2 years with loan or 6 years playing safe.
Hi everyone. I really really need your piece of advise. I live in Portugal and I'm currently 33 years old (turning 34 later this year). I've longed for becoming a pilot since I was 15 but life sure made sure I wouldn't get it easy. 18 years later here I am and the dream is yet to be fulfilled.
Now, here's the thing. With my current job I'm making 950 after taxes and paying for my expenses so I can only save around 800 bucks a month (and that's living of 150 bucks a month). Because of some personal situations in my live I currently only have 5k saved. Here in Portugal the course runs for 70-75k. I have a steady job but I pretty much hate it. With this said I have two options.
Ask for a loan to a bank to give me the 70k which would probably make me able to get the full course in under 2 years so I would be 35 once I finished it. But then, even if I kept saving as I'm doing I would still be 50k in debt which, if I didn't get a job right away it would put me in an awful situation, and to that we can add maybe another 30k for a type rating if I landed a job at a company.
My other option is to do this the modular way which would take me probably around 6 years, and I would end with no debt to a bank, and even if I had to ask for a loan for the type it would be around 30k not 80k left.
My only fear with this route is that I'll be finishing my ATPL Frozen close to 40 years old, so maybe by the. I won't be so hirable. I don't mind lading a job at a low cost, but this 950 bucks a month life won't cut it forever.
I'm lucky enough that I have a room where to sleep and food because I work in the military but I don't even have my own house and I feel like I'm stuck doing a job I hate.
A friend of mine took the chance and he was lucky enough to land a job at Hi-Fly within less than 6 months but I feel that it is too risky because I may end up not having enough to pay back the bank and not having enough to ask for a new loan for a type rating so I would end up in debt and unable to secure a job as a pilot.
I seriously thought about setting up a fund raise action of sorts.. after all, all it would take is for 70000 people to tip in with 1 buck... I know it sounds ridiculous, but I'm getting kinda desperate here. Anyway, no one would tip me to get my license, so I'm not even going there. I'm barely able to sleep at night over worrying about this.
With my work schedule in the military I'm not able to get a second job, so that option is a no go as well.
I hope you and your experience can point me in the right direction.