Perhaps one of the most important things that many of you need to learn is that taking advice from those in the same position as yourself is a bit pointless! You need to listen to those who have been thriough the system and experienced both the highs and the lows, the successes and failures, and have learned how to deal with them. Speculation from other wannabes is interesting, but often not helpful.
You need a back up plan because, very often, life doesn't work out the way you want it to. Even if things do work out, it might take a great deal longer than you'd anticipated to get that first paid flying job, and you need to earn a living in the meantime. You may, like thousands of type-rated ATPL-qualified pilots in 2001, lose your flying job at a time when there are none to be had elsewhere yet you have a 100k mortgage and wife (or husband) and two kids to support. These things really happen to real people, and it's a safe bet that at least 50% of you will suffer prolonged unemployment at some point in your flying career.
So back-up plans are important. I don't care whether it's a degree or a plumbing course; just make sure you are able to earn a living some other way. The number of pilots who make it to full-term retirement without needing some kind of back-up is very small.
Scroggs