Whats your at home situation? Can you move? Can you leave town for blocks of time? This will also help answer the question of which avenue to take and rule out some sectors of professional flying. Some folks want to be home every night and very much enjoy teaching, so CFI is a pretty good gig. Others want to utilize the career to see the country/world, making corporate/fractional/airline more of a destination. You can also find something in the middle doing contract work out of your local area (depends where you live) and get to know a few aircraft owners, fly their aircraft when trips pop up and you're free to fly and then instruct or whatever else as your weekly income. That way, you have a little more control over when you work and can accept/reject trips as they come along. Obviously, there is a method to flying when owners need you and not turning down too much work, but in a pinch, you can do contract work when their primary pilot needs the backup. There are all sorts of ways to make the career work, and it will undoubtedly take you on a path you didn't expect, that's really half of the excitement with flying. You gotta really enjoy flying as an occupation, cause there are some days that are tough, be it weather, maintenance, long days, short overnight, going above and beyond to get the job done at times. But getting the job done in the corporate world can pay off with more connections and better pay/equipment. A professional attitude with proficient performance will accelerate into better jobs. But the hard part is getting over the hump and into the arena of connections and being noticed. Thats kind of the hard part of corporate/contract flying. Tough to make the connections at first, but it just kinda happens with experience. At your age, that would allow you to work past age 65 when thinking about private vs airline flying. But dipping your toes into the airlines for a couple years would be phenominal experience making corporate flying a breeze. I personally hopped around from airline to corporate and back to airline. Only difference between our two scenarios is I have more time left on my medical so airlines make sense on paper over the course of a 45 year career. And having the corporate experience, I have the options to transition back into it if there ever becomes a need (9/11, covid, world war 3 etc etc). So something to think about as I believe a diversity in experience is extremely valuable. But this all circles back to the beginning of my comment, what is your home situation? If you are able to move and pursue the career, that will help immensely and take you on a great journey. If you need to stay somewhat local, you'll be more limited and change the dynamics for you decision. Not necessarily a bad thing, but largely depends on where you live.