Paying to Finish
 

Well I'm kind of at a financial crossroads with training and would appreciate any suggestions. I'm in my early 30's, single, no kids, an associates degree and plan to finish my Bachelor's at some point. I have about 310TT, Inst. rating, and am close to finishing my Commercial.

My question is; how should I pay to finish my Comm. SEL and multi training? Use quite a bit of my savings, roughly $20K, to avoid the debt or obtain a loan, probably around $8-12K, in order to have the funds for things such as a house down payment (at some point), relocating for that first low paying flying job😃 (or first few), emergency funds, finishing my four year degree, savings to build on, etc.?

Rule number one of being a pilot, don’t ask other pilots for financial advice.
Other than that do what your gut is telling you, if want to get a loan to keep your savings in tact that is fine. But finish as fast as you can to start building hours towards a job that will allow you to pay it back.

Thanks, I appreciate that. My gut goes back and forth. But finishing as fast as possible and building hours any way I can is definitely my main priority.

I'm always against loans if you have the cash. I would go with the cash. It can't take too much money to finish up your commercial, especially since it sounds like you're nearly finished. Plus multi? Maybe another $4k? A loan now just so you can "save" your cash, on probably unfavorable terms, is probably not the best idea.

What's the plan after that? What kind of job are you looking into? And if you plan on ending up at a major airline, your 4 year degree can be completed while you're at a regional.

Yeah, I've always tried to avoid any major amounts of debt. I just need training for the maneuvers and oral exam prep for my Commercial plus I've got about two thousand to pay for previous aircraft rental for time building.

I don't have one specific career path in mind but I definitely want to fly alot more than 200-400 hours per year which it sounds like alot of corporate pilots max out at so that might not be the route for me. Regionals seem like the best way to eventually gain the coveted jet PIC time and my plan would indeed be to finish my degree during that time.

At this point I feel like I'm still looking in from the outside when it comes to really understanding the different types flying careers so I'm still open to most options.

Surveying is definitely appealing as a first job for time building assuming I can't luck into that unicorn King Air right seat job that's actually loggable.

If you go the survey route, you'll need your multi before starting the job if you want to move up into one of the twins. I'm at one of the survey companies now and moved into an Aztec after 5 months. And obviously you'll need your multi for a regional, but only 25 hours.

If you think you want to get your CFI, you can probably get your multi from your school at a discounted rate. But then again, you'd be spending more up front for the CFI training. CFIs are needed pretty much everywhere though.

I plan on getting my multi right aft my Commercial. That's awesome you moved up after five months. Do you know if there's any hiring going on at your company? I know I missed peak hiring season for alot of the companies.

Finish earning your BS degree!

That is a part of my plan, for sure.