A little late to the party, but I wanted to share my experiences.
I started taking a few classes at the local community college when I was 17. I was wanting to get a comp-sci degree. I took classes for a couple years, but my part time job did not afford me enough money to take more than a couple classes a semester. My parents had recently lost almost everything in the real estate downturn in 2008 (they were heavily into real estate in FL...), so they couldn't help pay any of my tuition, and their taxes from the previous year still showed they made too much money for me to get any type of aid.
I then got a full time job doing helpdesk work, and had to put school on hold, because I had no time with my commute + work to fit any classes in. During my time working helpdesk, they needed some sql reports written for our ticketing system to show productivity, tickets closed, etc... I had some experience with sql in the past, so I wrote those reports. About a month later, one of our database administrators got an opportunity to contract for NASA, and he suggested rather than hiring someone new, to move me into that position. The company I worked for was not known to pay well. They didn't disappoint in that respect. I worked for a while at the same pay I was making on helpdesk, but I didn't care because I was getting first hand experience, and I had a title next to my name I would eventually be able to take somewhere else.
I was about to start taking classes again this previous spring semester, but then things started going wrong with the company I was at, and I could tell I needed to get out of there and get a new job before they folded. So school was put on hold again.
I put my name in at a recruiter, and had an interview within a month. I got an offer, and started working where I am at now back in April.
I'd say that not getting a full college education may in the end hurt my earning potential, but as of right now, I am working as an equal with 8 other people who have college degrees on my team doing database development and analysis. I am making quite a bit more than most college grads would right out of school, and already have a good bit of practical experience under my belt.