I was 24 when I first started learning to fly. Due to lack of funds, and some other delays, it took me four years and 46 hours total. On that basis I would say that it is entirely possible to spread out your learning. I have two pieces of advice for you. The first is that there tends to be a natural acceleration towards the end, since Nav trips tend to be longer than circuit bashing. Bear this in mind when budgeting.The second is that if you aren't flying too often, as a newbie, one of the best things I did was to hang out at the club on weekends. There is a considerable amount of flying done in the bar, some of it b.s., but a lot of it things that were worth learning about. Plus there were occasional opportunities to pax as self-loading baggage for trips etc, all of which helped me to keep "current" even when I wasn't flying. Enjoy!