Some actress famously said words to the effect of "I have been rich and I have been poor - rich is better".
Most flying short of maybe combat eventually becomes routine and then boring.
Where airline pilots often go wrong is they get hooked on the big money, buy the mansion overlooking the harbour, his and hers matching Beemers and a gas guzzling gin palace power boat. Then they get caught shagging some hostie (sorry flight attendant) and the missus takes off with all the goodies and they are stuffed. They can't afford to step off the treadmill.
By maintaining a modest lifestyle (and not getting caught shagging the aforementioned) you can make airline flying work for you.
You have put in the hard yards to get so far, so maybe you need to take the attitude of not what you can do for aviation, but what aviation can do for you.
Later, if you really miss flying, you can buy yourself a bugsmasher and play at it all you like.
Last edited by Mach E Avelli; 6th Dec 2012 at 05:09.