You buy a rating or buy a rating + hours you waste your money for sure.
Job market completely over crowed, every job that gets listed HR are inundated with applications so much so that the good guys are failing to get noticed because the pile of resume is just too long...
You will chase this dream & spend all your money, but one day approx 2-3 years on you will realize your never going to make money & it is infact a hobby. When you reach this point you will be releavied to get out of aviation....
I've recently done it myself, 4,500 hrs 650 PIC jet time and boy it feels incredible to know I'm not competing in this silly little game any longer.
It took up 15 years of my life, I was lucky enough to be flying during some good times but company went bust & I was left to find another job mid 2013, I can tell you that in this day & age it just ain't worth, the garbage man makes more than us.....