In my personal opinion CommutAir is a great place to be right now. Starting pay is $30/hour now with an upgrade around 2 years (+/- a few months now because of lack of FOs) and our commuter clause now allows you to receive hotels in base paid for by the company. My opinion might be biased because I've never worked for anyone else but I can tell you that right now I am happy with my job and the pilot group is GREAT!

not even mainline has that clause for hotel rooms.

1st off, I'm at SKW.
2nd, I live in base.
3rd, Soft credit is king. Find it where ever possible.
4th, I have a life. I have a wife and kid at home, and being home is #1. I don't do 3 or 4 day trips. Mostly 2days, CDOs, and locals.
5th, as long as the credit is there and it's totally commutable, I'll pick up an out of base trip. ONLY when I want it. Otherwise, commuting sucks.
6th, always be on the lookout for Jr.Man.
7th, I was home EVERY day last month, doing CDOs only. Got paid 119hrs, blocked 53.

I credited over 1250hrs last year, and blocked just shy of 700.
Averaged over 105h/month pay, blocked around 60h/month.

Pick a base where your seniority works for you, live in it. Don't walk by a penny on the ground without picking it up.
You can do fine. Not easy to modify a schedule the way I do, but learn all the rules, and it pays dividends.

Your earning potential depends on your payrate (obviously) and much of it on your seniority, which you may have luck with or not. In my opinion the figures that have been posted so far are not a proper indicator of typical regional FO pay, and are definitely the top-end of the spectrum. Possible, sure, not claiming the guys here are making it up. But IMO and experience you really have to be putting in the extra effort and sacrifices to get there, and also require a bit of luck in finding the right trips, lots of it is company dependent how flexible you can be.

i am slightly confused. 12 years and 3000 TT but $3-$5k a month on $55/hr?

I free lance. Sometimes I have students and sometimes I don't. $3-$5k is an average.

I also took couple years off in the middle.

YOUR SITUATIONS IS NOT TYPICAL. You are in the top 10% of regional pilots. This is like some fotune 500 guys saying "It's normal to have a private jet and a yacht. Everyone has one."

I fly similar equipment under the control of the same CEO as you and I have seen 200% once in 7 years. I have tried and the most I have ever credited was 107 hours. That was like 99hrs block. Many airlines do not support soft time as much as you make it sound like.

If a guy is asking a question because finances may be important to him, at least have the modesty to tell him the truth. Not brag about your seriously lucky situation.

How many of these guys are also counting per diem as income?

Also, living in base could also suck if you hate the area, which may make you hate your job. Commuting sucks and may make you hate your job too. I guess you gotta do what you think is right. Regionals close bases a fast as they open. For the longest time xjt only had bases in iah, cle, ewr. I tried living in iah for about 6 months and wanted to slit my wrists. I became happier when I started commuting 3 hours. I'm probably the odd man out but I'd rather commute and deal with commuting bs vs living in base for a company you don't plan on staying at.

OK that's great and is far from normal. Out of curiosity, where do you bid in your base? I would guess top 3rd?

I made decent money as an FO and CA at a commuter.

It's true, some months I worked well into my days off. You have to, to get the soft pay. At $120/hr I would've worked 24/7 if I legally could. But how much does the guy working as a CFI have to work to credit 100 hours a month? Way more than a regional pilot that is for sure. Perspective.