First of all, Software Development is one of the best careers you can have simply because the pay is high, the physical exertion is low, and the ability to work into retirement or whatever is quite high.
Consider that a competent programmer’s skills don’t vanish with age. That is quite remarkable.
In many professions there is a physical component that degrades with time. Not so with programmers.
For example, imagine your husband is a firefighter instead of a software developer. Have you ever seen a 65 year old firefighter? Probably not.
If you did, it’s maybe the fire chief or something.
Why is that? Well, because there is a physical component to it and many men aren’t going to be as vigorous at age 65 as they were at 25. Also, running into burning buildings has an impact on longjevity right?
Okay, so it’s probably good that your husband isn’t a firefighter. (Note: I am thankful for firefighters and you should be too. They keep us safe and that’s a good thing)
We covered the whole lack of physical requirements beyond being able to think and type until age 65. There is another side to programming that is worth considering.
The foundations of software development haven’t changed much in the last 30 years as far as I can tell. However, every decade or so a new language comes along that is adopted by millions of programmers.
It’s sort of like if programmers every decade changed screwdriver standards. Weird right?
Well, that’s what we do. And I guess we love that.
So, to stick with this career every 5–10 years it is necessary to learn whatever is relatively current. Now I did say relatively current. Not totally current.
The young people who are switching languages and frameworks every few months are wasting their time. And chasing after them is a waste of time.
Instead, a thoughtful approach of learning a new language or coding standard or library or whatever every year or two is useful. That’s enough to stay current.
Where most people go wrong is they stop learning altogether for a decade or more, then something happens and they are out of a job and in a bad way. So, don’t do that either.
As long as your husband is being reasonable about his approach to staying current in his skills, he will be fine.
I see no reason why a competent developer with a good attitude can’t be a successful programmer for as long as they want to do it. The demand is there and the opportunity is everywhere.
Luckily, I don’t see that changing anytime soon. :-)