Ask HN: How to evolve and get a higher position?

I am a software engineer for a few years now. I've worked mainly in small companies. I am not far from becoming a senior software engineer at my current company I believe I could apply to other jobs as a senior software engineer. There is something that am trying to figure out though. Where lies my future, programming or management?

Of course always a lot of things comes into mind. Some coders just love it and they will keep it as a job forever just because they want to do what they like/love. Some others like myself adore coding as well, although think that doing it as a job cannot provide enough to do whatever.

I am pretty certain am gonna keep coding as a hobby until the end, and I find it fascinating to challenge myself in my own personal time with projects etc.

Thing is I myself don't see any future for me in software development as the ladder can go up to a certain point and then you'r stuck with it plus the income that comes with it. I am trying to figure out how do I evolve beyond software development, into manager ranks and or project management and eventually become a CTO or anything like that.

My main question is, usually you'll gain higher ranks the more you work and eventually you'll be able to apply for higher positions until you become a manager in a company and you'll be over-viewing a team and then slowly you can progress up to being a CTO or a high position like that. Are there ways for me to speed up the process? I was looking into master degrees for Project Management, is that something that could help me evolve faster?

Also I would like controversial views from people that stayed into software development their whole lives, its not something I completely disregard of doing, its just something that I see in my friends that are like 20-25 years in that field and although they adore programming they feel like they could be worth a lot more if they were going for the management positions that they were offered.