20 is young. You could do nothing for 5 years and still have plenty of time to sort yourself out, so long as you work on building up your skills.
Your previous job sounds shit. Seriously, I can understand why you quit. But if you're a developer you should be able to find new work. Freelancing is damn hard because it's not about how good you are at your primary skill, it's all about schmoozing and selling, and that's hard for a young guy to do because people are not disposed to take young people seriously.
What kind of coding do you do? If it's even slightly in demand, get in touch with some recruitment agents. Put together some kind of portfolio.
I've got a similar story to you - I have barely any qualifications, not even high school level. I was unemployed at 20 and under-employed for the next 5 years, until I got a decent coding job. From there, my salary has gone up by about 5x in 3 years. Ok, it's not going to do that again, but I'm now at a very comfortable level. I probably could have done a lot better for myself at 20 if I knew then what I know now.
Hang in there, and keep trying. You'll make it bigger and better than anyone who doubts you thinks.
Your previous job sounds shit. Seriously, I can understand why you quit. But if you're a developer you should be able to find new work. Freelancing is damn hard because it's not about how good you are at your primary skill, it's all about schmoozing and selling, and that's hard for a young guy to do because people are not disposed to take young people seriously.
What kind of coding do you do? If it's even slightly in demand, get in touch with some recruitment agents. Put together some kind of portfolio.
I've got a similar story to you - I have barely any qualifications, not even high school level. I was unemployed at 20 and under-employed for the next 5 years, until I got a decent coding job. From there, my salary has gone up by about 5x in 3 years. Ok, it's not going to do that again, but I'm now at a very comfortable level. I probably could have done a lot better for myself at 20 if I knew then what I know now.
Hang in there, and keep trying. You'll make it bigger and better than anyone who doubts you thinks.