[klingon78]

Many plan to be a CTO, VP, or making silly money somehow, but that doesn’t often happen. I know few old developers, but those I know aren’t making silly money- they’re either in slow very small businesses or working for some mid-sized to large company.

[soneca]

I am already earning money that I would expect to earn only close to my retirement in my other careers, if successful. So I am very happy with my choice financially-wise. And I still enjoy a lot coding everyday. Also I am lucky to never have felt (or at least noticed) the effects of ageism on my career. On the contrary, employers have explicitly told me that my long professional experience and maturity was an asset that was considered in my hiring (they paired me with a 21-year-old who was a senior by technical merits, but still needed to improve in other aspects of fulfilling a senior dev role).

[inter_netuser]

what kind of "slow very small businesses"? 1-man consulting shops, or something more?

[klingon78]

In my experience, there is a class of small company that has roughly 3-7 employees, at least half of which are 45-65 years old, where the business is slow and quiet, with little sign of any growth, typically selling a niche product or technology for which there is not much competition. One or more may have big ideas but really they just are happy having a job and working with others.

There’s nothing wrong with this.