Here's a few ideas. The first is you might look into one of those trades that take only a year or two of training but can earn a lot of money. This could be something such as an electrician or welder. Another idea is that instead of studying something necessarily "practical" in order to make a living, you study whatever interests you the most, such as history, philosophy or a foreign language. People who have a solid liberal arts education are often viewed as very intelligent and can get high-paying jobs or at least jobs in educational fields. Also, you could try to get a governmental job which is a steady job with good pay and benefits. If you stay with the same government job for 30 years, you'll have a large retirement pension fund and can retire early at age 50-55.