There's no real money in being a mechanic, unless you do a lot of cash jobs (which won't get you any closer to a house).
The only way to make real money is to rob people blind. Every car you see, recommend new shocks, exhaust, wheel alignment, etc, whether they need it or not.
I'm a mechanic, but I'm getting out of the industry simply because of those reasons. I'm too honest for the place I'm working at now, and it's putting a lot of stress on myself and my family. Also, it hurts to see a young father pick up his old Corona with shot brakes, and put his two young children in the back. You can tell them the rotors are warped, and the pads are on the metal, but rather than pay the 300$+ to have that fixed, he'd rather waste $65 on a wheel alignment in a failed attempt to get rid of the vibration at 100km/h.
The sad thing is, after a few years, you stop feeling bad for these people, and start hating them for being 'tight'.
Also, if you take pride in your work it can mean taking great loss. A cash job that I'm still finishing off was only meant to be a couple of relatively small things, but I've ended up completely rewiring most of the engine bay because of obvious wiring faults at my own loss, just because I want the final product to be something to be proud of.
Oh, and then there are the people that come in and pay for an oil and filter change, and a week and a half later come back with squealing brakes, and accuse you of 'breaking them' when you had the car for service. The fact that they can be disproved easily doesn't remove the fact that other customers in the vicinity might be driven away.
In short, be a plumber. Sure, as a first year you'll have to crawl around on the ground under houses a lot, and dig a lot of holes, but for the money you'll end up with, it's well worth it.
Or if you dont like that idea, but want huge money for hard(ish) physical work, become a roof tiler. Of all the jobs I've had, it's the only one I regret leaving.