Originally Posted by
Ewfflyer
I make less than $50k, support myself, my wife, and putting her through another 2 yrs of college. I rent a house, have her 04' car payments, mines paid for, I own 2 motorcycles, college loan payment, and I've been on 3 small-ish vacations this year, plus already put down money on a Vegas vacation this winter. We're seriously looking at a house(about $200k+ range) in the next 9 months as we have a very nice savings that can easily be used for down-payment and what's left will supplement on the mortgage payments until she graduates in May.
It's not just about the "amount" of money you make, it's about how you spend it. I don't go buying stuff just because. Everything I buy has to be able to be paid for in short order.
So I guess that whole not making any financial sense thing must not be working for me. Then again, I don't work for an airline either, and I'm home most nights, wife just went with me last week down to FL for recurrent training, and our business has actually picked up recently.....go figure.
I am glad that it works out for you. Everyone has a different situation. My point is that college and flight training costs around 150K plus the lost years it takes to get there. Some could get all that for less but that is the number from my local university flight program.
50K is just not enough to justify the investment. I am glad that you are happy with it though. I however went into aviation so that I could have a better life than if I hadn't. The American dream usually includes a spouse, 2.3 kids (a stay at home parent), house, retirement and middle class lifestyle or better. It takes a lot of money to be able to support all that fully.
All things being equal, when evaluating aviation as a career choice most people who examine the costs must hold the expectation of a quick career progression to SWA or UPS after college simply top be able to afford the student loans. When the reality of the average career return is to hopefully make plumber wages one day while living in a big city then the logic stream falls apart.
It sounds like you have found a good situation for yourself. At this point if there was a similar deal that I could do in my home town that paid 50K I would probably do it. I have already blown my money and have wasted my years building experience. To those who are just starting out however it would not be a good idea to blow the money in education and training to hopefully make 50K one day.
SkyHigh