Well, my wife and I were fortunate to have made 'decent' combined money for four years or so before I resigned from the airline to go back to school. So, right now I am in school full time (more than full time, actually, took 17 credit hours in the spring, and am taking 10 in the summer) to finish my CPA. Accordingly, my income stream is very low right now - but my wife is making nearly enough to support us and the rest is coming out of accumulated savings and we are debt free (except the house). So, when the CPA is done, I'll easily be making enough money to buy an airplane - at least a 150, but ideally, I'd rather go with a Decathlon or something - but that will probably be down the road further.

One of my students right now has a C150 and in exchange for my teaching him, he gives me access to the airplane whenever I want to fly it, just for the cost of gas. So, its the next best thing to airplane ownership - some could argue its better. If something breaks, then HE pays for it, not me!

However, once he gets his license, unless we extend the agreement somehow, this opportunity will dry up and I'll need to find something else. I am not a big fan of dropping $80/hour to a flight school to rent their airplane. I'd rather spend $100/hr with my own airplane.