My take on degrees is that they are primarily designed to train people to work for someone else. When I was in college the emphasis was on getting this or that degree so that "your employer" this "your employer that". There was very little or non-existent emphasis on "get your degree to build a New Google".
While a degree is NOT required to be financially successful, an intelligent, non-degreed person can experience success. Obviously, if you want to become a doctor, lawyer, engineer, teacher, nurse, etc., you will need that degree. Most degreed people are working for someone else.
So, if your goal is to work for someone else, a degree is VITAL to your financial security. No wonder so many people lie on their resumes. On the other hand, if your goal is to work for yourself and run your own business, you can become totally self-taught. Vast knowledge is readily available on the Internet, books, articles, etc. The old cliche applies: The more you read, the more you will learn.
If you allow it, lack of a college degree can cause low self-esteem and affect self-confidence. Don't let that happen to you. A degree is a piece of paper that states that you've done your assigned homework, tasks, sat your rear end in what would seem like endless classes, paid high college tuition and fees, put in the hours, exercised your brain and did research.
It also shows that you've developed your brain beyond basic thinking skills. A degree does not imply honesty, integrity, common-sense, diligence, personality, ambition, enhanced self-motivation, etc.
For example, many ENRON executives who had degrees are now sitting in jail. There are MD's sitting in jail.
If you want to do brain surgery, I suggest you get a degree. Your patients would be most grateful to you. You do not need a college degree if you want to earn money online with affiliate programs, Adsense, ebooks, etc. In fact it's totally feasible and conceivable that a non-degreed person can make more money than doctors do...
YOU and only YOU decide how not having a degree affects you. If you want to be an employee or work for some big company then by all means get your degree at any cost, couple it with work experience and eventually you will "land" that much sought-after job. If you want to be independent, work for yourself and run your own show, focus more on gaining knowledge,improving your marketing, sales and business sense skills and run with it. There are plenty of millionaires in the world who don't have more than High School diplomas. Some don't even have that.
Live long and prosper with or without a college degree. If everything else fails, you can always get by with a B.S. Degree.
And if you MUSt have a job, here is a list of jobs that pay very well and do not require a college degree:
10-high-paying-jobs--no-degree-required