Originally Posted by
crewdawg
Great way to budget! Back when rona started, I remember flying with guys who were freaking out because they "had" to make 85 hours/month as a WB B to maintain their budget. I hoped I'd never end up in that situation. I upgraded for the same reason as you...less days for the same/more pay, plus spending more time in my own bed. I also like being able to drop reserve days below the min days on, which I could never do on the WB. Severely .
I am in the middle of buying my "not a reservist flying king airs" house now.
Due to two years of "hearing thunder in the distance" I was able to get qualified for almost 3x what I'm actually buying.
The owner of Trident Mortgage (highly recommend them by the way. Super awesome to work with and they understand how our pay works) and I talked, and basically agreed that I'd probably end up in the range I bought even though I wss pre-approved for way more based on last two years of W2s.
While I could buy something way bigger, I wanted to live comfortably on 72 hours a month while putting 10% in retirement. But if some insanity house where I could move parents into an inlaw suite popped, we were good to go on that.
House in VA was bought so I could survive on O3 pay if another involuntary mobilization happened.
I have more money as a "do ALV and go home" Captain than a fairly contract savvy hustling FO.
And if the greenies roll? Well that's how I maxed out every retirement account, paid off my camper, and put 23k in the MBCBP