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A lot of my friends and family are thinking I've gone off the deep end for even considering going so far in debt just so I can (hopefully) get a job that will most likely pay only half what my salary is now, but big whoop.
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I think that there are quite a few people on this board that would agree with your friends and family. Well, not in agreement about the "going off the deep end", but at least advising against taking out huge loans. I've seen quite a few posts from people that are struggling to make loan payments on top of normal living expenses while making CFI or regional FO wages, and many of them are saying that they wished they had taken a little bit longer to finish their training and did more pay-as-you-go rather than take the big debt. The slight delay in instant gratification is more than offset by piece of mind (financially) and stress reduction.