The trades: carpentry, plumbing, roofing, etc. Plus side, it doesn’t require a degree.
Where I live, two of the three trades you listed require completion of 4-year apprenticeships, including a minimum of 6 weeks of in-school technical training per year. It’s much cheaper to train as an apprentice than it is to pay other post-secondary tuitions, and you earn an income most of the time you’re an apprentice, but the reality is a lot more complicated.
And it’s also very easy to be employed in most trades and not make that much. It depends on which trade you’re in, how much punishment you can take, and whether you’re in a union job or not.
Basically, jobs that destroy your body, so you can’t work past 55 anyway.
As if sitting at a desk all day doesn’t destroy your body.
I’ll pick a physically active job any day of the week. If you choose not to wear your gloves, knee pads, ear defenders, goggles etc. it’s on you.
Then be smart about it. The money you saved from not paying for college can go into a retirement account. When your body is “destroyed” you have retirement income.
That’s not really a solution though, right? It’s more like a minimal survival mechanism restricted to those privileged with financial literacy and good discipline/planning in a system where people are (paradoxically) forced to trade their health for livelihood. Many, many people will fall short of such a bar through no fault of their own.
Or you transition to an owner/management role so that you can stop punishing your body in your 40s
