[chrisbennet]

I'm in my early fifties and about half the guys I was coding with 20+ years ago are still coding. Most of the rest are in some sort of management or running their own businesses.

Being employed is all about the value you can deliver. As you gain experience, you usually gain a broad range of skills. Generally, a business only wants to pay for the slice of your experience that directly relates to their business. You skills in 3D math and image processing for example, won't earn a web development company more money. Charging for those skills may make you "overpriced".

The solution, is to always be learning new, profitable skills.

[scottedwards]

Thanks, this was exactly the kind of finding i was asking for. So, at least at this stage of life, sounds like majority of your cohort is still employed. I wonder if that will hold up ten years from now.

I guess what I'm really worried about is that many are somehow "forced" into retirement or low paying jobs (ala Walmart greeter). This would seem really unfair, given that on the surface, this kind of age discrimination shouldn't happen. At least the military is up front about how this works with it's "Up or Out" policy.

[quietthrow]

What do you mean by profitable skills? Can you give an example and expand in general how one goes about identifying a profitable skill as time progresses?