have been cut and there's never anything to pick up on days off. So with the reduced minimum credit for a line plus the per diem, I'm pretty much making what a normal minimum line would pay.

I always planned on (Monthly guarantee) x (hourly rate) and didn't do any funny math to estimate taxes and per diem. In retrospect When I do the math, busy months (~85 hours) plus the per diem I typically made (~$500), minus taxes/401K/insurance deductions, is pretty much exactly equal to just the min guarantee multiplied by the hourly rate (no tax, per diem, etc factored). Your actual take home pay will vary depending on your tax rate and which deductions you elect, but at least in my own experience just the Min Guarantee x Hourly is pretty close to what I actually took home during the good months anyway. I know others say you can multiply the hourly rate by 1000 or 900 if you're conservative, but that's still gross pay not net.

2. I no longer have one of these, but excellent if you do. Even though it didn't work out, she loves her career and had no plans to quit even if we started having kids. That $40-50K was enough to pay the bills while I was finishing college and had a little bit of income, and it was even enough that we could get by during the 6 months that I was unemployed working on CFI and CFII. It was tight a few months but we had benefits through her employer and we managed to make do. If you can fall back on a significant other, sibling/roomate, at least to help split some basic bills is also helpful, especially if you're renting a crashpad (i.e. you're paying two rents).

3. Absolutely, save anything you can. I've always been one to live within my means, and the only real debt I have are student loans. I was paying well over the minimum payment on loans and cards until March when I scaled it back to the min, and during this period of federal loan deferment I've been setting aside the regular monthly amount into savings as a "dire straits" cushion and will pay that toward the federal loan if I'm not on the street in a couple months. I drive an 18 year old car that has been reliable. My ex took the TV and a bunch of other stuff, so I just stream on my iPad instead of buying a new TV or games or other toys. I don't really go out, have a small wardrobe, rarely eat out. I prep meals and pack food for trips. Call me a curmudgeon, I don't really care. I was originally saving up an emergency fund plus a "what if my Nissan dies" fund, plus trying to save for a house some day. Now, I'm just preparing for the worst and hoping it doesn't come. But I figured with the amount I have saved now and my current burn rate, I could pay full rent, groceries, utilities, rent, credit cards, student loans, and be good for a year. Probably 18 months if I was super austere and sacrificed my credit to skimp on loan and credit card bills. Worst case scenario, I move in with my parents and drive 3 hours to base.

As it stands, overall I feel...comfortable, I guess. If I round down I'm a solid 77% on the seniority list at my regional so I'm by no means safe. But at least financially, I feel comfortable knowing that I can get by in a furlough, unpaid leave, or concessions (I pray it doesn't come to that though). And hey, maybe I can get my road bike out as well. It's probably worth a lot more than my car at this point but has been mostly neglected with how busy flying has been. Anyway. I'm overall grateful we've managed to keep working as long as we have, in a time when many have lost jobs and lost family members. Hopefully cuts are less than expected and everyone can come back soon.