FateFree posted:

I personally think it would be possible and even easy to approach 200k in ten years with a programming job and ten years of focus. You don't need to go to college for it, a buddy of mine came from a business degree and did a coding boot camp for 2 or 3 months (and either 12 or 20k) and had a job making 90k a few months later. The catch is you have to be good at your job, which means you code at work and code at home to learn more. If you like coding, this will happen either way. There is always more to learn.

I've been in the field for ten years, I could get a job in the city for 160-170k base tomorrow if I wanted to, and bonuses and/or side projects would surely clear me over 200, but I settle for less because my job is cake and I can work from home in my underwear.

But, programming is a skill that requires a special type of brain. You need to be a good problem solver, slightly OCD, and have a real desire to learn and implement the best solutions for given problems. Good organizational skills are key. Some people just have a hard time with all the abstract concepts. I personally believe they can be learned regardless, but still, none of this will happen unless you really want to be (and actually do become) a good programmer.