I'm 21 and live in Ontario. Went to Brock University but got sick - spent a while in the hospital - flunked out.

If you were in my shoes, knowing what you know now, what would you do to get wealthy? I just took a couple books out from the library on economics and getting rich, but I feel like they might not apply so much in today's economy.

Are there things you would be interested in investing in that you think have a chance of exploding in the near future?

Is starting a business of some sort even worth thinking about in this economy? What % of start-up cost would the bank be willing to loan even if I did come up with a sick business concept and business plan?

If you don't have the schooling to get a high paying job, how does it happen?

How did you do it? Where did you start? How long did it take?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Are you interested in anything specific?

It's not too late for you to go back to school.

so you're young and have no skills but want to be rich? well, go back to school and get those skills then.

most things that you pick up in school will be in no way related to getting rich. if you want to be rich- going to school is not the path to wealth. you can go to school and end up being rich at some point, but you won't be rich because you went to school.

yeah I meant more for an almost guaranteed comfortable life. like a good 80k a year job.

Get a college degree and get a job. imo.

Go back and don't flunk out (again.) Seriously... you posted a ******ed thread. You and everyone else wants to get rich without doing hard work. More than likely you will benefit more from going back to school than from not going back.

Is this what you wanted to be told? If so, here it is.

I would suggest either playing poker or robbing a bank

Generally there are several paths to becoming very rich as far as i can tell: entrepreneurship, high end finance jobs (investment banking, or trading at an investment bank or hedge fund), being upper management in a big company, and being hugely successful selling something. In the first one, school is not required and may or may not prove helpful depending on what area you're in. In the second one, school is essentially a must and going to a top school is almost a must, and in the third school is pretty almost mandatory, and doing an MBA can be helpful, although it may be possible to go from a low-level sales job to a high level position if you're very good at selling (the only way I can think of that you can rise to the top in a company without a college degree unless you do something extraordinary). Obviously selling is its own area and you just have to sell lots of whatever you're selling or for very good margins and that may or may not require an education to do well depending on what you're selling.

Starting a business costs money. How are you going to get this money? A job is a great way to do it. How do you get a well paying job? Go to school.

ice road trucker, an american picker, run a pawn shop where you buy rare american history instead of stolen watches and jewelery or deadliest catch fisherman

Gay porn? Selling illicit substances?

In all reality go back to school, it's not too late. As what others have said the ways to get rich w/o college are sales, entrepreneurship, etc. I do not have a degree but went to a trade school learned a trade and saved up the money and opened my own business. It is not easy to just "get rich" otherwise the world would be full of millionaires.

Also are you smart? I think to be able to get ahead you have to have some sort of intelligence combined with a very good work ethic. A friend of mine is not the smartest guy in the world but works like no one I have ever meet. He makes over 300K a year owning his own business. Now, not wanting to go back to school is it because of your work ethic or you found it too hard?

Or just come up with the next big thing: facebook, pet rocks, whateva. I think this would be like winning the lottery. Huge reward with very high odds of failure.

theres alot more money to be made on the buy side than the sell side btw. successful PMs probably kill successful MDs at Ibanks

This is very very true, do you want to be really rich or just comfortable? I mistakenly went to college assuming it would help me *not* get a job and I regretted it.

If you dont want a job the best options you have available is some combination of the following (in order of lowest resources to highest required):
-Poker
-Selling some sort of digital goods
-Trading

Maybe a more traditional business later but the chances you succeed on that route without a good amount of capital are low IMO. Either way any of these paths is going to take a huge time commitment and passion to grind through and become an expert.

You were attending Brock so the odds were insanely stacked against you that graduating from that school you'd ever be rich. Odds are that flunking out of Brock even with a medical compassionate explanation you are not going to be accepted at any school worth attending so I wouldn't bother going back to school if you actually want to be rich.

Beyond that there is no advice to give since we know nothing about you, what skills you have, or even what you consider rich. If you give more details maybe we can give better advice but reading your OP I think just accepting that maybe lower-middle class is your best hope might be something to consider.

Great suggestions. Lots of people looking for work right now; would add raising an army to pillage city-states.


Roughly equal to whatever you can put up as collateral.


Dangerous jobs pay pretty well. There just aren't many options for a comfortable life without either putting in the effort at school or putting it in at a job site.

OP, since you are canadian you can go work on the oil rigs in albert for 2-3 years till you have a good amount of money saved. I hear those guys make 100k a year with no education.

Learn to trade the financial markets.

I grew up in Ontario and never went to University and I make a good living.

Aren't lottery tickets just $1?

Oil sands pay a lot better but he doesn't even have to go that far as any union construction job in Ontario will pay $80K+. He can also learn French and move to Ottawa -- the public service is an easy $55k-120k and you don't actually do any work. That was why I asked him for a definition of rich to see if these would be sufficient or if he wanted a rock star lifestyle.

I believe they are $2 and $5 these day at least where OP lives.

What if school isn't an option? I desperately want to go to law school but I don't think I can get a sufficient LSAT score to get in anywhere.

I would recommend walking around the local Mega-Lo Mart trying to find a puddle of pee-pee to slip on so you can get a nice settlement.

haven't even paid off my school loans from last time, i also didn't have the best highschool marks (too much weed smoking) so brock was the only place i got accepted

if i'm dead broke by age 30 i'll consider a large robbery

does anyone know somebody who has done this? i've heard king crab fishing is the most dangerous job on earth but pays really well for only a couple months work. maybe slave through those few months then invest a large chunk of what i get? this is good stuff, thanks.

I want to be comfortable in 2 or 3 years, and rich by around 30 years old. I know that is closer than it seems, I'm sick of slacking off though, I want to make this **** happen.

I couldn't get back into school even if I wanted to. Don't have the $, wouldn't get accepted for OSAP loan, and don't have the highschool marks. As for skills, I'm IQ smart but not that street/socially smart. I've always had a really low attention span too, and low work ethic, this is changing now though since quitting weed. I had a 95 in grade 12 math and a 51 in english. (Brock accepts 51's in english apparently) I used to be really good at Starcraft and pretty good at basketball, but those are obviously useless skills money wise.

the $ you hear they make is overexaggerated because the cost of living there is stupidly high, but i've considered this as well.

how did you learn? how would you learn if you knew absolutely nothing right now?

do i need a good lawyer?

Your only hope is 6/49 or LottoMax.