Fascinating reading!
I'm early thirties, fairly good salary and benefits. Not in any way passionate about my career but have stuck it out to get a bit of a start in life. My big decision is what next? For financial reasons, being a pilot wasn't open to me until now so I stayed well clear. Now after much deliberation and a few lessons I feel like it is what I need to be doing. I'm considering committing in full to ppl but as I'm not getting any younger then don't know whether to do it leisurely and with an open mind as to potential prospects or flat out in 6 weeks and take it from there. Also don't know whether to go all in in pursuit of the airline dream - my ambition would be a regional in UK, flying the islands. My dilemma is that ppl seems expensive just to maintain and so if flying is not to be my career then I'm not sure I could afford it as a very regular hobby.
Getting impartial advice is v.difficult - I don't trust any of the FTAs. I also hear mixed views from current pilots, but this is similar to views within my own profession (and ditto medicine etc too). I once went to Vegas and didn't play a single table, so clearly my risk appetite is off the scale low; but this life changing decision has more of an emotional pull and I'm really on the fence... if you want it enough you can pull it off, right?