Ahhh, thinking.

So the ultimate goal is to get Matt a helicopter's license. Obviously I have talked about this quite a few times. Here are the four options: 1. I get a job that pays $44,000 a year, obtain a loan for $50,000 and be paying on the loan until we somehow get enough to pay it off. Matt starts his schooling right away. 2. Stretch out the next two years of Matt's schooling into four years, get the maximum stafford loans every year (over 4 years that would end up being around $50,000) and then have him get his licenses and get onto a career. 3. Have Matt change majors (career goals) to something entirely different- and obviously cheaper. 4. Join the military with the 'guarantee' that Matt is placed within an Aviation field and hope he can work his way into flight training at some point in his career. We can't think of anything else that is realisitc (we did consider that maybe one of us has a yet-unknown rich uncle that is going to pass away within months and give us his entire fortune which would obviously be enough to pay for his schooling and let us live in luxury for the next 10 years...but we are trying to think realistically). So, we explored the idea of Matt changing his major but we really feel that it is important for him to be a pilot. Strike that one off the list. We discussed him taking four years to complete his major but we feel like that is wasting his income potential. He would go back to work but with only an associate's degree wouldn't be qualified for much more work than just over minimum wage. And, taking four more years to accomplish something that only needs to take two will put a lot of strain on our family both mentally and physically. So we explored the idea of me getting a job. I started looking, writing my resume and trying to network. But I quickly realized that getting a job that pays $21 an hour requires a lot of experience- something I don't generally have- or a specific degree- which I don't have either. Although we haven't ruled this option out, it is quickly becoming less appealing to go through all the stress and effort when I don't qualify for what I need to be earning. But I'm still looking. We then started exploring the last option: Matt joining the military. He is meeting with a recruiter on Monday to get some questions answered. I never really thought of Matt as a soldier and I don't like the idea of him being away for boot camp, officer training or even for his deployments. But the more we learn about it, the more benefits we see that would help our current situation. Matt's family has a lot of military connections- his brother in law is currently serving, his other brother in law is getting in shape in order to join, one of his brothers served several years back and his biological father was part of the military for a period of time. So with all the experience, its odd that he never really considered the military before. Anyway, we'll keep you all updated. And if anyone has other ideas that we didn't think of to get him the pilot's license, please tell.