Fortunately I had made quite a lot of cash from consulting and stock investing in the 90's and I sold a lot of stocks in '99 and 2000 before the bear market started in the summer of 2000. Now I'm an entrepeneur doing a few different things at once: real estate renovations, stock investing & trading, and some oil & gas investing. But if I hadn't invested my income well during the 80's and 90's and then sold in 99-2000, I would be in tough shape today. I'd be working away learning all this new web development software, fighting age discrimination, and I probably would have ended up working in some really cold place where young people don't want to work (like Milwaukee). Yes, it's tough out there in engineering and software development. You have to work long and hard and be one of the best in your field.
the age issue and the stringent requirements is just a ruse. I see it everyday - they use those factors to exclude americans, because they want the jobs to go offshore for lower costs. nothing else matters. that's why so many middle aged IT/CS/EE guys have simply left the field for good. they have moved on, some to teaching, some to real estate, and unfortunately - some to Lowes and Home Depot.