You don’t have to own your own rig; I know long distance drivers making $80K and up driving company rigs.
Good truck drivers are hard to find.
I did, too (from working 5 years as a billing clerk for Yellow Transportation), but those guys were Teamsters. From what I gathered from my conversations with them, their non-union counterparts made substantially less.
At the low-end of the truck-driving scale, the guys who delivered soda to local convenience stores (this was in Louisiana, so YMMV) made only a dollar or so above minimum wage.
Well, I didn’t, but quite a lot of people did.
I think it’s silly to include politician in this discussion, for the same reason as professional atheletes and entertainers. While they might not require a formal education, they require a phenomenal amount of talent, skill, and other education, none of which can really be gained “on the job.”
I knew someone would beat me to this. To go a little further (in car sales), I have HEARD of guys who were fresh out of high school making 75k a year. I have heard of guys who were 30 years old with no high school diploma making 100k a year.
Me, I have a college education and make 150k+ a year. However, I believe my General Manager has no formal education (if you mean college and/or technical school) and probably makes 400-500k a year. But he has been in the business for 30 years or so.
The problem with jobs like this is that while the superstars can make a lot of money, the median salary is probably considerably lower, and most people will be near the median.
You might find a very few teamsters making that, but it’s sure as hell not typical.
If you ask a trucker about money, you’ll get one of two stories: either they’re crying poor mouth, or they’re raking it in hand over fist and they’re both likely lying through their teeth.
An owner/operator can make a comfortable sounding net, but they’re putting in 70-80 hours a week to do it. The industry is trying to attract retired couples who both drive. They sell them on the idea of making good money while seeing the country for free. They soon find out that the good money only comes if they’re both working lots of hours, and their sightseeing is all through the windshield. You’ll see them interviewed on the news from time to time and they always say they love it. What else are they going to say after they have committed to a hundred and some thousand dollar loan to buy the rig and then signed a lease contract w/ a trucking company. People just don’t like to admit, even to themselves, that they’ve made a huge mistake. They believe that they can make it work. Most of the O/O’s making big bucks have found a niche market, but in most of those cases it takes years of experience and a bit of luck to fall into something like that. You are not going to walk into you local trucking company, go through their driver training, and start making 50-60 grand plus bennies.
Bail Bondsman/Bailrunner
Boyfriend makes 6 figures a year. He is more of a runner than a bondsman. He catches people who skip bail. (NO he is not Dog the Bounty Hunter). Bounty hunters are illegal in my state. A Bailrunner works for a Bondsman and gets a percentage of the bond for catching the guy.
If a $1,000,000 bond skips his court date, and my boyfriend catches him, my boyfriend makes $50,000. :eek: 
Nice work if you can get it.
Best money for less education?
Stripper. Gals that dance in the upscale clubs make great money. Granted, there are downsides to that lifestyle, but it’s legal in more places than hooking is…
I’ve heard that male strippers do pretty well for themselves as well.
The obvious job, if all you care about is money, is sales. You have to be something of a sociopath and not have any compassion for your fellow man, and a “gift of gab”, but those can be learned. The consummate salesperson is the confidence artist, if you figure the reward is worth the risk.
How about a garbage collector?
I’ve heard they make pretty good money.
A buddy of mine worked as a **logger ** in Montana for a couple years. He said it paid *very * well. But was dangerous as hell.
Any job that trades time away from home for money. If it involves OTC then you can leverage that up over time. Example: if you want to drive your ass off you can make $60K driving a truck. It will take a couple of years to generate that wage after you get your license. River barges pay well but you’re gone for a month at a time. That’s fine if you don’t have a love-life because all your money hits the bank. You’re on the boat the entire time.
So, what’s the difference between a Bounty Hunter and a Bailrunner? Does the bailrunner just track down the guy and then call the authorities?
A Bounty Hunter is more of an independent contractor. He can go after anyone. He may or may not have an affiliation with a bonding company. A Bailrunner works for one Bondsman and can only catch skips that his employer has bonded out.
The Bailrunner still goes in and makes the apprehension. They are licensed and regulated by the state Department of Insurance.
Actually, the Governator has a degree. From your link:
“He earned a B.A. from the University of Wisconsin-Superior, where he graduated with degrees in international marketing of fitness and business administration in 1979.”
Sociopath? How did you come up with that?
Stay at home mom. All you need is a functioning reproductive system. The hours are crazy but the long term benefits are wonderful.
I disagree with this on so many levels, as a SAHM. Sure, the benefits are great, but the pay sucks! And while you CAN do it with no education, there’s more on-the-job training than in *any *other field - it literally never ends for the whole duration of your job. It’s not like a 6 week training course and then you’re all set. Plus, you have to find your own textbooks and teachers and the entire freakin’ courseload is self-study, with no homework, but quizzes and tests every 2.4 minutes! And no one ever tells you what’s going to be on the mid-term! (Hopefully, you won’t have to face the final exam.)
And IF we required some sort of formal education first, we’d all be a lot better off, IMHO.
I totally agree with that last sentence. 
Plus the all-nighters are a killer.
As someone whose uncle sold cars for 25 years, I think you’re overstating this a bit. Some people are good at sales because they build genuine trust with customers. In fact, my uncle’s personal policy (not always shared by the dealerships he worked for) was to never lie to anyone about what they were getting. As a result he got a lot of repeat business other guys didn’t get.