Well now begorrah.
Me eyes are all bleary after reading every post on all 14 pages... sad or wha ??
Anyway, I'm no more enlightened really than before I started as only one poster did a 'before' and 'after' sort of thing, and it wasn't a happy ending either !
I'm 45 next month. I have only about 140h TT PPL.
Recently been toying with the idea of progressing to ATPL standard and all that goes with it... still toying !
Perhaps I shall just take pleasure in funding the flying dream of one offspring instead, like so many people here wished for.
That way I can get the enjoyment without the work and will be financing a longer career hopefully... and I can look forward to 'payback' day when they are in LHS of a big heavy !