To start sooner rather than later?
Hi all,
I was hoping I could receive from guidance from anyone who may have been in a similar situation to myself or even some general pointers as they would be much appreciated. Essentially, I'm not sure if I should start my training with a decent chunk (a third) of money saved or to wait till I've saved the overwhelming majority and to then start training.
I'm currently a 20 year old working in an Accountancy firm on a higher level apprenticeship. The pay is relatively decent and by the end of 2020, I should have around £20k saved and I think this will cover off a PPL, ATPL Theory and some of the Hours Building. I will continue to work whilst training and therefore able to continue to save money however, I can't help but think, I'll most likely burn through the £20k and then I may need to stop/start to save for the CPL/ME/IR and I'm assuming the lack of continuity will naturally hinder my development. However, if I wait till I'm around 26-27, I should hopefully be qualified with an ACA and consequently able to save up around £60k which will hopefully cover off the overwhelming majority of my training. One of the reasons I would like to start a PPL relatively soon is aside from my desire to do so, I've attended a cadet program assessment day in the past for Aer Lingus, they had questioned why I hadn't commenced on my flying lessons and consequently not really shown a commitment to aviation yet which was fair enough. I'm not implying this is the reason why I did not get in, as every candidate I met there was highly talented and I'm sure they picked the best ones although it was a valid point. However, I can imagine that if I did get a PPL and then decide to stop there for a few years until I had enough for an CPL/ME/IR there would be regular ongoing costs to maintain my PPL which wouldn't be efficient as I'd much rather use that money to develop further
Any advice/personal anecdotes you may have would be much appreciated.