It's not frivolous, and yes, you could be successful. BUT college could help. For one thing, when you study on your own, you miss out on the feedback you get from class discussions, assignments and tests. Don't underestimate the value of that.

For another thing, most investors don't strike it rich, so having that college degree would be a good backup plan.

I would say go and major in investing or finance. When you take English Composition, for example, you will have to write a research paper. Write it on something about investing that you want to learn. Take accounting so you learn how to read the numbers in financial statements. Pick your required science and social science courses with investing in mind. For instance, taking environmental science will help you pick which "green" companies making environmentally-friendly products might be the ones to invest in. Political science will educate you on how government affects investing. Psychology can give you insight into why people buy from one company over another...

You can start investing in small ways on your own now, but wait to profit before investing more. If you really want to devote full time to studying investing, fine, give it a year and re-evaluate then.

Sure you can 'make it in life' but it depends on how you wish to live your life. You are young and if you are a stellar student who can teach yourself all that you need to know about investing...then do it. All you have to lose is your $35,000. Hope this helps.

A really, really good investor can consistently yield 10-15% annual return. (No-one would EVER start businesses, which typically earn 15-30% annual return if that were not the case, since running a business is so much harder).

So if you can live on the $3,500-$5,250 a year (almost $15 a day!) you can realistically expect to consistently generate, then go for it!

Silly goose!