I’d give joining the military serious consideration. Having Veteran status can open doors to opportunities when you get out.

This has been covered but I vote you finish high school. After that, I recommend college if you want to pursue a degree/graduate degree that makes financial sense.

Otherwise, some of the wealthiest guys I know learned a trade and worked their tails off to build some really nice businesses. The military is a good option too. One of my sons will likely head to an Academy but I think enlisted men/women can earn a great start in life with their service.

Good luck and I too applaud you for thinking about these important decisions.

The highest paid careers are the ones with the most difficult barriers to entry. Obviously jobs like doctor and lawyer are a lot of work to get into and pay well. But licensed trades do too. Finding a 5 year apprenticeship for electrician or plumber can be difficult and being licensed in those trades is lucrative. State laws vary but some places require the same types of apprenticeship programs for other trades too: HVAC, locksmith, etc.

The easier it is to get into a job, the less it pays.

I like a lot of what Mike Rowe has to say, however, I'm not Mike Rowe.
If you can make a living pursuing what you are passionate about, you won't "work" a day in your life.

Well you got a lot of advice on the forum look it over and keep getting informed. The common denominator on replies to your post FINISH HIGH SCHOOL if you cant do two more years at your age don't even think about the military.

Education is something that never can be taken away. West Point is a good career path if its fits in your plans to make it useful in the future. If you are looking for employment it certainly looks good on a resume.

Here's a few thoughts in no particular order...

Military- while admirable, I wouldn't want my son to join the military. You work for the commander in chief, and now a days as politicians get crazier you might be forced to take a position or act on something you don't believe in.

Trades- I was in a labor union for 14 years, fed my family. Have a retirement coming(if they don't screw it up) Nothing wrong with this route if you want to go this way.

College- Everyone pays for an education whether it is called college and you pay tuition for it or not. Some educations are good and others are bad. You want a good education. For example, say you decide to go after the greenhouse business. You find someone that will hire you on building greenhouses but only for $15/hr, but the trade job will pay $25/hr. But after one year you will be qualified to build greenhouses. Count that $10/hr difference x 2000 hours= $20k tuition.

College #2- Some jobs are going to require college. I am told around here(Indiana) you need a college tuition to become a game warden. Vincennes University here in Indiana has a Conservation Law Enforcement Associates degree. It might be worth checking out if you decide to pursue that route.

Start a greenhouse business(or other)- Starting a business would be difficult and might result in great failure or great success. I am 39 and started my business 8 years ago. I make mistakes all the time. I wish I had started my business when I was 18 and made those mistakes long ago and had the benefit of operating my business having learned from said mistakes long ago. So my advice is if you really want to do this do it young. Apprentice for a couple of years and start.

Hope this helps.

I am also going to be a junior next year and I have been thinking about my future a lot. First off, finish high school! In my personal opinion and counsel from my parents, I am more focused on the life style I want to be able to live and enjoy before choosing an actual career I want to pursue. That being said, you can do almost anything you want to and make a killing. I met a plumber while I was fishing in Alaska once. When I asked him about his career choice as a plumber, he said that he did not regret his decisions but also that he had to work very hard. Several others asked him how many employee's he had and he responded by saying he had one employ and pointed to his buddy who was also fishing with him. Knowing that he had more than one employee they proceeded to ask the other guy how many employees he had. His response was something like 84 employees. This man was a very successful business owner and he worked very hard doing something he was good at and in the process he was able to build a very successful business. My point to this long story is that first decide the lifestyle you want to live and what you are willing to sacrifice to get there. Another thing that some people say is that it takes money to make money, but that is not completely true. While having access to money to start with helps it is not needed. I also knew several people whose grandparents immigrated to the US from India with next to nothing and through hard work they were able to create multi-million dollar businesses. I have also heard of people coming from multi-million dollar families who refused to work and they made some stupid decisions and lost all of their money and ended up either in prison or homeless. I know this is a long post and it may be confusing. PM me if you have any more questions and I have a few more things I can share as well as what my plans are after high school.

Figure out a way to make money doing the things you like to do. If you work hard the money will take care of itself. Finish high school no exceptions. I wouldn't waste my money on college these days what a racket. If you want to do a trade go to trade school.

Forget the saying that if you do what you love you won't work a day in your life. It's a lie. No matter what you choose, some days will be tough, sometimes even weeks or months, that's the nature of making a living. I have spent 40 years doing the things I love and I wouldn't change a thing, there are days when it's amazing that I get paid to hunt, fish and trap and there are other days when I have to grind it out.

Life will throw you curveballs and unless you just get a job and settle in to it, you'll be a very different place 40 years from now than you can imagine. Take my word for it, you can't predict the future.

Thankyou for all the advice and I’ve retained much of it, and will use it. I think many of you guys are confused or just plain didn’t know about the trade degree thing I was talking about. At my school we have a trade school near by called Apollo, anyways you go there like a regular school but you do the classes you need to graduate high school while at the same time you take classes on learning a trade, so when you come out of Apollo you have a high school diploma and a trade degree. Anyways right now im thinking that what I might do is get a degree or learn a trade and make capital on that to start a business, and then I always have a job to fall back on, or something like that. If the job I get with the degree or trade is good I’ll just stay there. And right away I’m going to start investing once I get a job.

College may or not make sense and be a good investment. It 100% depends on your field.

I am glad I went and make much more than I would have with no degree. I did trades type work while in college and learned quick that the customers with the nice house and money all were college grads....meanwhile my then co workers lived paycheck to paycheck.

I stayed in school and worked hard. Bachelors then a masters degree (paid for by my employer).

Excellent advice.

School really wasn't for me, the thought of doing any additional school after High school was something I couldn't stomach.

I worked a few different jobs, a lot of hours. I really found my place when I started my own business, I should have started it sooner. If you decide to start a business and would like some advice/someone to talk to feel free to PM me, I'm not expert but I've survived the school of hard knocks so far.

I read your opening post and have purposely avoided reading any of the replies. Having flunked out of the 5th grade and never attending high school. I got 95% of my education as an adult. It wasn't easy. I barely passed entrance exam and got into military service. I studied when I could and pasted a GED high school test while in service. After service I took a couple of correspondences courses before going to college. I made better college grades than recent high school graduates did simply because I had a purpose. I went on to become an accountant and budgeting manager for a 4,500 employee manufacturing plant. I am telling you this to emphasize what can be done when determination exists.

My suggestion (not advice) is to finish high school paying particular attention to math. A job with work somehow related related to your future business and supplemented by trade school if possible could give you a head start before starting your own business. I have seen businesses succeed and fail. Many business failures result from over expansion after early successes. Confidence is necessary but overconfidence can be a killer.

As for college, people get paid more because they have a degree. If you will be your own boss college would mostly just help you develop logic skills. Military is not for everyone. Do what you want to do or you probably will spend many years wishing you had.

My 2 cents worth. I'm sure others have given you good pointers. Good luck.

That may be true. I wouldn't know. I have also heard that when you marry for money you earn every penny.

I do know that many a person's career plans have been ruined by unintentionally starting a family.

Game warden is a great job but in most states barely make a livable wage. College might not be required in every states but definitely helps. In this day and age unless you don't have to pay for your own college or get some kind of grant or scholarship or debt forgiveness from the state where you would become a game warden, I can't imagine being able to manage student loan debt on a game warden salary. In PA, they barely make enough to cover living expenses.

If you have aspirations of starting your own business, college may or may not be worth the investment. I went to school on the GI Bill and still had loans that took my wife and me many years to pay off before we were at the point where we felt we could afford to have kids. One of the biggest regrets in my life is not having kids younger.

That degree landed me a good job, but in the end was it worth it?

A buddy of mine knows a financial planner who shows his clients a model where an 18 year old high school grad who learns a trade and starts working and saving for retirement right away and ends up better or at least no worse off than his peer who goes to college for several years and racks up a lot of debt. The college grad makes more money when he does start working, but he has an uphill battle to catch up to the kid who got the jump by starting to work and save right away. The power of compounding interest. And keep in mind that you will never get rich or get far ahead as an employee no matter how good a job you have. The system just doesn't allow for it. Everyone I know who is well off is self-employed or runs their own business. Greater risk, but greater reward.

College obviously isn't required to be in business for yourself, but you might learn things in school that will help you in business like better reading and writing, math, accounting, business management, etc.

Definitely finish high school, and consider enlisting in the military. You'll learn and experience more in a few years than most people will in a lifetime. You'll mature faster, become more responsible, and depending on your MOS you will get technical skills that you can use the rest of your life, all on Uncle Sam's dime. This also gives you some time to really figure out what you want to do, and if you decide to go to college, you'll get money for that too. If you want to be a game warden or get any government job, the civil service bonus points you get for being a veteran make a huge difference. Being a warden is so competitive that it's very hard to get into without those veteran points. No matter how well you do on the entrance exams, there will be a veteran who does just as good and gets 10 points added to his score.

If you really want to be a game warden, see if your state has a volunteer or part-time program like we do here in PA. You get the best of both worlds, the ability to experience being a game or fish warden and still get to make a living at the same time. Most of the deputies I know make probably twice as much or more in their civilian careers as the their full-time counterparts make.

Last piece of advice: whatever you do, put away at least 10% toward retirement.

In college what helped me most was a heavy dose of economic analysis, business law, and business report writing.

I had posted this in another thread also.
This book is the most influential investment and money book I have ever read, bar none. The Richest Man In Babylon by George S Clason :-)