[porejide]

I'm working towards a phd in genomics right now, primarily doing bioinformatics. Here are some thoughts:

1. You're almost certainly likely to make more money doing something else, like web development or finance. Scientists get paid very little money relative to their education and abilities, with the trade-off of interestingness. If you go into it, it shouldn't be for the money. So basically yes in re (2). So for you, doing bioinformatics would probably have to be a goal in your life that you're willing to make sacrifices for.

2. If you want to work on life saving drugs or curing cancer, you could learn how to make some contributions with a MS, but realistically would need a PhD to have more autonomy. Depends on what matters to you.

3. The main benefit would probably be working with a good mentor and helping to decide if you want to go for the PhD. Not sure about your prospects in industry with an MS however.