buying sim time
I would strongly caution against paying for any time in a jet simulator prior to CTC selection. It is simply not necessary, and is, in my opinion, a complete waste of money. During Phase 4, as has been stated many times before in this thread, the instructor is not in the slightest bit interested by whether or not you can actually fly the 737 perfectly; they are purely looking for your ability to take on new information and learn from mistakes, improving throughout the sortie. This could be referred to as "trainability". They are assessing whether or not you will be able to cope with the relatively steep learning curve that can seem almost vertical when you start your MEIR!