Sounds very similar to my story, also left home and started work immediately, only doing my degree in late 20s.

Now 30, I've worked in 8 countries, developed on Linux, OS X, Windows & iPhone, for web, desktop and mobile.

First salary was $200/month (in South Africa) :) Happily, that has improved by a few orders of magnitude.

It really is a great experience to have had, though sometimes I wish I had gone down the academic route and aimed for some place like MIT/Stanford.

But fuck it, one life.