The worst part is that crippling medical bills and college loan repayment are destroying us financially.
I think I'd be happier surviving what I can do myself than to keep doing this bullshit much longer.
Have you ever actually worked on a farm? Its not fun either, its actual hard work. Most farmers don't retire either. The historical way this worked was as you got older your family helped more on the farm until one of them took over. You worked till you died though.
> The worst part is that crippling medical bills and college loan repayment are destroying us financially.
You think your medical bills are bad now, wait until you start dealing with industrial machinery and hard work. Not to mention the fact that your insurance will come out of your pocket directly instead of being employer provided. Your college loans are a pittance compared to what it would cost to buy an economically feasible farm in the USA right now.
> I think I'd be happier surviving what I can do myself than to keep doing this bullshit much longer.
I'd recommend trying it for a summer before you burn your bridges in Software (which for the record, might be the cushiest way to make a living of all time).
Source: grew up on a farm.
I have no desire to sit in a "cushy" job just because it is one. That lifestyle may be harder, but I strongly suspect I'd get to the end of my life with less regrets about the whole thing.
Source: I grew up on a farm, too.
My first job at 13 was on a farm and I lasted about a week before I realized I wasn't made for that life and I started planning on going to college. There is a long tradition of people claiming that life is for them without having ever actually done it successfully (I'm looking at you Thoreau).
If you think that you'd be happier living that way I don't see much reason not to go do it. But the complaints in your comment don't seem to be addressed by your desire to work as a farmer. Your debt levels, insurance rates and chance for retirement are all likely to be much, much worse as a farmer (subsistence or otherwise) than as a software developer. In fact, right now, you would be hard pressed to find an occupation that optimizes for those 3 things better than working as a software engineer.
But, of course those things don't have to be tied to someones happiness. If they aren't tied to yours, don't conflate them.
By all means if this is what you desire, go for it. It just doesn't seem like a smart move to many here, me included (but we have very few info, so whole picture might be different)
Just save 50% of your money, retire cheaply at 45 or 50. It's not that hard to do with 100k+ salaries.
Once you get in the mind-set, the job becomes more fun. You know there's an end to it, and you have enough cash to walk at any time.