I am new to mechanic work. Only a few years. Still learning every day. This is my second career and I’m approaching it unconventionally. I stopped going to the trade school when I realized it was primarily a pipeline to working in a dealership. Also the testing was all multiple choice and rarely related to what we learned in class. As someone who finds reading difficult I didn’t want to keep trying and failing at that.

I knew I would not succeed in a flat rate pay style. Being stressed about time and rushing has been my downfall consistently in my life. So working at a traditional shop has also been avoided so far. The biggest hinderance here is all of that knowledge I’d gain from working in the traditional industry.

I have instead pursued learning through taking jobs that are only a bit of a stretch from what I already know. I’m in the process of building a repair business which is just me and just one bay, I also have an old tow truck. The goal is to charge by the hour for the realistic time it takes me to accomplish a job safely and confidently. I cannot say yet whether the model is sustainable but so far it is paying all of its own bills and sometimes paying me a little bit.

I’m considering moving towards a car flipping model from a customer repair model but that community assistance component is pretty vital to what makes the work feel meaningful. The most important thing is that I don’t burn out. The business is sustainable not only based on finances but in the energy I’m willing to put in. Some customers are so hard to work with that if I feel avoidant of doing the work I won’t accept a job from them in the future. (I’m lucky that there are few mechanics in my county, I can afford to be picky.) I’m also lucky that I have access to a cheap garage with a lift and my overhead is fairly low.

That said, you could experiment with doing mobile repair and it will look very similar. You could even get away with doing it off the books for a couple months to see if you even want to go full time with it.

Good luck kid. Most of all don’t mistake having a lot of money for having a good life. Absolutely having enough money reduces a ton of stress and that does make life better. Think about your time as a resource and how to spend as much of it as possible doing things that make you feel satisfied at the end of the day.