Forced retirement 65 - What's time worth
 

You will turn 65 in 2050.
Assume your last two years paid $250,000/yr in 2019 dollars.
You are a ready to take ATP but for lack of time.
Are you losing ~$500,000 from career earnings if it takes you 2 years to build your 1500 hours?

Options:

1. Fly 135 or CFI and wait two years and hope airlines are still hiring
2. Pay $70,000 over 10 years and have XC 1500 hrs in 4 months from today

You might not have two years at the top if you spend 70k to go fly around. You might have 70k debt and a busted 121/ATP ride though. Go get a CFI, go fly 135 PIC from 1200-1500hrs and then go 121. Focus on today and getting that passed

I would think that only very desperate employers would hire someone who paid 70K to fly around for leisure over a CFI or Part 135 guy

You might be able to do the math on excel and make a case for spending the money now.

But there's significant time-value of money... that $70K could in theory be put to better use over 30 years.

Also given potential uncertainties (industry, economy, health, etc) it's hard to put a certain dollar value on those last two years. Although it's probably a lot more than $250K/year if all goes well... that's FO pay at many legacies.

Get CFI and CFII and find a busy flight school to work at. You should be able to fly 100 hours a month.