I'm back after a short slumber.

[Gman]

..

What does killing sea turtles with plastic assault straws have to do with this?

[jenznat0r]

Yep, I can name three jobs right now where you can make $100k+ in the first year with no degree and little to moderate training. There are no benefits, no raises, and no movement beyond striking out on your own to start a business. Cut that down to $50-$60 k and you wouldn't have to travel and could still do some sort of education on the side at the same time.

I'd be interested to know more if you'd be willing to share. It's genuinely looking like I might possibly move, but not without a plan like I mentioned. I need to do my research and this would be helpful.

[cableguy11]

Career with no degree, get in the Electric/Gas Industry...People always need power! It has served me very very well! You could start as a utility worker and move your way up very quickly.

[Irving]

You can go work for a roofing company and go sell roofs. They might have you start as a door knocker at first, but once you start selling roofs, it shouldn't be too difficult to make at least $50,000 in a summer. Count on NO money during the winter though, which means you need to budget like an adult with a family that depends on you.

[ChickNorris]

What does killing sea turtles with plastic assault straws have to do with this?

Sitfu.

[spqrzilla]

Sitfu.

Was not Chiun the last Master of Sitfu?

[MrPrena]

I love no degree business. Less capitals, less labor, and easier to run it. UNTIL every DAMN PERSON will find the same or niche and do the same crap and eat most of my market shares.

Those jobs or business requires constant hussle.

I know a turd who owns defense laser and optical company. They have to hire like 30-35 experimental/solid state/plasma physicist and pay $$$$$$ labor cost. Those equipment costs are stupid and can't even flip many of them after being obsolete.
Shitty profit margin after heavy amount of edu, but not many clowns will try to get into the market.

[MrPrena]

Yep, I can name three jobs right now where you can make $100k+ in the first year with no degree and little to moderate training. There are no benefits, no raises, and no movement beyond striking out on your own to start a business. Cut that down to $50-$60 k and you wouldn't have to travel and could still do some sort of education on the side at the same time.

Might be very interested myself and enroll full time as a student to finish whstever I wanna study in 4 to 4.5 years.

[Mazin]

First off I would like to say that you're all over the place aren't you? I can relate I'm there in life as well but you have kids so you're situation is a bit harder. The way I see it is you need to do whatever you can to provide for your family, that what a man's duty in life is. Sell roofs, fry hamburgers, sell nudie pics but thats your duty.

I will say that small business is hard as hell (rewarding when the right moves are made) but if you have a desire for something then do it. Firearms are a great expensive hobby but making money in them is not going to happen, the margins for firearms is too small and you make most of your money in accessories. When you start a business the best plan is to find something with very low overhead and little startup money. The Colorado School of trades is a waste IMHO (yea did that too), if you want a real gun smithing education go to Trinidad and also take some machining classes. 20k at CST for a job starting at $20 and hour (at best) doesn't make sense.

Most people try to find something they love that they can do for a living, the people who actually do that has got to be less than 5% IMHO. My advice is instead of chasing your tail doing that (or wasting time on trying to figure that out) is to look long term. What is it that you can stand to do the others dont like to do that you can make money at.

When i was 19 i started a painting company with a buddy. Took about $3k for insurance and tooling and we were off and running. That low overhead made us about a 1000% return in 5 years (estimated). I left the company after 8 years because i was stupid and my partner at the time didn't want to reinvest and expand. In hindsight i should have done it myself but i figured I could find the holy grail and do something i loved for a living......wrong move mazin. Self employment can be rewarding but you will work harder than anyone else plain and simple.

Education is great as long as you dont get hosed by financial debt in the process. Sounds like you went back to school because you thought thats what you were supposed to do, been there and done that myself, wrong move. You need to work and gain experinces to determine what you can stand to do for 20-30 years and then......RETIRE. Retirement is the ultimate goal that few achieve anymore. Now i will say that if you want to get your degree thats fine just finish what you start, people in this life are never graded on what they CAN achieve, you are graded on what you DO achieve.

WGU is a good alternative to traditional college and a hell of a lot CHEAPER! Depending on what you want to do you can get your BA/BS less than 20k easy, btw thats what i owe for my wifes AS thats barely a resume mention anymore because it was an un accredited institution that went out of business. WGU is non profit and Accredited as well. You have to teach yourself pretty much but they have a pretty good intro workshops to tech you how to learn online, I reccomend using the Pomodoro technique for studying, its really helped me out addressing some of my attention span issues.

Whatever you do you have to make providing for your family you're number one prority, so figure out how you can do that for the long haul amd also provide yourself a retirement. Forget buying the latest gun, phone, car, house and trying to keep up with the Jones'. This world is easy to get caught up in with the fun material things that most will finance themselves to the hilt for but at the end of the day the old addage of "you can't take it with you" stands very true and working till you drop to keep up with having the newest everything is BS.

GL and welcome to being an adult Man, kinda sucks sometimes but these are the cards you have been dealt so play you hand too the best of your ability.

[thedave1164]

Just saw this, My wife was born and raised in Reno, NV she never lived anywhere else until we married.
2 years after we married, we moved across country so I could advance out of the rut I was in job wise, I made her a commitment that I would do what I could to insure she could go back to Reno every summer when it was possible financially.

I have managed to have a very good track record for this and for the past 20 years she has pretty much been back to Reno at least once every year, maybe missed one or two, and has been there more than once a couple of years. She usually goes for 3-6 weeks, lately she is ready to come home after 2 weeks.

She no longer wants to move back there, it took a while but our lives have gone a different direction than her family, who are all still in Reno. Her nephew and his wife moved out here for her to attend law school at CU Boulder, they also go back to Reno to visit, but they have no plans to ever move back even though both of their families are back there.

My commitment to get my wife back every year to see her folks has made a real difference.

Address your wifes need to stay connected with family.

Pretty much if you don't have a solid plan with school, drop it, do not waste your time or money. they will suck you dry and do not care about results.

Lots of people on this forum that have made good without a formal degree, and some of us have started over more than once.