Teenage investor starting out

[Kenneth Huddleston]

Hey, my name is Kenny. I am 16 years old and currently in high school. Because this is the time in your life when you are most pressured into making "decisions" about your future, investing has appealed to me for quite a while now. I put quotes around decisions because its become, in many ways, almost an unwritten law that you go to college, get a job, work for 30+ years, and then retire, grow old, and die. The more i thought about this traditional path the less it appeals to me. I myself do not wish to spend 2/3 or more of my life in a a dead end job that does nothing for me but make ends meet.

Although i've always had a mild interest in investing and business, it had been stifled for quite a while by all the traditional knowledge of it. This traditional knowledge is that you should invest in mutual funds or commodities and in 20 or 30 years, it could lead to a size-able bank account. Now i have always been avid about long term planning, but 20 to 30 years was a little outside of my scope, then i started reading autobiographies of real estate investors, warren buffett, and other instructional books that proved to me this traditional method is not law. Now i am studying avidly on how to start building passive income NOW. Real Estate is one of the methods i came across, but the only issue i find there is that implementing a real estate "career" as a teenager is RIDICULOUSLY hard, or at least as i understand it.

So what i am here to ask, is if you guys have any hints on how i can start building income, preferably passive, now. My goals are to have built up 1000 dollars of passive income by the time i have left high school. The reason i want to do this is that, for one, it will prove the path, for me and for others, in that it shows that i know what i am doing. Also, when i turn 18, i intend to get a realtors license and work as one for the sake of gaining market knowledge as well as funds to grow my investments both in real estate and in other areas. Since being a realtor is a business like any other and has startup costs, the 1000 dollars would help with that. I also hope to have the OPTION of retirement by the age of 25. I may never retire, but i want the freedom to say that i can. Keep in mind i am open to all forms of investments; real estate, internet marketing, etc. Whats important to me is that i can start NOW. I realize that, at least in some ways, it may be smarter to wait a few years and just focus on learning, but to that i have two responses. 1) I am an impatient, impetuous teenager. I am at peace with that. 2) I have read dozens of books and feel i am at the point where i have learned everything books will teach me and i need to get going. Thanks for listening to my, admittedly long, rant; any advice is appreciated!