Why do you say FAANGs aren't right? I'm 45, work for Google, and while the median age is lower than me there are lots and lots of people my age or older around, and many of them are newer hires. I don't particularly like working in a BigCorp, and it's tough to feel like you're ever actually getting anything _done_, but at least I'm not having some 28 year old 'manager' demanding I work weekends and rewiting to use his/her favourite new web framework...

I personally would love to do something else now, and go back to having programming being my passion/hobby instead, but I don't think I can walk away from the money.

And yes, the age bias is real. I hadn't interviewed in 10 years but did so recently and while I am not visually old, my resume certainly shows it, and I could feel the bullsh*t from the younger developers in the interview.