Education costs for 2nd/new career

[Pilot2013]

I have toyed with the idea of leaving manufacturing management (~30 years) to do something MUCH less lucrative, but more fun.... namely, flight instructing. Besides the healthcare issue while waiting for Medicare, working through the different certifications to be a certified flight instructor (CFI) is not cheap. I would love it if similar to the deduction for continuing ed in your CURRENT profession or career path, there was an opportunity to have some breaks for pursuing an alternate or different "2nd" career in retirement years. This would be especially beneficial if they do make changes to SS FRA and the like.

Oh, well, I guess we can all wish for things.

[pb4uski]

Education for a different career has never been deductible so I don't see that changing.

That said, while we are wishing, I wish I was born rich and handsome.

[Pilot2013]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pb4uski Education for a different career has never been deductible so I don't see that changing. That said, while we are wishing, I wish I was born rich and handsome.

[W2R]

If you have set aside part of your budget for travel or other expensive hobbies, you will probably just have to divert that towards your education for a while. Instead of steaks and lobster, it's top ramen and mac'n'cheese for you.

The silver lining to this cloud, is that if flight instructor certification training was cheap or tax deductible, more people would be competing with you for the flight instructor jobs that open up. So really, it's to your advantage (sort of!).

[Walt34]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pb4uski That said, while we are wishing, I wish I was born rich and handsome.

Well, I wasn't born rich but according to DW I did get the latter. Admittedly she might be biased.

[pb4uski]

Truth be known, I messed the post up.... I meant rich instead of handsome.

[RunningBum]

The mega corp I started with had some kind of program for either near retirees, or as part of an early retirement package they were offering. You could get some money for education/training for a 2nd career, including things like hobbies you could make money on. I don't think it was an ongoing program though, and I left well before retirement. This was also at least 25 years ago.

[Big_Hitter]

Quote:

Originally Posted by RunningBum I don't think it was an ongoing program though, and I left well before retirement. This was also at least 25 years ago.

I don't see those often in corporate benefit packages nowadays

[Souschef]

I was working for a Megacorp, and got my Flight Instructor's rating. This was many years (40) ago, when flying was cheap. When I started flying in 1972, the airplane rented for $10 and the instructor was also $10!
This is the cost now for a private certificate:
55 hours rental for a Cessna 150: $5,170.00
60 hours instructor time $3,300
Check ride, Medical Certificate, Written Exam $900.00
Books and Supplies $425.00
Estimated Cost $9,795.00
To become an instructor, you need a CommercialPilot's license which has minimum requirement of 250 flight hours.
After I got my CFI, I figured I could instruct on the weekends.Then I found out what the liability insurance would cost! It turned out i would have to instruct about 50 hours just to pay for the insurance!
Needless to say, I did not pursue it as a career.

[meierlde]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Souschef I was working for a Megacorp, and got my Flight Instructor's rating. This was many years (40) ago, when flying was cheap. When I started flying in 1972, the airplane rented for $10 and the instructor was also $10! This is the cost now for a private certificate: 55 hours rental for a Cessna 150: $5,170.00 60 hours instructor time $3,300 Check ride, Medical Certificate, Written Exam $900.00 Books and Supplies $425.00 Estimated Cost $9,795.00 To become an instructor, you need a CommercialPilot's license which has minimum requirement of 250 flight hours. After I got my CFI, I figured I could instruct on the weekends.Then I found out what the liability insurance would cost! It turned out i would have to instruct about 50 hours just to pay for the insurance! Needless to say, I did not pursue it as a career.

Just out of curiosity at the time did you want to become an airline pilot, as younger folks use CFI to get the 1500 hours needed to get an ATP certificate, without having to pay for the flight time and do get paid for it at least a little bit.

[Pilot2013]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Souschef I was working for a Megacorp, and got my Flight Instructor's rating. This was many years (40) ago, when flying was cheap. When I started flying in 1972, the airplane rented for $10 and the instructor was also $10! This is the cost now for a private certificate: 55 hours rental for a Cessna 150: $5,170.00 60 hours instructor time $3,300 Check ride, Medical Certificate, Written Exam $900.00 Books and Supplies $425.00 Estimated Cost $9,795.00 To become an instructor, you need a CommercialPilot's license which has minimum requirement of 250 flight hours. After I got my CFI, I figured I could instruct on the weekends.Then I found out what the liability insurance would cost! It turned out i would have to instruct about 50 hours just to pay for the insurance! Needless to say, I did not pursue it as a career.

Yes, the costs are prohibitive for sure. I got my Private in 2013, and am just about done with Instrument (probably 10 more hours of practice. The Private was about $5500 total, and would have been cheaper if I had owned my plane during that time. Commercial, and then CFI, it all adds up nowadays. That's why I was longing for a benefit to help with it. Surprisingly, the insurance is not that bad nowadays...

[Souschef]

Quote:

Originally Posted by meierlde Just out of curiosity at the time did you want to become an airline pilot, as younger folks use CFI to get the 1500 hours needed to get an ATP certificate, without having to pay for the flight time and do get paid for it at least a little bit.

No, as I was too old when I got it. Plus my salary at Megacorp was much greater than the starting salaries for regional airlines,

[meierlde]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Souschef No, as I was too old when I got it. Plus my salary at Megacorp was much greater than the starting salaries for regional airlines,

I have read that the low salaries are getting to be a problem in that the supply of pilots is becoming less than the demand, but the regionals have not yet raised the pay. Of course in the good old days airline pilots typically got Uncle Sam based flight training, but not so much now days.

[Souschef]

Quote:

Originally Posted by meierlde I have read that the low salaries are getting to be a problem in that the supply of pilots is becoming less than the demand, but the regionals have not yet raised the pay. Of course in the good old days airline pilots typically got Uncle Sam based flight training, but not so much now days.

I did pay for my Private, commercial, CFI and instrument rating, but all of that was over 40 years ago. In 2 more years I can join the UFO (united Flying Octogenarians)