While I did have some experience coding and LAN Admin (and got a couple awards for my databases back in the Navy), I soon found that while the coding wasn't hard, I was never going to do well enough in it to provide a steady income. So I became a caregiver and made significantly more than I was doing LAN Admin (but only because I was caring for medically-fragile kids).

But to anyone who's interested in coding, my advice to them is that the skill set for coding is very close to those for composing stories or music: the overall theme or flow has to make sense, and any awkward word or sour note can ruin the whole piece. The only real difference is that coding also requires a significant degree of engineering skill.