My 19 year old son just got accepted into an plumbing apprenticeship program. He starts with only a HS education and is starting at $12.90 per hour, the cost of his associates in applied science is paid for and in 3 years, he will have his AAS, no school debt, and will be testing for his Journeyman’s in plumbing and likely will be making $24 to $26 per hour.
If he stays on and works for his masters licence in plumbing, he will get a Bachelors in Applied Science, already have a job, will be making around $42 per hour (median income) ..... and no school loans and will be 25 years old.
Compare that to a Bachelors graduating at 22 or 23 and $80K in debt.
Awesome.
My 18 year old just got his CDL license. Once he returns from a summer volunteer gig, he has a job lined up. I think starting pay is about $40K a year. His class was $4,000 but the school told him about a grant that paid $3,000 of it.
At the same time, another son is a recently minted engineer. His first job starts Monday at $65K a year. He’s got some debt, but it’s manageable and should be paid off in a year or two. About half of it is Mom and Dad Savings and Loan and interest free.
...and if your son is smart, he will save money like there’s no tomorrow, and put his savings (after a rainy-day fund that is untouchable) into rental real estate. That’ll give him passive income that he can’t be fired or laid-off from, something that most people don’t have. By the time he is 35, he should be able to own either half a dozen to a dozen houses, or else a small apartment complex.