[Pete L]

If you're in the legal trade, get a few tips from Gerard Clarke, 4-5 Grays Inn. He ran a Bulldog for a while but not being on FB I don't know if it also went the way of expensive girlfriends.

[Paul_Sengupta]

He ran a Bulldog for a while

Share in a Beagle Pup IIRC.

[Pete L]

May be confusing him and FG. Do remember an impromptu formation over Bourn on a Burned Childrens' day.

[Maxthelion]

The long and the short of it is this: If you want to fly badly enough then you'll find a way. Whether it ever becomes a career or not, it's still a vocation. If you don't want it badly enough to put the work in, either by sacrificing other privileges, or by earning more to pay for it, then you'll potter through and become just another 'I used to have a PPL for about two years..' and won't put the work in to maintain a safe skill level.

However, if you do want it enough..

Wanting to fly has seen me hand over my last £20 in the world for 10 minutes in a Diamond Katana. I've cycled miles upon miles and slept in freezing glider trailers for three three minute flights per day. I blew my student loan on a deathtrap microlight. I've also soared in formation with an eagle, flown my brand new wife to the South of France for an air race and a week in a Chateau and made friends of people I once only read about as flying heroes in magazines and books. I've competed in aerobatics and known the elation of winning, and I've wheeled and soared alone in the high untresspassed sanctity of space, just for the sheer euphoria of it many times.

Flying has been everything I ever wanted since the age of five. If you want it you'll find a way. If the prize isn't worth the hardship to you, then you're better off somewhere else.

[ChampChump]

Maxthelion's post above and Leia's piece, linked previously, have everything, but breaking my own rule, I'll add a bit more anyway.

If it helps at all, I spent frugally for years and still do, by many standards. The hovel had hand-me-down furniture for decades and I believe the walls are held together by willpower and wallpaper.

The addiction was insidious in my case, creeping under the fingernails and into the blood. Others have experienced an instant one-hit addiction. It's the commitment that counts, in my view.

A reasonable amount of disposable income will help, but count for nothing otherwise.

Do you have enough? Only you know that.

Good luck.

[JAFO]

Do you have enough?

Nope.

Will I do it anyway?

Hell, yeah.

[mikeblyth]

Rally at Leicester bought a 1600VW engine, my wife was not amused. Said we needed carpets.
I said keep spreading the sawdust till the kids grow up

[robert79]

I get paid the same as most other people. Not enough.

It's a bit of a pointless question really as we all have different financial commitments, live different lives and fly different aeroplanes on different ownership models.

I suppose I have a high salary by most people's standards, but I'm by no means wealthy.
I have a stonking mortgage payment every month, the house was very much a project so there's also a financial hangover of turning it from a pokey dingey hovel into a nice place to live.
I can afford to fly partly because I don't go out very much, run second hand cars and don't bother to gets dents and scratches repaired and we don't go on expensive foreign holidays (we don't want to do that with 2 little kids anyway).
I could afford to fly more than I do, but am time poor at present.

There will be people on half my salary doing more flying than me. What comes in every month is only one variable.

[Nick]

I'm just a poor pensioner but I am happy! I am a sole owner and fly as much as weather and other commitments allow. Flying is like any drug, once you are hooked you will find the money.

Nick

[Miscellaneous]

I'm just a poor pensioner

I think we need some definitions here, I reckon I'm twice as poor as you.