I envy those with a solid plan to get out. I feel age is going to start to count against me and my passion for programming is dead. But I can’t deny the compensation in this career is great, which makes me not want to move on, for now
I'm just glad I started contributing to my retirement plan before that happened. I can't afford to retire yet - but it looks like I'm well on my way to retiring early. Which is the ultimate out: If I don't like what I'm doing I can find a new hobby, then when that one gets boring either another or go back to a previous. (note that sitting around and doing nothing isn't in my plan)