You don't need to do those things though. I'm almost 40, I like programming. I do it for fun in my own time. I've got couple of projects that earn around a 1/3 of my salary every month without doing too much more with then. I plan on making a few of those. Some will fail, some will succeed. I still get to pick what I work on and enjoy doing it. If they all fail then it doesn't matter too much.