The rule of thumb really is: If you want to cost-effectively obtain
your PPL, treat it like a semester of college. Fly 3 days per week
(Mon/Wed/Fri) and study the other two (Tue/Thu), or wait until you can ...

So all you have to do is quit your job, or wait until you're 70 years
old. Simple. And make sure you have a few thousand dollars in your
checking account before you quit, so you can pay for the license.

The money part is a given -- there's nothing you can do to change that.
Same with golfing, boating, RV'ing, or any other leisure activity --
you gotta pay to play. You're gonna need a thousand bucks in the bank
to get started, and it usually (if you trust the FBO) makes sense to
pay for lessons in $500 increments, since many places give you a
significant discount if you do it that way.

The time part is entirely up to you. I was a working dad, and I got up
at 0-dark-thirty every morning, drove 45 minutes one-way (in the
winter, in Wisconsin) to the airport where my CFI was based (not the
local airport), flew for an hour, and then drove in to work.

There were days when the weather would be pea-soup fog by the time I
got there, and we would have to scrub. There were other days where it
was crap where I was, but perfect at the airport, which was inland from
Lake Michigan quite a ways. And the cold was brutal.

It was hard -- sometimes very hard -- to find the time to do it,
between the demands of work and family, but I had a finite amount of
money and knew that if I didn't do it then, I'd probably never have the
chance again. I had spent 35 years on the ground, looking up, and it
was literally "now or never".

Which is why I encourage every young person I meet to learn to fly NOW,
damn the expense. Money is replaceable -- time is not. I now feel
that my first 35 years on this earth were wasted, wanting to fly but
not being able to find my way aloft. I've done my best to make up for
lost time in the interceding 12 years, but I can never, EVER buy those
35 years (well, okay, 18, after the minimum PPL age of 17) back.

I don't know how old you are, Manic, but if you want to fly don't wait.
The papers are full of young people in the obituaries every day.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"