About

I'm Chintan Patel. I'm an airline pilot, and I write Before65.

I grew up in India in a middle-class family, where the expected paths were engineering or medicine. When I was 17, my sister told me about a friend from her school who had become an airline pilot in the United States. That one story changed my direction. At 18, I moved to the U.S. to train, and my parents paid for it. I've never taken that investment lightly. It's a big part of why I take money seriously.

I trained in Daytona Beach and stayed. Over four years I became a Gold Seal flight instructor and check airman, and taught somewhere between 300 and 400 pilots. I also finished a degree in aeronautics at Embry-Riddle while working full time. Then came the airlines, and a few cross-country moves to keep the career moving.

Why 65

Under current U.S. rules, no one can serve as a pilot in Part 121 airline operations after turning 65. Most people get to treat retirement as a flexible target. My career has a fixed end date.

To me, retirement doesn't necessarily mean you stop flying. It means you stop flying for the money. You own enough assets to produce sufficient cash flow for the rest of your life, even if the job ended tomorrow.

I'm not there. I'm still early and still building. But that definition shapes the decisions I make now, and Before65 is where I think them through.

How I think

Teaching shaped me more than anything. A mentor of mine had a habit of asking why a problem existed, not just how to fix it. I picked that up, and now I apply it to money.

I'm a systems person. I trust rules more than gut feel. I want to understand something before I act on it, and I'd rather check an assumption than hope it holds.

I'm also drawn to new ideas, sometimes too much. I've researched and walked away from far more business ideas than I've started. The one I did build was PropelAPilot, an online ground-school course. It made a little money from my own students before I had to pause it. It taught me more about business than all the ideas I only thought about.

What I write about

Money. Saving, investing, retirement accounts, and the assumptions that hold a plan up.

Career transitions. What changing direction actually costs, and how to prepare before you have to.

Business. Learning to think like an owner: judging an opportunity before committing money and time to it.

I write as a financially literate person who happens to be a pilot. Aviation shows up in my examples because it's my life. The questions apply to anyone who'd rather decide what comes next than have it decided for them.

How I write

I opened a Roth IRA at 20. That gave me a head start on habits, not on understanding. I'm still learning, and I write as I learn.

Every piece says whether it comes from my experience or my research, keeps facts separate from opinion, cites its sources, and shows the assumptions behind every number.

What this isn't

Before65 is a personal publication, not an advisory service. I'm not giving you a formula, and I'm not telling you what to do with your money. I'm showing how I'm thinking about mine.

Before65 shares personal experiences and general educational information. It does not provide individualized financial, investment, tax, or legal advice.