Here’s our latest interview with a millionaire as we seek to learn from those who have grown their wealth to high heights.
If you’d like to be considered for an interview, drop me a note and we can chat about specifics.
My questions are in bold italics and his responses follow in black.
Let’s get started…
OVERVIEW
How old are you (and spouse if applicable, plus how long you’ve been married)?
I am 58 and my wife is 51. We’ve been married 17 plus years.
Do you have kids/family (if so, how old are they)?
My wife’s daughter is about to turn 28 (financially independent). She lives in Idaho with her husband, and is pregnant with her first child.
What area of the country do you live in (and urban or rural)?
Central Valley of California, right on the edge of urban and rural.
We live in a city island housing tract surrounded by county land. A block away are horses and cattle being raised.
What is your current net worth?
$2,288,000 using numbers from December 31, 2017 since the stock market was on a tear this month. [Editor’s note: This interview was done at the end of January, 2018.]
What are the main assets that make up your net worth (stocks, real estate, business, home, retirement accounts, etc.) and any debt that offsets part of these?
- $577,000 Rollover IRA invested in No Load, Low Fee Mutual Funds, Individual Stocks most with good dividend yields and ETFs
- $23,000 Roth IRA (glad I didn’t bet on taxes going up in retirement)
- $355,000 Pension Cash Balance (being rolled over into my self-directed IRA to invest in more hard money loans)
- $73,000 Second Pension Cash Balance
- $602,000 Hard Money Loans in First and a few Second Trust Deeds with a couple of construction loans generating 8-12%
- $402,000 Home
- $35,000 two cars, 2012 and 2008 purchased used
- $55,000 Fifty percent ownership of airplane
- $88,000 Emergency Cash
- $70,000 Miscellaneous IRA and retirement health care benefits from prior job
EARN
What is your job?
Husband given early retirement from a Petroleum Engineering career in October 2016 at age 57.
Wife still working from home on her own business.
What is your annual income?
Our combined 2016 income was more than $239,000.
Now that I’m retired, we are living off the emergency reserve until I turn 59 ½ to get access my retirement savings.
Most of my wife’s income goes back into growing her business so we don’t consider it income.
Tell us about your income performance over time. What was the starting salary of your first job and how did it grow from there?
We’ve both worked and lived our entire careers in California and started on completely different paths.
Husband’s first job out of grad school in 1985 paid $2000/month for a geology position in oil exploration. That lasted about a year due to a downturn in oil (one of many).
I moved into oil refining as an engineering tech where I branched out into environmental remediation, specialty fuels manufacturing and marketing and refinery product and feedstock trading with another refiner.
Through networking, invested in and eventually was hired by a college acquaintance where my salary increased to over $80,000 in ten years. Moved back into oil exploration and production for the last 17 years of my career.
Wife’s first job out of school in 1984 was $5/hour at 18 years old, bought her first house at same age for $43,000 at 12% with seller financing.
She worked her way into the banking industry with a high school education and worked her way up to Branch Manager (age 27) from being a teller and then on to Business Relationship manager.
After the sixth bank merger and disgust with how the banking industry dealt with creating the real estate meltdown that caused the Great Recession, she quit her $150,000 job in 2009 when she started her own financial education business.
What tips do you have for others who want to grow their income?
Be likeable, work hard and get along with everyone.
Hang with the smartest people in the room.
Most of my jobs came from knowing the right person at the right time.
Learn to negotiate your salary and other benefits. Many leave money on the table. The worst a potential employer can say is no.
Don’t limit yourself to the job. Do what you love and figure out a way to make money doing something related.
Take advantage of all employer, tax deferred and matching plans such as 401K. It’s free money. My wife is amazed at how many don’t take advantage of this. It’s a forced earning, saving and investment plan.
What’s your work-life balance look like?
I took my last job because the employer promoted positive work life balance. My wife quit her job for the same reason.
We were very lucky we have these options. My wife can work her business from anywhere thanks to modern technology. We love to fly our small plane on adventures all over the western U.S. and to visit her daughter in Idaho. We love to travel and visit places like Mexico and Las Vegas several times per year.
We are fortunate to have the resources to have rescued dogs for years and fly charity missions for Angel Flight West, Veteran’s Airlift Command and most recently the Montecito Mudslide Airlift. This gives us a chance to give our time, talent and resources to be helpful rather than just donating money.
Do you have any sources of income besides your career? If so, can you list them, give us a feel for how much you earn with each, and offer some insight into how you developed them?
Our hard money loans provided a steady income of $4600 per month at the end of 2017, which soon will be about $7500 with our new investments.
The reason we pursued being lenders was lack of success in the stock market due to bad decision making. We panicked during the 2008 downturn and got out after losing a high percentage of our wealth. We didn’t get back in until much later, which was a wise decision but we lost huge amounts in potential earnings.
We decided we needed to diversify out of the market and do something we were familiar with and ex-banker/wife is an expert on real estate and business loans. This has been very lucrative and we hope to make up the wealth we lost 10 years ago.
SAVE
What is your annual spending?
We pay ourselves $7200 per month. We’ve done very well to stay on budget sometimes sending money back to the emergency fund.
What are the main categories (expenses) this spending breaks into?
Our airplane is the biggest money pit. About $1350 per month with avgas.
Travel is next at $1000 per month.
Groceries come in at about $800 month.
Healthcare is the big one at about $700 per month post subsidy. My former employer subsidizes about $650 per month so it could be worse.
The rest of our budget are non-essentials like eating out which we can taper if needed. We buy nothing but used, reliable cars (Toyota, Lexus) so our repair bills are very low.
Do you have a budget? If so, how do you implement it?
With and engineer and a banker in the household, the engineer monitors and updates everything on Excel spreadsheets. The banker backs that up with hand written monitoring on a matrix and her business filing system.
What percentage of your gross income do you save and how has that changed over time?
Before retirement we were avid savers, staying well within our means. We saved roughly half of our net earnings every year in and out of retirement plans.
What is your favorite thing to spend money on/your secret splurge?
We love to give each other experiences, not presents. Our big splurge last year was to fly to Colorado, land at the highest airport in the country, Leadville, spend a week with friends hiking and biking in Breckenridge. We then took a flying, day trip to Torrington, WY to experience the total solar eclipse. Two bucket list items in one trip.
INVEST
What is your investment philosophy/plan?
The plan is to have enough income to live comfortably in our current life style without losing any net worth. So far we have been successful for over one year.
What has been your best investment?
Our careers were the best investment followed by paying off all debt, hard money loans and the stock market, which is last due to our own faults.
What has been your worst investment?
Real Estate.
The best investment in that category is our current house where after 17 years we have about $150,000 in appreciation but we probably spent all that in improvements, maintenance and taxes. So now it doesn’t sound so good. But we love our house anyway, gotta live somewhere.
What’s been your overall return?
I think I’ve been lucky to get about an 8% return on all my investments. Funny, this last year has been more than twice that. Good timing for retirement.
How often do you monitor/review your portfolio?
I play with my portfolio on an almost daily basis while my wife works hard on her business. My job is to make money babies from what we worked hard to earn.
NET WORTH
How did you accumulate your net worth?
We earned, saved and invested with the most success in recent years after learning the lessons of life and maximizing our income while living within our means in an inexpensive location with no debt.
If I’d done the same in Los Angeles or San Francisco-like cities we’d be working into our 70’s to get where we are.
What road bumps did you face along the way to becoming a millionaire and how did you handle them?
Working in a cyclical industry was the biggest challenge.
I almost changed careers several times only to come back because I love the super smart people in the energy industry and the challenges and joy in the daily grind that never got old for me.
My wife says resisting life-style creep was the biggest challenge. Not buying new, cars, houses or stuff. We actually pride ourselves on endless “spending stand downs” when we thought we’d spent too much in a month. We even went back to cash when we did periodic 30-day credit card cleanses. It’s a lot more painful to watch a pile of cash disappear than to spend with credit cards.
What are you currently doing to maintain/grow your net worth?
The stock market has been scary-great this last year but we’re rolling more into being the bank, lending on low loan to value properties. LTV’s of less than 70% are preferred, the lower the better. Don’t loan on what you don’t want to own.
Do you have a target net worth you are trying to attain?
Our original target was 3 million but we’ve found we are very happy at our current level and are in good financial shape.
What we didn’t take into consideration with that target was when you retire, you stop saving and pay yourself so there really was no need for the extra ¾ million dollars.
Social Security is a future benefit that we will maximize by waiting as long as possible to collect.
How old were you when you made your first million and have you had any significant behavior shifts since then?
It appears to have been 10 years ago in 2008 when I was 48 and my wife was 41, the year my step-daughter graduated from high school. Daughter immediately became self-supporting thanks to the teachings of her financially savvy mom. It was like getting a raise when she moved out on her own.
Unfortunately that same year, we dropped out of the millionaire ranks due to the stock market crash.
With consistent earning, saving and spending stand downs, we regained our million around 2011, paid off our house and more than doubled our net worth by sticking to the same formula and incurring no debt.
If you could rewind to when you first started out, what would you do differently?
We would have saved more and started earlier.
We would not have panicked when the market crashed.
We would have invested more during the crash.
I probably would have been much wealthier without my flying addiction but it’s my passion. I didn’t go as nuts as I could have on the flying costs but I probably should have recruited co-owners with my first 3 of 5 airplanes long ago which I’ve done for the past 12 years on the latest two.
What money mistakes have you made along the way that others can learn from?
Imagine losing half your wealth overnight to gauge your risk tolerance.
I thought it would never happen to me but it did.
Also understand and manage your credit score – At one point I did not pay a pager bill because of a dispute and it got sent to collection. That $40 collection cost my wife and I $15,000 in interest on our mortgage after it dropped my credit score to 719. If my credit score would have been 720 we could have gotten a .25% rate discount.
If you had to give advice to ESI Money readers about how to become wealthy, what would it be?
If you must have a big boy toy (boat, plane, RV, etc), buy one with one or more friends or trusted acquaintances to share costs. It’s ridiculous to have a money-pit toy with fixed costs just sitting and collecting dust when you can share all costs with co-owners.
Don’t buy new big ticket items. Depreciation is a bad thing especially coupled with investment income and appreciation potential you lose.
Buying new can be a triple threat to your money especially if you don’t pay cash – Depreciation + Interest + Sales Tax = A triple threat to your money.
FUTURE
What are your plans for the future regarding lifestyle?
We are actually living our dream. We always dreamed of moving to the tropics in winter where I’d fly seaplanes for hire and Alaska in the summer where I’d fly ski planes. My wife would teach yoga and conduct her business.
What are your retirement plans?
On top of the above, we do yoga and meditation every day. We run, hike, bike, enjoy our hilarious dogs and appreciate every day and each other.
We are what we’ve always aspired to be and got there early through what turned out to be the gift of involuntary retirement.
I thought I wanted to work again but after 3 or 4 months it fell off my priority list. I’ve turned down two jobs since then and earned my Commercial Pilot’s license and working on my Flight Instructor Airplane rating for a fun retirement career. There is a pilot and instructor shortage for the first time in my 34 years of flying so it’s my way of giving back to the aviation community which has been very good to me.
Are there any issues in retirement that concern you? If so, how are you planning to address them?
Health and happiness are our biggest concerns because without one you don’t have the other. This is why we maintain a healthy diet and lifestyle (with occasional cheating) so that we live long, pain-free lives. We have good genes and expect to live into our nineties and maybe longer. Exercise and doing things that make us happy are a priority in life.
MISCELLANEOUS
How did you learn about finances and at what age did it ‘click’? Was it from family, books, forced to learn as wealth grew, etc.?
My grandparents were adults during the Great Depression. I learned my frugality from them and inherited his screw and nail collection. They didn’t waste anything and nor do we. They taught me about credit, savings, banking, etc. They started poor and worked hard to end up very wealthy.
My wife learned about money the hard way so she can teach others the easy way. She has lived on her own since age 16 and started working in the banking industry at 18. This is where she learned so much about money and how the rich get richer, how the poor get poorer and how banks make their money.
Who inspired you to excel in life? Who are your heroes?
My grandparents and parents had the typical family of the 1930’s through 1960’s where Dad worked and Mom raised the family. They were very successful. I did receive an inheritance from my Grandfather but it was used to pay down debt.
My father is donating much of his inheritance to a major university for whom he worked most of his career until he was 80 years old, and still has a house payment in the big city.
I retired the same year as my dad. I win. 🙂
Do you give to charity? Why or why not? If you do, what percent of time/money do you give?
When I was working, I gave money for scholarships to disabled athletes and dog rescue.
As mentioned I do the charity flights as well which I view as more important because you see the immediate impact of your gift. There is nothing more memorable than dropping off a soldier with a new prosthetic leg for a wounded warrior ski weekend and having him tell you he’ll never forget you.
Seeing 100% of our donation in the form of smiles on faces is incredible. We have found that anyone can write a check and that sometimes our time, talent and resources are more valuable than any amount of money.
Do you plan to leave an inheritance for your heirs (how do you plan to distribute your wealth at your death)? What are your reasons behind this plan?
Yes. We will make it as simple as possible, split evenly and fairly to minimize loss.
My grandfather’s inheritance had contingencies on education success, age, etc. and was tied up in a bank trust that we had to sue to break 25 years after his death. All the money was in low/no return investments eaten up by bank fees. We were successful and distributed what little was left among the family.
Chris says
Congrats on your accomplishments and retirement. I have looked into being a hard money lender but was a bit worried about the time commitment. How much time do you estimate you spend on hard money lending? Meaning, looking at deals, inspecting for draws etc. Is your lending from a self directed ira or from non-retirement assets? I have read some material on this but certainly would appreciate any particular sites or books you a successful lender find valuable.
Thanks for sharing your story.
Fly EFI says
Thank you Chris. I utilize hard money brokers. So very little time is needed for these investments. I do Investments from both an IRA Services self-directed IRA and cash. I fill out the IRA Services lender kit forms via DocuSign which is maybe an hour of my time at most. The brokers either publish the investment opportunities via email or on their web site and I decide which fit our objectives. The brokers do all the work for half a percentage point or so.
The Physician Philosopher says
“Health and happiness are our biggest concerns because without one you don’t have the other.”
So true. We forget this second half of building wealth (building wellness) too quickly. One without the other just does’t make sense.
This is a good read, and I am sorry to hear that you learned the hard way about staying in the market during the crash. That’s not the way you want to learn that lesson, but teaches a lot to those coming behind you.
Fly EFI says
Yes, that was a painful lesson and I wish I had maintained my heading and altitude (had to throw in some pilot lingo;). I did find my risk tolerance was not as high as I thought; a very humbling experience. But some good is coming from it; I’ve been able to mentor younger investors on my lessons learned and I found a great alternative to the stock market. Although I still have about $400K in the market for diversification. Plus I kinda like the market’s allure. I think it runs in la familia because my 82 year young dad is still heavily invested. We talk about investing and cars, some of our things in common.
Crusher says
Kudos on a well executed plan. You and your wife have certainly done well in dealing with change. Many people have a very hard time with change. You and your wife appear to be better than most.
I would not likely shy away from the stock market as much as you have for your long-term investments but it sounds like you have chosen a different path that works well for your family. Congrats!!
I completely hear you regarding expensive hobbies. When I spoke to my financial advisor about our retirement plans which include a move to Florida he asked me two questions:
Do you golf a lot?
Do you own a boat or want to own one?
When I answered nope to both he said, you should be good because those two hobbies can be damn expensive!
Congrats!!
Fly EFI says
Thank you. We’re getting hit with change as we speak, it looks like we may have a premature grand baby. She apparently is using the umbilical chord to practice rope climbing and pull-ups for which it was not designed. Good to have a plane in these situations. All is well by the way.
We like the feeling of control with the hard money lending. We know everything about our lendees and we don’t loan on anything we don’t want to own. We have little control in the stock market but that said it’s hard to beat in the long term. Plus I learn new things every day in the market, some of which is here with you all.
Jason@WinningPersonalFinance says
Thanks for sharing your story. I get that it’s a money pit but find it really cool that you have a plane. You don’t read that story too often on frugality blogs!
I’m curious, how does one get into hard money lending? It seems like a wonderful way to diversify.
Fly EFI says
Hi Jason.
Having a passion hobby may be expensive but the benefits on one’s mental health are priceless. It also gave me structure, discipline and goals in life. There was nothing better than looking forward to a weekend flying adventure when I was working to get me through the week. I say this as I sit in a beautiful high rise hotel in Las Vegas looking at the mountains and Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area to the west. Man, I am lucky to be able to fly here in 80 minutes whenever now, not just weekends.
I would search for broker-lenders in your area or nearest large city that specializes in commercial real estate financing and investment and ask them if they have or take on capital from individual investors. I strongly suggest not doing loan to value ratios greater than 70% to reduce your risk in case a real estate downturn occurs.
Chris @ Duke of Dollars says
I am flabbergasted that you have a personal plane and have never thought about this for my own adventures in retirement.
What exactly do you mean by money loans? These are private loans you made to businesses instead of them getting loans from the bank? You are making bank from this.
What an awesome interview – thank you so much for sharing.
Fly EFI says
Hi Chris.
I thought everyone wanted a plane from my first memory as an infant. Of course my Mom says I was obsessed with planes as we lived on the final approach to Zamperini Airport when I was a 2 year old.
Yes, hard money loans are not your standard home loans that you can get at very low rates with many restrictions, like it must be your primary residence. These are loans to businesses, real estate investors and even religious organizations (yes, churches are businesses and some make astounding amounts of money). Right now these return 9% to the investor for low risk loans and as high as 12% for higher risk loans based on the supply of investors.
It’s good to be the bank.
Fly ESI says
And BTW, I changed my name to Fly ESI to be more of a team player here. EFI means earnings, finance and investment to me since technically we’re not saving for retirement anymore, our retirement is sending us a paycheck now instead of an employer.
Chris @ Duke of Dollars says
That is awesome – if you could give any info on how you started being the bank for some of those loans it would be very helpful.
I understand there are some risks if they didn’t pay you but as long as they do, that seems like an awesome income stream to start receiving.
Kevin says
Enjoyed this interview. Life wasn’t executed perfectly and they still won. Good advice on not purchasing big ticket items new which is an urge we all fight. I don’t know about everyone else but there’s always some new toy I’d like to buy and it is extremely hard to not give in to that urge. And yes, thinking of the future value equivalent of those dollars through investment helps, but only a little.
With reference to the great recession, I play some tricks on my mind to help tolerate/offset the impact of volatility as it relates to market gyrations as happened during the great recession and as is currently happening with trade war fears. I think of stock investments I own as something that doesn’t age or depreciate. Its not like a car that loses 20% of its value on day 366 of ownership or the day the year turns over. I separate the market value perspective of the asset from the quantity of the asset I own and look at my investments solely from the perspective of the quantity of shares of a business or of an index I own. So irrespective of what Berkshire Hathaway does in terms of market value, if the business model has not changed and I own 2000 shares of BRK B, I still own 2000 shares of the business if the share price drops by 50%. Perfect opportunity to load up at a 50% discount and add a couple of hundred shares. By focusing on the quantity of shares of a good business or the quantity of shares of an index such as VTI, my focus on actual market price is drastically reduced. Lets face it, the value of the shares right now is completely irrelevant if you don’t plan on selling such shares for 10-20 years provided you have a good investment thesis. I’m sure it would be a lot harder if you were in the unfortunate position of needing cash from those assets during a recession or high volatility period (about to retire).
I share the love of dogs and we have 3 rescues and are lucky to be able to afford to do so. No kids though which makes it easier.
Great life story.
Fly ESI says
Excellent point Kevin. We’re great examples that you can make mistakes, learn from them and still win. I urge everyone to make mistakes in life and not to fear them. Serendipity has led to some of the most amazing discoveries in science and engineering. Trial and error is a process, not a negative thing that trolls love to attack. Don’t we all so love those anonymous people that have the time and self-impotence (SIC intentional) to attack spelling errors or whatever in comments sections after news articles, Twitter, YouTube, etc? Betcha not one will ever be a millionaire.
That reminds me, I love the respectful commentary in ESI.
I love your mind tricks as well. I tell young aquaintences something similar when they express grief in down markets like this recent correction. I tell them, “why would you want to buy high now when it doesn’t matter until X years down the road. You should celebrate down markets as sales events, 10, 20, 40% discounts.”
Kevin says
I’m a science guy..love, love, love this comment “Serendipity has led to some of the most amazing discoveries in science and engineering”
Tom @ Dividends Diversify says
I’ve never heard of these “hard money loans”. Maybe it’s something I’m familiar with, but under a different name. I’d love to learn more??? Seems like a great investment portfolio diversifier. The returns look great unless of course a loan were to default. Tom
Fly ESI says
Hi Tom,
See prior comments for more details. Yes, all investments have a risk/reward ratio. As in flying airplanes you can mitigate your risk. As mentioned in my replies above, don’t loan on what you don’t want to own. We started out with two local lenders where we could go see the property ourselves until I was confident with the process. Now I’m with a big city lender in the Los Angeles area that is a lending machine that has several new investments every week. LTV ratio is also important to protect yourself, the lower the better. If a property is worth $500,000 now, I would feel comfortable loaning up to 70% LTV or $350,000 on it because if the loan defaults, I can sell the property for at least what I have in it even in a down market. If it’s an up market (and up interest rate market), like now, we would benefit from a default. Not that we would want that because of the hassle factor.
Dave says
Welcome to the club M50. I really enjoyed your interview. Doing yoga and taking care of your health will help keep you around longer to enjoy your wealth. This was another inspiring interview that shows that it is possible to become a millionaire if you focus on the ESI Scale.
Fly ESI says
Thank you Dave. I know it’s only a number but life is good when you are M50. I was just talking about this with my wife a few days ago speculating that we would be number 50. Who will be M100?
Amy @ LifeZemplified says
One of my favorite childhood memories is my uncle flying me in his plane. As you mentioned though, it can be a money pit and he didn’t have it for long. Thanks for sharing your story. Kudos to your wife for doing so well in the banking industry and raising a financially savvy daughter.
Fly ESI says
Thank you Amy. Creating financially savvy children is well worth the effort. It’s interesting that our daughter probably doesn’t know about our wealth. And the best part is she probably doesn’t care because she loves her own life and loves being independent. I’m so proud of my wife for all of her hard work and success with her daughter as well as disadvantaged and at risk youth among many others in our area. I’m amazed at how many youngsters she influenced that are now adults and still recognize her on the street and come over and thank her. Really cool.
Sean @ Frugal Money Man says
Awesome advice!
I believe you really hit the nail on the head in terms of increasing your income. Being likable and associating with economically productive people is extremely important for advancing your career. It isn’t about sucking up, but more of being nice to everyone and leaving a great impression of yourself.
Your retirement job of flying seaplanes in the tropics during winter and ski planes in Alaska during summer sounds GREAT! I can tell you are definitely going to have a fun retirement:)
I wish you and your family continued success!
Fly ESI says
Thanks Sean.
Guilt by association is a real thing. If one hangs out with bad people, people are gonna think one is bad. If one is a jerk nobody’s gonna want to hang out. Karma, “she is wonderful”, as my wife says because my wife is positivity incarnate.
I have been guilty of being a jerk, and I do not like being a jerk because it’s a very lonely existence. It took me a while to learn from my mistake but I did learn. Unfortunately I’m still not perfect but I’m working on it. What saved me along time ago was somebody recommended a book called, “How to make friends and influence people” by Dale Carnegie written in 1936 but still essential reading for all jerks and non-jerks who want to be successful financially and otherwise in life. It’s an easy read.
Arrgo says
I really like that you mentioned the “spending stand downs” which is something I do myself. If I feel that I have been spending too much/too often in a certain area, I’ll make myself hold back or give it a break for a month or so. Its a good way to break the habit, slow the momentum, and keep you on the right track. Plus it gives you time to think about it and saves you money.
Fly ESI says
It’s funny you say that. Our friends that are still working used to laugh at us when we did our “spending stand downs”. Yet they are still working. They might be getting tired of my “how’s work today” comments while I sit here by the pool in Las Vegas. There’s my inner-jerk coming through. Whoops! Sorry! I’d better read Dale Carnegie again.
Carlos says
Congratulations on your success. You have a great story and heartfelt charity and passion.
You also exhibit excellent priorities — happiness, health, and wealth
I have recently thought about getting my private pilot license but haven’t yet due to having a ‘money pit’ reference and cost / benefit analysis, and I also project the expense into my retirement, but your story gives me hope.
We are in the same neighborhood as far as assets is concerned; you’re just a few years ahead of me …
I’d like to know more about how you find the hard-lending opportunities.
Fly ESI says
Hi Carlos,
See my prior comments about becoming a hard money lender. Awesome, congratulations on nearing critical FI mass. I hope you at least try to get your pilots license. I suggest taking and introductory flight somewhere nearby. That is if you haven’t done so already. There are many good flying clubs out there. Maybe hang out at the airport and get to know some pilots who may even take you for ride. It will help you decide if it’s worth it or not. The majority who try to learn to fly do not complete because life gets in the way or they just didn’t have enough enthusiasm for it. Being able to fly gives you a whole new perspective on what freedom means. It also gives you a whole new perspective of the world from above.
Thanks to all who mentioned the happiness and health aspect because you can be wealthy with those even if you are not a millionaire.
SoberFinance says
Great article — out of curiosity, did you ever join any of the super majors in the oil industry (Exxon, etc.)? These companies always seemed more stable than the independent E&P companies. If you didn’t join one of them — any specific reason why not?
Love the flying hobby — I get its a little bit of a money pit, but the freedom is priceless.
Fly ESI says
Thanks, I never worked for any of the super-majors directly. I worked at everything from small independent oil producers to large oil & gas producers. I looked at Chevron long ago but it wasn’t any better than what I had at the time and was maybe worse. Majors are not any more stable based on the number of people let go in the last 3 year’s. They tend to over hire in good times and over fire in bad, just like everyone else in the industry. The pay is great but there’s a reason. They can also transfer you places you may not want to go.
Lily | The Frugal Gene says
“Hang with the smartest people in the room.” Haha just like hang with the smart kids in school!
Great advice on the big boy toys! I think if we ever get a plane ourselves we would need to split it. How much does your license cost to apply and maintain?
Fly ESI says
Getting a pilots license can vary in cost depending on many factors. The skill level of the student, the type of plane/simulator used, geographic location, etc. I’d say plan on $10k to $20k. Because of the pilot shortage this is a great time for young people to get into aviation. There are many sources out there right now for scholarships and tuition assistance at many aviation universities. Once you get your license you meet with an instructor every other year to maintain currency. Good luck!