Just as one Buffalo is not like another - so too are touring cyclists.
I'm not quite at the point of selling all my possessions and dressing in sackcloth - but I'm close.
I did a little touring in Europe in the mid-eighties and enjoyed it, but the bug did not really hit until I did my first cross-country trip in 1987. I was thinking about my next trip within of week of finishing. Oh yes, there had been rain, and wind, and mosquito bites, but there was a certain freedom that seems to come only after an extended period on a bike. Since then, I have spent a few months touring every year.
I have tried to calculate how much I have spent on all these tours - and how much I haven't earned - and all the career paths I have ignored that would have impinged on my opportunity to bike tour. It comes to lots and lots of dollars. Have I gotten a fair return? Absolutely. So for many years I was in the restaurant/bar line of work which got me out to Jackson, Wyoming. Then grad school and teaching - albeit as an adjunct with adjunct income. And still I tour.
I am single. I really don't see how folks in relationships can do it unless both like to tour or one's partner is very, very, very understanding. I did care for my mother when she had Alzheimer's for a few years right here in my house. It made me even more keenly aware that all the glamour and consumption of American society is a poor bargain, indeed. I would take her out for car rides along Clear Creek - through the jagged red hills east of town. And she would say, "Look how blue the sky is today."
I certainly am no youngster. But I have come to the conclusion that the cost - whatever that may be - of bike touring is far less than the benefits, no blessings, than ensue. Perhaps, it's a different math. Perhaps, it's a different calculus altogether. But I would encourage you to venture it.
Best wishes in the coming year - John