Unless you live off the earth or have enough production to sustain a batter trade ecosystem; you will need money to survive as a software developer but then not all of it. How rich or wealthy you get should be a direct indication of how good you are at writing code; not making money.
Business developers hire software developers for what they can but not how much they are worth. It is assumed that the grand master developers form the companies that employ master developers that lead teams of good developers who in turn train the junior ones. You don’t drive a super car by being under anyone so how does one get there?
There is much more to it than what meets the eye. To be successful at a skill and standout at it is a long short. Highest chances of anyone really lie at being average. That is; highest chances lie in an average future, all you have to do is exist accordingly. Success involves breaking that balance and establishing your own order.
If you are to live accordingly; then exist to fulfill your purpose. Leading athletes and superstar entrepreneurs have quacks about them. Running a distance of a hundred meters while betting that your are the best at it for a living is not normal. Neither is owning a billion dollar company and still work harder than everyone else with a bigger point to prove than you have to.
Light bulb moments get you those brilliant flashes of ideas. For you to live an idea, you will have to blow a fuse while rewiring your circuit. If it were fun, nobody would be average. So sacrifices have to be made, stuff has to be learned and sometimes you might not even make rent.
It is scary because your life becomes a series of risks. Risks imply loss. Success and loss don’t exist on the same sentence. Now understand why it is so easy to be average. If you gave someone else the responsibility of taking that risk for an assurance of constant pay then it would naturally follow that the person risking should be immensely rewarded for keeping the both of you alive.
Living a life of risk is a peril filled path. The only thing left standing, if you are strong enough, will be you. Friends will flee because you sound crazy and so will your family, worse if you dared ask for help. To survive; you will have to acquire new knowledge while having the courage to unlearn.
You will realize that it easier approaching every situation with a blank mind than with knowledge. That knowledge is actually a curse if you lack the wisdom to discern it. Soon, undergoing a complete metamorphosis is inevitable and only your name will be recognizable. Nobody sees this coming; a moment of retrospection will make you realize that it will be too late turn back. That you are now responsible for several salaries and the lives they support.
If it were about the money, I would camp on job seeking sites swinging from branch to branch. To you a career will be about being on the tree with the largest fruit. But then that is all you will ever be; a monkey. At least plant a tree and understand how to get one to fruition then you will own a piece of the jungle.
Beware, tree seedlings are easy to trample upon and kill. You have to be the unusual monkey that is on the ground, guarding this one tree. You will seem unusual at first but your success will breed the respect you desire, at great cost as we have explored.
What is it about then? Why go through all this trouble? The motivation for money will only get so far but to grow to astronomical levels, your fuse must have been blown by an idea or purpose so strong; you would give up your life for it.
Whatever it is; go for it. Unless you blow that fuse, your chances of being average are highest on the curve. Skill should feed your income, the other way around you will atrophy your skill and eventually your material success.