Having started myself at late age, I have a couple of inputs and advice. One thing we know when we start is that time is against us. You should seriously consider very well where you do your CPL and IR training, Spain does not have the best reputation for this.
I will use UK prices, and one more thing you probably should disregard are the minimum hours requirement, this does not always work out for us older guys, and is just the legal minimum hours required, there will be many factors that will push these number upwards, weather, aircraft, airfields etc.
I can only quote you on UK prices, however I did have one big advantage when I started, I had already had a PPL from 1992, expired, but meant I would still keep my hours from that time, and I was able to fly a reduced program.
I would say doing it modular is smart way of doing it.
PPL is budget at the school I attended to £6250, so to have some safety margin for landing fees etc. put it at an equal £7000.
In addition add time needed for the theory for the PPL, normally self study. Not sure how it is in Spain with exams, but in the UK was fairly easy, could go and do 1 exam as soon as you was ready for that topic, in other countries I know you have to do all the exams in one day.
Then you need to do your hour building, and main point is to get 100 hours PIC, again depending where you are this might take a little longer then first calculated. But you are looking at around £9000 for these hours in a C152, incl. landing fees and extras. I would think you would spend around 3 - 6 months on this, if in UK it can be pretty bad weather.
Then you must start your ATPL theory, you can do some of that during your hour building, but it is hard, specially if you have family. During my ATPL's I think I had 2 hours flying during that 6 month period, I went full time, not distance learning.
I think this is probably going to be the hardest and most time consuming part of your training. You can choose between distance learning or full time course, I chose full time in the end, as distance learning was not practical, having a newborn baby and a business to run.
It took me 6 months to complete all 14 exams, we was 2 in the class that was older, the other one was 50, and I was that time 40, we all did first time pass, and actually was the 2 best in class averaging all the exam results, I think his average was 96 or 97%, and mine was 95%. There was another guy who had similar scores in his late 20's, the rest did firstly not do first time passes, and had relatively low averages.
So it proves age does have a few advantages.
This will cost you around £3000 with study material, Bristol GS is good, do any of your ATPL's in the UK, and you must do your CPL/IR in the UK.
I think distance learning will at least take you 12 months to complete, while if you do attend a full time course, they will have you done in 7 months.
It is not difficult, just massive amounts of stuff to learn.
Pretty basic concepts, maths and physics, nothing to be worried about in that sense.
Some mind blowing stuff in Navigation and Precession and Gyros, but a few Red Bulls will straighten that out for you.
Went full time, 6 hours class room + 2 to 4 hours self study at home every day.
Last 10 days before exams, was up to 16 hours a day revising, expect your wife to want to burn your ATPL books several times during this course.
When these are passed, you are ready to go, CPL takes you a month, probably cost you around £7500 all incl. (also CAA exam fees)
Multi engine is done in a week, around £3000.
And then starts the fun bit, the IR, which will take you between 2 to 4 months, depending on weather and your ability. Will cost you around £15.000.
You will see all flight schools advertising these things cheaper, but forget those prices, they are guidelines, and probably if you are 24 and have a very sharp brain, you will do your IR in the minimum hours, but it is better to make sure you get first time pass, and spend an extra £1000.
Also from my 170 to my test, it took around 6 weeks, due to holidays, weather, so you need to assume the worst.
Then you do your MCC, which I actually found the most interesting of all courses, and also one of the hardest courses, no exams, but it showed you what you are really getting yourself into. Around 2 weeks, and prices around £2500
It took me exactly on the date 2 years from I passed my PPL until I got my IR. And I think it is not easy to do it much faster than that.
Add the numbers together:
PPL : £7000
Hours: £9000
ATPL: £3500 (books and exam fees in addition to the course)
CPL: £7500
ME: £3000
IR: £15000
MCC: £2500
So you are looking at around £50.000 to be able to start any typerating course or to look for work. Of course if you just want to do flight instructing you can stop at CPL stage, and just do a FIC course instead of ME IR MCC, FIC course is approx. £7000, and takes about 2 - 3 months.
If you do distance learning on your ATPL's I think you have to calculate at least 12 months to complete the ATPL's, I know guys and they struggled to do distance learning less then 12 months, it is possible, but not easy.
The way I see it, you will probably spend 9 months to do your PPL and hour building, the rest of the flight training probably within maximum 5 months. So you have the rest of time used for ATPL's.
TR is another discussion, with the above and even a TR, don't expect anybody to give us a job on a Learjet until you have some more hours.