I'll have enough assets/cash to comfortably retire before 50, all paid for by aviation. Be smart and almost any job will pay the bills. Don't waste time doing something you don't like, then it really is a chore and a job. Most in the industry I see spend tens of thousands on holidays every year, buy expensive cars, if that's the way you want to live, well so be it. But if you are borrowing to live that lifestyle its costing double what it would if you budgeted correctly and are patient in your wealth creation, even if that debt is using the mortgage low rates. Each to their own, but Aviation will pay for a good middle class lifestyle and that's without even being high ranked in QF or VA. TBH I spend more time at home than most 9-5ers, so even the time away is not that bad. If you don't enjoy the pilot lifestyle, then quite probably you chose the wrong job, its not the pay and conditions dragging you down, its doing something that you really don't want to do that's hurting. If my kids want to become pilots, I'd back them 100%, but they don't, so its academic.