IT career and getting older

Hello,

Just looking for some advices about IT career and getting old.

I'm 37 years old and have allways been free lance. I have more than 10
years of experiencie in IT. I started programming in Clipper 5.3 and
Foxpro for DOS many years ago. Now I develop web applications,
basically in .NET and Oracle database.

I live in a Southamerican country, so things are quite different than
in USA, but quite the same (I think) like others developing countries
around the world.

I love IT, probably much more than system analisys. But I have realized
that I must learn analisys and get a master degree in Computer Science.
I mean, now being close to my forties, it could be seen quite
ridiciulous when I were 45 years old and still programming and
competing with 20 something year old programmers.

I know that experience is the main advantage that older guys have.
However, as I'm getting older, my big fear is that companies won't hire
me anymore, because I am getting old. Younger professionals will take
my job, because they could know better last platform or language or
database, learn faster and charge cheaper.

Many people can say: It could be time to start your own business.
But being honest: starting your own business is great, but it requires
years to learn how to manage it, get experience and get succesfull. In
the meantime you have to expect to lose money.

By the way, I'm not deppressed or something else similar. Just looking
for some feedback.

Thank you.

.

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