Career Change Advice

nkoenig

nkoenig

New Member
Hi guys..and gals...

I'm having trouble with a decision and was wanting some input from anyone.
So here goes...

I'm 26 married no kids(yet) halfway thru my PPL. I've always wanted to fly kind of grew up around it my uncle flys for UPS my dad worked for a wealthy family that has a flight dept and i know the pilots pretty well. I currently make a good living but am soo burned out its ridiculous and I am ready for a change. I just bought a new house and if I continue to work where im at I will have it paid off in 4 yrs. What makes this difficult is over a 30 yr period I'd save over 150K in intrest. My wife is 100% supportive to chng. My question is should I quit my job and jump into aviation now or pay my house first? Is 30 too late to start or is it to my advantage to start now?

Thanks guys
 
nkoenig said:
Hi guys..and gals...

I'm having trouble with a decision and was wanting some input from anyone.
So here goes...

I'm 26 married no kids(yet) halfway thru my PPL. I've always wanted to fly kind of grew up around it my uncle flys for UPS my dad worked for a wealthy family that has a flight dept and i know the pilots pretty well. I currently make a good living but am soo burned out its ridiculous and I am ready for a change. I just bought a new house and if I continue to work where im at I will have it paid off in 4 yrs. What makes this difficult is over a 30 yr period I'd save over 150K in intrest. My wife is 100% supportive to chng. My question is should I quit my job and jump into aviation now or pay my house first? Is 30 too late to start or is it to my advantage to start now?

Thanks guys
Click to expand...
My advice would be to finish paying off the house while working through all of your ratings and getting established in the industry. You will be going to an entry level position when you switch careers (there's an understatement!), and the more secure your financial footing when you make the move, the better.

30 is not too late to make the move. Lots of people here (moi included) made the switch much, much later than that.
 
enter aviation because you really want to pursue it, NOT BECUASE YOU ARE BURNED OUT of your present job. Whatever about your present job you are burned out over, trust me... even the most pleasing aviation job might trump those blues :):)
 
If you think you're going to be staying in that paid off house during your flying career, forget it. In order to get ahead in a flying career you have to be willing and able to relocate when that next job becomes available.

Dont know what to tell you as far as job switching. I was tired of my original job, left it to pursue flying, and am now back working a desk and happier than ever. Of course I get to fly jump seat on twin aisle flight tests now as a flight test engineer so the job could be worse. :-)You will become tired of flying evenutually and it becomes like any other job, a job. Add constant instability and job dependant medicals and you're constantly living on the edge of a knife. But some live for that level of excitement, so to each his/her own. Like bluelake said, definately dont do it if you're just "looking for a change." Do it cause you love flying and you can't imagine doing anything else.
 
braidkid said:
If you think you're going to be staying in that paid off house during your flying career, forget it. In order to get ahead in a flying career you have to be willing and able to relocate when that next job becomes available..
Click to expand...
yeah.. but he's not going to be going to a "job" for a while until he finishes all the ratings...so he has a while yet!

I'd say pay off that house! cuz you can work on your ratings on the side as you go (not full time), pay off the house and then at least those bills will be taken care of cuz all you'll need to do are maintenance and taxes which takes off a lot of burden...

then, when your ready to sell and move, it's all equity baby!! all equity!!

if you can pay off the house in 4 years...that's nothing compared to move of us who still have over 10 years to pay off...
 
Kristie said:
yeah.. but he's not going to be going to a "job" for a while until he finishes all the ratings...so he has a while yet!

I'd say pay off that house! cuz you can work on your ratings on the side as you go (not full time), pay off the house and then at least those bills will be taken care of cuz all you'll need to do are maintenance and taxes which takes off a lot of burden...

then, when your ready to sell and move, it's all equity baby!! all equity!!

if you can pay off the house in 4 years...that's nothing compared to move of us who still have over 10 years to pay off...
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info guys and gals
I think i will pay it off and get my ratings on the side.
 
Thanks for the info guys and gals
I think i will pay it off and get my ratings on the side.
Click to expand...

i wish i had a house.....

hey what part of texas are you in and/or where are you flying
 
Kristie said:
if you can pay off the house in 4 years...that's nothing compared to move of us who still have over 10 years to pay off...
Click to expand...

I dream of the day that I have just 10 years to pay off. The wife and I just moved into our house with a 30 year mortgage
 
Im 32. I work as a Sales and Marketing exec for a media company and I have always wanted to be a pilot since I can remember. My father was a pilot for a few majors. He retired as a 767 Captain 8 years ago and pretty much flew everything from an Intruder in the Navy to a 747. I got caught up in wanting to make money in the business world and lost track of what I really wanted to do which was fly planes like my old man. I have finally decided that I would rather make no money flying planes then making 60k a year seeing the same things every day. To me this transition will be worth every second. I have no real flight time at all and only a few years of college. I recently sat right seat with my father on an A318-321 motion simulator and that is what sealed the deal for me. I dont ever expect to be a CA or and FO on an Airbus or Boeing but I will fly something for a living. Its a much nicer office to be in as far as I'm concerned and he told me as long as you hold the faith over the expectations of flying for a living you can accomplish it. Glamor or no glamor, sieze the day.
 
nkoenig said:
Hi guys..and gals...

I'm having trouble with a decision and was wanting some input from anyone.
So here goes...

I'm 26 married no kids(yet) halfway thru my PPL. I've always wanted to fly kind of grew up around it my uncle flys for UPS my dad worked for a wealthy family that has a flight dept and i know the pilots pretty well. I currently make a good living but am soo burned out its ridiculous and I am ready for a change. I just bought a new house and if I continue to work where im at I will have it paid off in 4 yrs. What makes this difficult is over a 30 yr period I'd save over 150K in intrest. My wife is 100% supportive to chng. My question is should I quit my job and jump into aviation now or pay my house first? Is 30 too late to start or is it to my advantage to start now?

Thanks guys
Click to expand...


Unless it's the house you intend to stay in 'till you die, you are better off just making the payments. You are using leverage by using the smallest amount possible of your assets (cash) to control an asset worth far more than you have tied up in it. If you want to see how it works look at your rate of return if you paid cash for a $100k house that you then sell for 130k in 5 years.

Now figure your rate of return on the same house where you have only the 10-20% down payment and 60 monthly payments invested. You made the same profit with less of your assets tied up. There is a breakeven at some point where the interest you pay overcomes that advantange of leverage, but since it's unlikely that someone your age will stay put(especially if you want to fly for a living), there is no reason to tie up your available cash in your house. You'd likely be better off investing the "excess cash" in a diversified stock portfolio.
 
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