I fell into the trap of “just do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life” So naturally I decided that I wanted to be a pilot. And not just any pilot but a Helicopter Pilot at that (it costs about 2x as much to train to be a helo pilot). Military didn’t seem right up my alley and when Wells Fargo said all I had to do was sign the line I was hooked.
I have approximately $165,000 in student loan debt. This breaks down to about $24,000 through federal aid, $20,000 through a private loan and a few loans totaling to $120,000 from Wells Fargo. My parents cosigned the loans for me and I will not let them suffer for my naive mistake.
My dad just called me and told me that he received a letter that said my grace period was almost up and on December 6 I needed to make a payment of $1,400 just to Wells Fargo, and that scared the crap out of me. I don’t have any flying jobs coming up (I’m a low time pilot, pretty much the only job available to me is instructing students how to fly) currently I work for my grandpas roofing company and on a great week I make $500.
So I’m here asking for some opinions on what you guys think my best options are and what loan forgiveness programs might be available to me.
Stick with it: I love flying I really do I just don’t see how it’s economically viable. As an instructor I would only maybe make 20k a year (not salary). With a 1,400 bill all of my money, and then some, would go to the loan. This is all assuming I can get a job. I finished my training 3 months ago and have seen 4 job postings. The first one told me I weighed too much*, the second one never responded to me, and I just applied to the 3rd and 4th ones an hour ago.
*Our training helicopters don’t have a lot of power, a lot of flight schools require there instructors to be at 180 pound flight weight (flight uniform, headset, maps, sunglasses etc.), it’s taken me 3 months to go from 193 pounds to 183, I am 6’ 5” tall with 5% body fat there’s not much more weight I can lose healthily. Once I get enough hours to move out of instruction (this should take 2-3 years depending on how busy the school is) then I can get to a more healthy weight.
Military: Where I am already a pilot I would have a good chance getting into their program (well according to the recruiters anyway). However, this would require a six year commitment and military pilots don’t really fly that much. I know a guy who’s been in for 6 years and only has 700 hours, compared to my head instructor who’s been flying for 8 years and has 3,000 hours. If I could stick with the civilian side of things I would have enough hours to get a good job.
Change Careers: Honestly I don’t know what career I would choose to go into. At the very least I would like something to fall back on. I have to get a medical checkup every year and should I fail one I wouldn’t have a livelihood anymore.
Now that I’ve committed financial suicide all I can think about is being free from debt. If you guys have any suggestions on if I should go back to school for something else, stick with it, or go spend 100 hour workweeks in an oil field I would greatly appreciate it.
Basic info about me: 22 y/o Single no dependents, No vehicle payment Free Rent Currently I work as a roofer; payed weekly varies from $200 a week to $500. With winter approaching that will drop significantly
TLDR: Helicopter pilot 160k in debt, current payments $1,400, jobs are scarce, and it doesn’t appear to be economically possible to live with that much in payments even if I had a job. Looking for some loan forgiveness options (if any) and advice on if I should return to school, or sell my soul to an oil field
Submitted October 03, 2017 at 02:33AM by john1819vp9 http://ift.tt/2ykK994
