That’s what I did, but it was the late 1990s so things were a bit different. Married with a kid, single-income household on the salary of a high school dropout. Fortunately for me the software industry was easy to get into back then and housing was cheaper. Funds were tight for a decade or so, but it’s gone well.

My kids all moved out in the past 5 years, skipped college and are living on their own with livable wages from jobs they like, more or less, and homes they own; one with kids, one renting their own place with a life-partner. Not having student loans helps, as does living in the forsaken US midwest where housing costs aren’t terrible (the tradeoff being that entertainment options can be more limited than closer to the coasts. A decent one bedroom apartment in a safe area is like $900, mortgage on a somewhat crappy medium-sized house like $1200, provided you got in on those sweet 3% mortgages).

Norwegian govt gave me enough money to pay rent at a boarding school when I was 17. I earned enough in my apprenticeship to rent an apartment and have a crappy car, in a small town, for two years when I was 20. Unemployment benefit (and eggs, rice, and tomato-beans) supported me for 3 months when renting in Oslo in a shared rundown apartment with 5 other people while I was looking for work, when I was 23. The job I found, 1&2 line tech support for a small software company, wasn’t well-paying but good enough to pay my share of the rent and eat a bit better, and eventually buy a car again. And my dad has occasionally helped me with a bit of money when I made a mistake. Only what he could afford, and I paid back most of it.

So thats how I did it. I’ve been lucky. With country, with parents, and with friends.

I don’t see how people in any country can do it without some kind of govt support if they don’t start out with rich parents.

Roommates. Lots of roommates.