[hvasilev]

Given that you already have a job and a family to support (at some point?), I would say that this is realistically a 15+ year plan that you've built yourself.

I also had a hardware interest later my career and my approach was slightly different. I found an embedded systems job that pays about 3 times less than what I used to get paid (since I have no experience). It is definitely fun and I learn a lot, but I definitely don't have the financial freedoms that I used to have. I'm not sure which is the correct approach, but surely there is no "easy" way of getting there.

Please have in mind that this is a very serious time (and financial in my case) commitment that you are about to make.