This is what I am doing now - sharing to cut through the fog and share what is really working for me right now:
My goal is to develop superior income AND a location independent lifestyle and tech can work out nice if you make a plan and execute your mission. If you deliver on time and under budget and garner some great references on LinkedIn it can be a gold mine.
No bragging just sharing what is real - I now have my own small veteran owned consulting company doing Cyber Security consulting work for $135 an hour (Literally turning down $70 to $80 per hour subcontract gigs daily) and a lot of it is analysis and writing which is often "remote" and location independent (Though many Cyber Security gigs are on site at major Data Centers or client offices so they can show off their security department so not all location independent).
Great thing about CS IS IA - cyber security, information security, information assurance work (huge Venn diagram overlap between all three - cyber security is currently sexy so I use all three keyword sets in my CV and profiles) - any way great thing is companies and institutions and the government will outsource just about everything in IT - but - execs want real passport holding USA citizens to run their security because often their careers and lives depend on it.
Information security work is booming I get a dozen calls a week and entry level consultants bill at minimum $50 an hour with rapid scale up with various GIAC, Cisco, ISC(2) certifications - oh yeah I finished off an Associates degree in the service and have taken college credit courses to support my certifications. Best kept industry secret is you really can fake it till you make it - buy books on amazon, read up, take cert exams - put up a profile running your own consulting biz for experience and get hired - that is how I do it and its that simple. If you have a military tech background - clean legal background able to pass pre employment drugs tests and background investigations and get some key certs A+ and Security+ at entry level and then Cisco CCNA CCDA CCIE Security, ISC(2) CISSP or CSSLP or CCFP
https://www.isc2.org/ccfp/default.aspx and or SANS GIAC certs (Google it) most of these certs have big fat books available on Amazon - many in electronic form now - just download and read the books and you are ahead of the rest of the bunch who buy books and let them collect dust. Point is with an AS degree and Certs and DD-214 Honorable Discharge employers are jumping on guys now - you can take contract to permanent work as well to see if you like the company and people - or do as I did and go independent.
As mentioned just got picked up for a $135 per hour expert cyber security consulting engagement from my LinkedIn profile and references, its quarter by quarter work - 100% remote writing assignments - time off in between - can work any where - not even conference calls just email. I make my own milestones and define the deliverables and tell them what I need to succeed ($135 and hour is a big part of that - focuses the mind).
I did do a lot of data center and office cube commando work to get here but remote work that is lucrative exists - hint I read an article to update your CV/Resume after each contract while the completed objectives and projects are fresh in your mind then set the CV Resume aside and now write up two "have done can do for you" succinct paragraphs with something like April 2015 update: and the two hard hitting paragraphs about how you are great, walk on water and really have unique skills, perspectives and abilities that appeal to senior hiring VPs and C level officers. Put the summary on linked in instead of a boring full CV/resume and on Monster and Careerbuilder as Corp recruiters use them first (Carreerbuilder allows you to post your summary and resume in stealth mode so your managers don't know you are in the market") Also you can reach out to companies that interest you make contacts to key employees via linkedin and suggest they submit you as a friend for posted jobs so they get the internal referral bonus of $1K to $5K - nice beer money when they get it. Classic Win Win - my last referral got me $2K.
Have tried some of the freelance jobs sites and mostly task oriented scrub work from cheap startups with no budgets. LinkedIn is where the big dogs roam with big corporate budgets and pain points they need experts to solve now. Be that expert.
So I have NO Ivy League degree but ironically Ivy League work experience based upon my military background that landed the job.
You DO NOT need to go $100K or $200K in debt (Unlike Medical fields which require credentialing to work) to make $100K+ a year or even every 6 months. And once you are in big corp or big bucks plenty of great accredited USA STEM/Biz/Finance programs on line at your convenience tailored to working adults (no nanny make work assignments or idiotic pop quizzes) - And full time corp employers and government agencies often reimburse the expense. I know more than a few guys in STEM who got their master's on the Feds dime.
Read, decide on your mission, take action, stay off freaking drugs, get good LinkedIN referrals and references and ka ching.