Trades
 

Those professions are in decline just like pilots. Besides I wouldn't call those trades; Plumber, electrician, heavy equipment drivers are all real trades. You can find a job in almost any town. You will never see an outsourced police officer job.

SKyhigh

I'm a lawyer and my pasty looking white guy of a husband is in a Teamster blue collar trade. I am overedumacated and he has a degree in Street Smarts. He makes more money than I do. A lot more. Maybe it's the company I keep, but my Capt. Alaska is doing really well too. Regardless, I am not sorry I spent so much time in school and have so many frames hanging on the walls.

Times are changing, a degree is not what it once was. Degrees are for employees. It dosen't take a degree to learn how to organize a company and have those with degrees work for you. The hard part is getting the money to invest. Hard, but possible.

Skyhigh,

I don't know what job you do, or what business you own, but it sure must be very unsuccessful if you can afford to waste countless hours of your day on this forum, posting utter nonsense, without worrying about opportunity costs......;)

He just likes to crap in everybody's cornflakes. He's posted his story on here a couple times. Basically he bailed on horizon and went to National with the hopes of fast upgrade. He got burned on it, and now comes on here to tell us how truely "happy" he is being out of the airlines every day and how we're fools for continuing in this industry.

Skyhigh, the trades I listed are specialized trades. The problems you always seem to list about the aviation industry are no different than any other profession. The standard of living for the average American is declining. Management salaries are skyrocketing, yet employee salaries aren't increasing at a rate that can keep up with the likes of inflation, healthcare, etc. The loss of pay, increased hours and reduction of bennefits are commonplace in every workplace today.

He must have missed out on the alcohol consumption and copulation with strangers... :D

Number one, 150k is way too high. If you spend that much, you are either 1) your parents have too much money to burn, or 2) you went to some incredibly expensive college and FBO. I would say 100k tops, and at least 2/3 of that should be college expenses, not flight training.

That lowers it to about $1,000,000. Now we have to remember that inflation grows at a rate of about 3%+ a year, so that cuts it almost in half again to around $500,000. Divide that over your 40 year career, and you could make $12,500 a year......

Or you can go to college and make a lot more.
I will let you decide on that one.

No balls, no baby: That's what I like to say. It's so true. Most people don't want to cross that line. There's safety on one side, uncertainty on the other. Most people don't take that step. And it's not even so much that they're afraid to take the step; it's that they know deep down that they didn't do the work necessary to be prepared, and that's the big difference. Most people think, Oh, I have a great idea, and the only thing missing is that I don't have the connections, I don't have the access to money. But that's the biggest bunch of bull****. The minute anyone says that to me, I know they're a failure. Because if you're prepared and you know what it takes, it's not a risk. You just have to figure out how to get there. There is always a way to get there.
-Mark Cuban

You have no clue as to how time value of money works.

My Point
 

The end results are that as a pilot you start out 150K in the hole and then launch into a career that pays less than a mailman. Their is little hope of being able to dig yourself out unless you start out earning a very good paycheck.

You are right in 30 years 1 million may not mean all that much, but it is more than you will have than if you had spent a career as a pilot.

SkyHigh

where in the hell are you getting this 150K figure??? Anyone who pays that much is stupid enough that they would probably be in poverty anyways, regardless of what they're doing.

Try 35-40K. Now, with a realistic figure like that, how many houses that cost 35-40K are you going to buy? Trailers don't appreciate in value very well last time I checked.Maybe a timeshare in Panama City?

You're also assuming that someone is going to keep paying that loan down over 20 years. If someone gets on with a major, do you think they're going to continue paying interest + principal payments on that flight training loan for 15 years more? Doubt it. If I'm making 60-90K/yr as an FO at a major, you bet your arse I'm paying that entire loan balance off in 12 months. So there goes your comparison to investing that money.

Anyways, your 1.6 million figure doesn't mean crap if you didn't a) have flight training or b) have a college degree that would allow you to get a job and pay for food and utilities for that 35 years. How many banks out there will loan 150K to a high school graduate, even for a home? You're comparison assumes the individual can make ends meet for 35 years to see that money, without having to withdraw anything to pay bills.