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That depends. What sorts of things do you like doing? Do you like working outdoors? Making things with your hands? A number of trades offer decent pay; not enough to move you into Brentwood, but enough for a comfortable living.

I like doing things that are challenging both mentally and physically. Competition brings out the best in me. I dont mind hard work but I tend to lose focus and get bored when tasks become redundant.

I have a degree, as do 2 of my sisters. One brother and one sister do not.

I was a geologist, a field I would not have even though about had I not originally started in to be a teacher. I was intrigued with the geology classes I took, and ended up as a coal geologist. I left the field when my daughter was born, and started a second career years later in antiques. This did not require a degree, but I use a lot of my organizational skills in it.

One sister is an art teacher at a parochial school, makes little money but is happy. One sister is a nurse but is thinking of a career change.

My Brother is an electrician, which did not require a degree but did require several years of apprenticeship. One sister has worked her way up in the retail industry, but says it would have been a lot easier if she had gone to college, because she has to work twice as hard to prove her worth.

My brother is in his 40's and is tired of the physical work. This is something to consider if you go into a field associated with construction. It is a fine thing when you are young, but when you are in your 40's and arthritis starts to rear its ugly head, you might wish you had a business degree.

I guess my advice would be to keep your options open as long as possible. I don't know of too many people who ever LOST a job because they had a degree. I know quite a few who think they would have had a better shot at a job if they had had one. It's only a piece of paper, but proving you had the mettle to get it valuable to employers.

No matter what a person decides to do as a career, he or she should be aware of the heritage of liberty and republican constitutional government that has been passed down to us. One of our greatest problems as a society is that there are many who have good jobs but lack the slightest degree of knowledge or appreciation of this heritage and its basis in our Western civilization. I guess everyone at FreeRepublic has the appreciation. The more detailed knowledge, if not gained at a conservative (non-politically correct) college, can also be gained through independent study at the library and on-line here.

To the point of your question, and this will no doubt sound simplistic, the key to success is matching up what fields are in demand or likely to be in the near future, what you're good at, and what you'd like to do. If you're good at something that's in demand but you hate the job, the situation can be quite a dilemma. I know a gentleman who hates being an accountant because the job doesn't give him enough opportunity to socialize with people. I can appreciate his feelings because to me, being a tax accountant in particular, would be the world's dullest job. It's also possible to get burned out on a particular job or even a given career.

Anyway, excuse this long winded reply and stay on FreeRepublic.

I like doing things that are challenging both mentally and physically.

The latter may not require a degree, but the former will. Also, non-degreed positions are more likely to involve the repetitive work you say bores you.

I take it from your post that you're either in high school or just out. In such a position, I'd go to a junior college and spend some time taking core classes in fields that interest you. (While you're there, you can also get some of the general ed classes out of the way.) If you enjoy the classes for a particular field, then you may enjoy the work later. That's how I discovered that I like optical engineering. I took a class in the program for giggles and the rest is history.