Originally Posted by
Illini
So...we'll actually assume 8 dollars an hour. 15,360 a year minus rent...~600 a month, plus a car...(we will assume you bought it in HS with some hard earned money), plus utilities...~120 dollars, plus insurance for that car....~ 80 dollar a month and finally food...~250 a month and we aren't adding clothes, health insurance, or other unforseen expenses and entertainment whatever that may be. Minimum = ~1050 per month. That is a lot for 8 dollars an hour. 15,360-12,600=2760 This is the maximum you are able to save per year. Nobody would be able to save that. You would have to save that for at least 7 to 8 years for the down payment and then after that you would have to be able to make the morgage payments. Now maybe your making 12 an hour after working so hard for that company after 7-8 years. You are now making 23,060 a year. That still won't cover the morgage plus everything else. Furthermore, I forgot that your beater car you saved so much for in High School decided not to run one day and you have to go get a loan for a newer used car. Now you have to either a. use all that money you saved up or b. go get a loan that will be about 400 a month.
End result = go to college and study something you love to do. Yeah, those first couple of years might be rough but it will eventually pay off.
Now I have go back to the couch and watch ESPN on my day off.
I am comparing apples to apples. You keep mixing data in attempts of proving to yourself that you are correct.
What I am saying that if all variables were equal and you were to be given or financed through a loan the amount required for a four year college education and pilot training (150K) you would be much better off (financially) to place the money into a stable investment.
I use minimum wage as a comparison since it is easily attainable and good to use as a baseline. Now if you were to strive for a higher position like union construction worker it would blow the college + aviation option totally out of the water.
My mathematics prove that it is very difficult for a flying career to justify the cost of training and education. At best it will take most of 20 years to reach a break even point. One
must expect to be hired on at one of the few remaining good airlines while in their 30's in order to have much hope at all.
It seems to me that most discipline choices one can make in college are financially a loosing proposition. We have a group of friends with whom we socialize with. The poorest of the bunch are the highest educated. The richest owns a small three man asphalt paving company. He never completed high school.
I know that my ideas are old fashioned but when my generation started out we all expected to earn a better incomes than if we had not made the effort. The younger set I understand flies for the simple joy of it. I can not even begin to assess a value to that, but I hope it is worth it to you.
SKyHigh