I am currently working as a support and programmer at a manufacturing plant. From what I can see is that programmer seem to be at the bottom of the organization hierarchy which indicates a low pay, whereas Business Analyst or the one at the management level have a better pay and rarely involve with programming. So I think that at some point you need to go to the above hierachy for better pay and I dont think that you can do program well when u age as your mind has been deteriorated and they can easily replase you with fresh grad that surrounded by latest tech...