It sure is weird the twists and turns that a career can take. And following the 'highest salary' carrot doesn't always lead to the best jobs (for your definition of 'best').

For some reason I often seem to end up in a small company, doing a variety of jobs and learning lots of different things. For me this is much more stimulating that sitting in a cube for month after month and working on a monolithic application as part of a three year project.

More money sure is nice -- five years ago when I was an independent contractor I was for a while making double what I make now. Then again, I was working long hours down in my basement home office, and I wasn't learning anything.

Well, that's not true -- I learned that you can't be 'doing' all the time; you also need time to learn, and you also need time to think. It's important to stay in touch with the professional community, either virtually (like here at Perl Monks), in person (monthly Perl Monger meetings) and elsewhere (I volunteer at Conestoga College in Kitchener/Waterloo as a member of a Program Advisory Committee).

And of course, I'd love to abdicate from money, but the house, cars, utilities, groceries and of course taxes still have to be paid for.