Have to say that I've never lost (been in the hole) on farming yet. Not getting wealthy but holding my own doing something I enjoy. Sure beats working at a salt mine job for someone else.
The old saying 'farm to you go broke' only applies to farmers that have zero business sense. My wife manages our outfit, not me.
Your saying that caused me to think about the dirt farmers that I knew growing up as well as today. I say "dirt farmers" because they are the ones who grew crops as opposed to dairy and livestock operations. Anyway, the farmers that were successful at making a living and even putting some money away seemed to share a couple of the same ways of doing things.
For one, they seemed to do a lot of their own maintenance and building.... well, some did more and some did less, but they all did a surprising amount of their own mechanical work. Including welding, fabricating, re-building, and carpentry. The exception to that came at harvest. If a piece of equipment broke during harvest it got replaced right then. But even so they knew exactly what they wanted and where to buy it. I got the impression they tried to stay ahead of the game. They might have a newish tractor, but they also kept an old one that could be used in a pinch.
The second thing I noticed was that the successful dirt farmers tended to have second jobs that they did for someone else. Sometimes these were part time jobs, but most seemed to have a second job they enjoyed that brought in its own income and provide something different & maybe more social. I knew several who were part time teachers, coaches, dealer reps, one salesman, a pilot, and a several were machinists.
On the whole - and maybe just because of where I grew up in the Tex/Okla/Ark area - the folks who had dairy, cattle, and livestock operations didn't do as much of their own maintenance and spent more of their time just working their own place. I didn't know them well enough to know how they did financially because our family did farm labor.... not ranch labor.... but that group didn't seem to do quite as well in spite of working harder if anything.
So 5030, I'm wondering if it is the same today and up in the Great Lakes area.
rScotty