...is to go for it. I'm late to the thread, but as a guy that soloed at 19 and finally finished up my PPL this summer at 41, I can tell you my biggest regret is in not doing it sooner. Call it a mid-life crisis, the drive to get my non-pilot dad up with me to see the Mississippi country side before his vision is completely lost to macular degeneration, or just the ache that hit when I heard the buzz of an engine overhead and thought, "Man, I'd love to be up there." For any of those and many other reasons, I stopped saying "some day" and made it a reality.
College, marriage, family, and work throughout those 22 intervening years - everything was a good or great excuse to not get it done. But the dream didn't die, and now that I have my "license to learn", I'm passing on the dream to my boys. Maybe they'll be like the young man that posted earlier in the thread and have their PPLs by the time they're 17. Maybe not, but the option will be there for them to the degree that I can encourage them and help.
To the extent you can, prioritize the budget. Eat tuna fish, PB&J, and mac & cheese. Do whatever it takes to throw the spare change into the "flying jar" every chance you get. You'll get there. I finally got my dad in the air in early August. When we landed and that tough old fart just looked at me with a hint of a tear in his eye and smiled, it was worth every penny.
With all this said, I'm probably going to have to put my flying on hold for a while for a one-year trip to the sand box for my Uncle - but I'll take my off-duty time to refine my RV-10 building plans

. Again, go for it, Mcstealth. And let us know when you knock out that King course.