Blake,
The house has spoken. Obviously there are benefits to beginning sooner rather than later. But your question was about taking on more debt. You need spend time dwelling on that question until you figure that out. Idk. Should you? Will you be able to make the payments? If not, then what? Also, factor in how much money you’ll need to live off of. What happens if you need more? Who will you turn to? Mom and dad? Credit cards?
Taking on debt can be scary. And everyone has a different level of comfort when it comes to it. Not everyone is responsible about paying it back either.
The pilot in me wants to tell you not to waste time. The financially cautious side of me wants to tell you to wait until you’re back home with your folks. Really the decision is yours.
Whatever your final decision is, know that your payments on your flight training loan come with a 6 month deferral. Interest accrues, of course, but no payments are required until after those 6 months.
When I decided to take out my loan for training, I didn’t have any debt from college, but I was still nervous about it. I lived at home during training. As a CFI I lived off of $2k/mo, I sold most of my possessions when I was desperate, I borrowed money from my mom when I was even more desperate, I charged my credit cards when I was even more desperate. I always managed to make my minimum monthly payments every month. When I was hired by Horizon, my bonus check paid off my credit card debt. I refinanced my loan from 9.125% to 5%. I still have 70% of my loan to pay off, but because I worked my butt off, and got very lucky with my timing I must admit, I know that I will be fine.
I share this to show you how scary some months were, but I was able to figure out how to get through it. Should I have saved more before starting? Absolutely. But I didn’t. Had I waited my life would look very different. But I still would have found a way to make ends meet.
Tory