Another thing that hasn't been addressed completely below is the challenge of agriculture being an activity where investment needs to be made in large chunks, at somewhat unexpencted times. The OP question implies that homesteading is like purchasing shares of stock or crypto, when as folks have mentioned here, investments tend to be things like land in 10 acre scale increments (which is a big chunk of money wherever you are) and things like equipment, seasonal labor and seed/seedling trees/breeding stock, which can be as in the thousands to tens of thousands (or much more!), depending on what your plans are. All of these costs tend to be big - maybe bigger than you have to spend from your work income that year. But they may have to be spent to participate in the season that year. Often, it doesn't make economic sense to plant 1/10 as much seed, or graft over 1/10 of your orchard, since there are some fixed costs that don't reduce. And in some cases (like combines) there just aren't good alternatives to the big guns for smaller farms - that's a reason you don't see many homesteaders growing cool ancient grain varieties, because it doesn't make economic sense to harvest them by hand, and you can't get a teeny tiny combine easily.
Obviously it's not impossible - if you can do it, do it. We need more creative, small farmers more than just about anything else (in the US especially!). But just don't think it's like going online and putting 20% of your paycheck into Coinbase.
Obviously it's not impossible - if you can do it, do it. We need more creative, small farmers more than just about anything else (in the US especially!). But just don't think it's like going online and putting 20% of your paycheck into Coinbase.