Not married, no kids, I'm paying as I go at the moment so no debt for CPL at least. My job pays well but when I eventually start flying twins and paying for an instrument rating, maybe a small loan will be in order. Will see how I'm travelling then.
Want to do: Don't know for sure and I'm unsure how I can know that yet. I'd like to be an airline pilot eventually but I figure that'll change several times over the years to come.
Restrictions: No medical conditions. Physically fit, healthy, Class 1 medical from CASA, clean criminal record, etc. My former life granted me a security clearance so federally I'm clean too. Anything else I should be aware of?
Pay: No real figures in mind. I gather it's better to have a figure in mind when applying for jobs though? I'm not expecting awesome pay (first flying job is likely to earn less than half what I do now) but at the same time, I don't want to be taken advantage of by an operator who is just looking to screw pilots.
I guess I'm trying to be realistic about how to progress through this whole thing but, as I'm not a professional pilot, I don't know what 'realistic' is yet. I have a few mates doing well, one has almost finished his ATPL subjects, has been flying for 9 years, instructing for about 3 of those, he's done some charter flying, etc. But the career path seems pretty individualised with some general trends, I guess.
What can I say? I'm a flying n00b and just getting a feel for what's out there.