Should I do this for fun or for profit?
I'm a 57 year-old retired software engineer with a strong background in safety critical development, mainly in the aerospace, defence and power generation industries. I'm beginning to get into infosec, really for the fun and challenge of it but it would potentially be useful if I could monetise this at least to some degree at some stage.
I've done a bit of research and laid out the bones of a plan along the lines of setting up a home lab to run projects and sysadmin experiments on, Security+, Network+, running CTFs, bug bounties etc. Broad strokes entry level prep with a view to a SOC position en-route to some kind of freelance network security consulting type role.
I live a quiet settled life out in the middle of nowhere in Wales and don't really want to do the big city/office 9-5 thing. The question is, am I utterly deluded to think this is a viable path, particularly at my age and in the current market (obviously it'll be a while before I'm ready to start looking for work though)?
My intention is to pretty much do all the stuff I mentioned regardless, but if there's no realistic possibility of work for an old-fart-newbie like me, the approach I would take to it would be more personal interest led rather than focused on an efficient path to career development.