Credibility and respect can only come through time and experience. Yes, getting a PhD in psychology would help get you some of those but only because you would then be 27+ years old and had done a lot of work in that time period, would have a lot of experience in psychology.

One does not suddenly have money, enough time put in and the experience, all of those happen one little step after another. You do not have to have the money right now for a PhD, you have to apply to a good college, be accepted, and then figure out how to pay for September's semester of schooling next. Of course you do not understand about money, how could you with no experience working with money yet, no "need" for it, no job to receive it so you can pay it out, invest it, buy food, housing, the care of yourself, etc.? All those things happen day-by-day not suddenly.

Research on the pineal gland has to take place in a laboratory, over time, is not just reading. One can have a theory, "kids are being affected more than adults. . ." but it takes time to test it out. No one respects a theory that hasn't been tested out sufficiently. Work on getting into college, studying and researching in psychology, and then testing out your theories (I take it you want to study neuroscience?) as you get to that point. There's lots of great things to study! http://www.psych.umn.edu/research/