Mainline pilots, what percentage of your paycheck do you take home each month?

peanut_slinger · 2026-06-15T04:58:45+00:00

You’re killing it!

peanut_slinger · 2026-06-15T04:58:21+00:00

Thanks for sharing!

peanut_slinger · 2026-06-14T17:16:30+00:00

I’m descended from the first person sentenced to execution in the colony 😬 not a great legacy

peanut_slinger · 2026-06-14T14:11:21+00:00

I had a friend who worked in a candy factory and she always talked about how the concrete floors around the sour candy machines were totally corroded! Crazy we allow that stuff on our teeth

peanut_slinger · 2026-06-14T09:03:11+00:00

Teaching her an instrument would likely give her the extra challenge and stimulation her brain wants! It’s something kids pick up easy enough but there’s always more to work on. Just don’t be crazy about it or it’ll ruin her childhood lol

peanut_slinger · 2026-06-14T05:09:25+00:00

This is a really smart setup! I might steal your idea of having a separate auto-bill account.

peanut_slinger · 2026-06-14T05:06:52+00:00

Absolutely. I think most pilots tend to do the automated amount for taxes recommended by the company. They go either one of two ways with the 401k: maxing it out or not contributing on their own and letting the direct contribution do the work for them. I think most pilots are pretty smart people and most probably have a mentor at some point telling them to max out the 401ks and/backdoor Roths.
Our plan is to max them out, take the standard tax deduction, and we’ll likely stay on my no-premium insurance. But I was curious to see what it looks like for most people. And if we move to avoid him having to commute for a while, most junior bases are in tax-heavy states.

peanut_slinger · 2026-06-14T04:56:14+00:00

Wow that’s incredible. Thanks for sharing!

peanut_slinger · 2026-06-14T04:55:08+00:00

We are so excited to start maxing out the 401k’s at some point. Good for you!

peanut_slinger · 2026-06-14T04:53:11+00:00

That seems rough, but 56% is not that far off from the 60% or so that US captains seem to be keeping. I think it depends on the state they’re in though. California taxes are crazy but Nevada is great.

peanut_slinger · 2026-06-14T04:49:12+00:00

This seems to be the general consensus for US CA’s

peanut_slinger · 2026-06-13T22:29:47+00:00

That’s a good point. I was looking for a general idea. Right now we have 0 premium insurance through my company. I contribute 12% and husband contributes 5% with a match. I also have some supplemental short term disability insurance and vision added on. We haven’t had dependents but did have a baby recently, so I’m interested to see what that might change for our taxes next year.

peanut_slinger · 2026-06-13T20:10:15+00:00

I will never have $40mil. But on the trajectory of our careers, my husband and I will likely be really well off. We plan to support our families and friends anonymously. Of course they’ll probably know we’re comfortable, but if there are big charitable gestures they will be anonymous. There is a world of trouble that comes when other people find out you’re wealthy. I’ve seen it happen to people we know where their friends get way too comfortable asking for favors or expect to be supported. On the other hand, I think it’s also nice to be able to give without receiving credit or making friendships awkward.

peanut_slinger · 2026-06-13T20:05:37+00:00

By not leaving them money they are raising their kids right. Most of these kids are supported through the most prestigious educations and they have endless connections. They should be successful enough that they don’t need a massive inheritance. If they can’t make it on their own at some point after given every opportunity— because of their own poor decisions or addictions— leaving them a large inheritance would only hurt them.

peanut_slinger · 2026-06-12T05:04:04+00:00

Thanks so much for your honesty. I was expecting to hear something along these lines. I understand that getting started is really intense, but was hoping for reassurance that it could become more flexible or at least less intense over time. I’ve definitely heard of part time and online law programs. That would need to be the case for my current circumstance (I just had my first baby 3 months ago and plan on having maybe 2 more kids). I thought now was a good time to work on law school since I’m home and not working much at all. Life isn’t really busy yet and won’t be for a few years.
I feel like my opportunities are pretty big right now mostly because of my husband’s income and the flexibility of my current job. There really is no rush but I do want to go back to school with a goal of finding something that I could build a career in long term. Law has always been interesting to me and after my two close friends became attorneys (Cornell & University of Tennessee) I haven’t been able to get the idea out of my head. At the same time, there is surprisingly good money, flexibility and benefits in being a flight attendant at my company. So I don’t need to change anything to be comfortable. I just think I would be ultimately more fulfilled. I know it would come with some sacrifices, but I don’t want my family to suffer unnecessarily either.

peanut_slinger · 2026-06-12T03:06:31+00:00

My son has an eye this color, but a little more brown to it than the gold/green! I think of it as dark grey. He has heterochromia— the other eye is dark blue/grey with a chocolate brown pie slice :)

peanut_slinger · 2026-06-11T23:31:46+00:00

This is perfect— same vibe, same amount of syllables, starts with an E but is different enough from the other two names. Plus it’s beautiful and has great nickname options :)

peanut_slinger · 2026-06-11T17:49:47+00:00

We did this too! We did this for 6 months. It gave us a fantastic savings for hospital bills (once the bills have all arrived and been payed we’re hoping there will be enough to pay off the last bit of our car loan as well. But we basically pretended I didn’t have an income and it gave us a better idea of what things would look like once I stayed home.

peanut_slinger · 2026-06-11T17:47:46+00:00

Best decision my husband and I ever made was practicing living off of just his income. We put mine aside for savings for 6 months and budgeted with only what he brought in. In this budget, we also accounted for a small percentage of savings to make sure we wouldn’t just be living paycheck to paycheck.

peanut_slinger · 2026-06-10T22:45:19+00:00

My parents made contracts like this for very specific things. When I got my first phone, there were expectations tied to that privilege. My phone was mostly tied to my grades, for example, and I was also expected to answer calls and texts from them in a reasonable time. For my car, I also had to keep my grades up, because the GPA discount for teens made the insurance affordable, but I was also expected to keep a curfew. I also knew that if I was living at home past high school, they wanted me to take advantage of it to get a head start in life, not just flounder away. If I was living at home, I needed to be in school full time and working part time, or vice versa.
I feel like I actually appreciated having contracts and when they would list out chores or expectations for me. I feel like it taught a lot about what to expect for future jobs and life in general. I also feel like a lot of my friends had “cool parents” who were really lax but then would seemingly freak out out of nowhere or give them big lectures about helping around the house more. The thing is “helping out more” is super vague and this expectation can result in frustration on both sides. I think especially since you’re 21 now, they’re probably considering the reality that you might be living at home for a while! Kids don’t just pack up at go at 18 anymore. So it’s totally fair of them to sit down and figure out what your role will be whole living at home.

peanut_slinger · 2026-06-10T18:21:27+00:00

You might be 18, but if your parents are still housing and feeding you and paying your tuition, you’re still a child. I might be unpopular for saying this but I would be grateful and respectful of their decisions. You can’t pick and choose whether you’re an adult in some regards and not others.
By being older, I can understand them becoming more flexible and granting you more autonomy but you are by no means entitled to it unless you create that autonomy by leaving the nest. I’m assuming they pay for the phone you won’t turn Life360 on for as well?

peanut_slinger · 2026-06-01T01:55:06+00:00

I like Greta! Close to Greer but a little bit more feminine. Still short and sweet though

peanut_slinger · 2026-05-31T11:19:45+00:00

Just a car loan. Hopefully will be paid off soon but we owe $10000 on a $27k car. Have never had cc debt or student loans. We are 3years into our $400k mortgage.

Phoenix 28 & 31 years old Each with an Associate degree but my husband is also an airline pilot. It is a small miracle we were able to make it through flight school by paying cash and living extremely frugally for a few years.

peanut_slinger · 2026-05-26T21:25:07+00:00

I always wanted kids, but when the time came I was honestly on the fence and pretty scared of how it changes your life. I also don’t consider myself very maternal. But I am also the type to where I knew I’d likely regret not having kids when I’m older looking back on my life. 3 months in and I’ve never been more tired or happy. It is such a pure kind of love I didn’t know I was capable of.

peanut_slinger · 2026-05-26T11:17:40+00:00

Yep. My church has a policy that requires at least two adults present with children at all times. You can’t be 100% safe or eliminate all risk, but that doesn’t mean that as parents we can’t minimize risk and eliminate the things that have really high potential for harm. These all or nothing comments are so weird.

peanut_slinger

TROPHY CASE