I've been following this thread from the sidelines with quite a bit of interest since it seems to pertain to a lot of people. The world is full of cheerleaders telling you to follow your dreams. My dreams tend to be filled with unclothed cuties, and I don't recall a helicopter in even one dream. Don't get me wrong, I love flying, and as much as I enjoy flying airplanes, flying helicopters makes flying fixed-wing seem boring by comparison. And I find it incredulous that there are a lot of people making a living at something that I find so enjoyable.
There seems to be a lot of people that get to our age and are tired of the job they dread driving to every morning and want a career change so that they can start enjoying more of their time. 50% of your waking hours are at work so I can't fault anyone for wanting to do something (s)he enjoys. With that said, I hope no one faults Steve76 for his comments because I'm sure much of what he said is true. But more importantly if someone CAN be discouraged from taking the leap they SHOULD be. You'll find a lot of folks cheering you on to quit your job and take up a new career as a pilot. And a lot of them laughing at people that do and fail. I've talked with enough career pilots, most of whom like what they do but are adamant that it isn't for the fainthearted. Even around the hangar here I've discovered that helicopter pilots carry some of the largest egos on two feet, so I can't imagine how bad it gets in the real world.
At this point I'm finishing up my CPL and working toward my IR, then on to CFI, just for fun really. As much as I think I would enjoy turning it into a career I can't disrupt my family, as they've gotten used to seeing my ugly face every night. And I'm kinda fond of seeing them every night. I'm slowly building hours, and while it's not likely, if an opportunity should arise one day I won't be grumbling "if only I'd prepared myself". But I'm having a helluva time with my training and it keeps me distracted from my day job enough.