By all means complete your training as expeditiously as able, but those who speak of no need for a "backup plan" are too new to the industry to understand reality. We are in a period of hiring activity. Some are calling it a "pilot shortage" (it is not), a term bantied about for decades now, and a condition which does not now exist, and has not previously existed. We do not have a pilot shortage. We have a period of hiring, or a "pilot's market." This will not last.
It's been rightly said and quoted that those who do not recall history may be headed there again, and given aviation's cyclical nature, if you're in the business very long, you'll see evolutions of hiring frenzy, and evolutions of furlough, bankruptcy, economic downturn, merger, layoff, etc. If one hasn't been in that position, one is either exceptionally lucky, or too new to understand. It will happen, and very likely, will happen to you.
The trend at the moment is more toward warm bodies and less toward qualifiers and checked boxes and discriminators such as a degree, but a degree is more than just a checked box; some actually end up using it. It's still preferred.
The hardest part of learning to fly is paying for it. This has always been the case, even in the day when I paid fifteen dollars an hour for an airplane (wet). Times change, but the basics don't, and that includes the economics of learning to fly; it's expensive. Entry level jobs such as regional airlines pay 500-800% better than they did a few years ago, and have sign-on and other bonuses, assistance for rotor pilots who lack fixed wing qualifications or experience, and other incentives. This is a vast improvement over the past, by orders of magnitude, but the lifestyle and income at today's cost of living is still intolerant of excess debt. Get your training done in the manner that you're able, be it while doing college, GI bill, etc.
When I learned to fly, it was made quite clear to me that flying is nice, but one must make a living; in my arena, every pilot was required to be a mechanic, and so I grew up, from my early teen years, an aircraft mechanic, as well as learning to fly. It's far from necessary to be a mechanic to fly airplanes; just certain types of jobs where it's a very big advantage if not an operational necessity. The point is that having additional skills, qualifications, and ability to earn a living may turn out to be very important when it comes to weathering the inevitable times when your flying job will be in jeopardy from any number of events which will happen as the industry cycles through hiring and furloughing, frenzy and stagnation, high and low, prosperity and shrinkage. It might be aviation maintenance, computers, or whatever else you can do and can earn a living doing, but most of us who have been around for very long understand that aviation is a dangerous basket in which to place all of ones eggs.
During a particular downturn, some years ago, I was furloughed. I found work almost immediately, turning wrenches in a small 135 operation's in-house shop. Over the coming days and weeks, as the furloughs rapidly spread, airline pilot after airline pilot stopped by the hangar to ask for work. When they found it was available, but would involve getting dirty and turning wrenches in the shop, they balked, turned up their noses and drifted away. It wasn't long before they came back, this time hat in hand, willing to take anything, but by then, the work was gone, and there was nothing to offer. The shop work led to doing some company charter and instruction, then work as a check airman, and building a training program. It paid the bills for my family, kept me current and kept me going. Many of my fellow furloughees went on unemployment, initially, which is something, but scarcely enough to feed a house cat. Aviation can be a great career with some high earning potential in the right arena, but it can also leave you high and dry; don't let the music stop without you having brought your own chair to the party.