(36 now) At 24 I had my first real programming job and the salary was on par with it. I wasn't truly happy with my salary until 3 years ago and my current job of 2 years has made it really hard to look for something else (love my job / salary). There was about 8 years in there that I stayed at a job because I thought it would become more but didn't (and the pay barely changed). I learned a lot at that job, furthering my career, but the pay was poor for the work.

At 24 I was working on my own company focused on websites and working around 24/30 hours in Sales. Was I happy? Quite yes. Was I satisfied with my salary and job? No.

I did enjoy the sales time - it helped me a whole lot in gaining knowledge and practical skills of selling and talking. I had to go door-to-door and walk up to people on the streets. Only it wasn't what I really wanted to end with. I lost the joy in coding while partying and bringing in quite some money for my age and hours I put in the work.

This year (almost 2 years later, as I'm moving on to my 26th year on the 28th) I've started following an education of Computer Science and after a bumpy first start I'm enjoying coding again - while still maintaining a nice average of what I earned before this.