Agreed with nazgulnarsil. I'm a competent-at-best coder, and only work as a test engineer, I've got no formal qualifications in the field, and I've only been working as a software engineer two years. Yet I earn more on my own than the average household's income in the UK, my work is often interesting, I have more flexibility about things like dress codes and working hours than in any other job I've worked, and I get on with my co-workers.
Related to: Optimal Employment, Best career models for doing research?, (Virtual) Employment Open Thread
In Optimal Employment Louie discussed some biases that lead people away from optimal employment, and gave working in Australia as an option for such employment. What are some other options?
Your optimal employment will depend on how much you care about a variety of things (free time, money, etc.) so when discussing options it might be helpful to say what you're trying to optimize for.
In addition to proposing options we could list resources that might be helpful for generating or implementing options.