The reality for older developer is that you are going to have to:
1) Move to management to continue advancing
2) Find one of the very few large to midsize companies that has a long-term developer career track comparable to their executive track
3) Start you own thing and exploit the fact that you are more productive than younger developers, and control the purse strings
Large and even mid-size and event ostensibly tech companies still, for the most part, view developers as an R&D cost center. They look at cheap development resources, either young kids or foreign, and think "For the price of 1 developer, I could have 10!"
In nearly every profession there is a ceiling for the doers. There is a position in a senior/lead/architect role and a pay rate you hit within companies that you can't exceed besides some annual 1% raise.
Those who are still motivated to move up must go in to management or strike out on their own. Chances are if you have reached this point the trappings of your previous success has made the latter choice a risky undertaking.
1) Move to management to continue advancing
2) Find one of the very few large to midsize companies that has a long-term developer career track comparable to their executive track
3) Start you own thing and exploit the fact that you are more productive than younger developers, and control the purse strings
Large and even mid-size and event ostensibly tech companies still, for the most part, view developers as an R&D cost center. They look at cheap development resources, either young kids or foreign, and think "For the price of 1 developer, I could have 10!"
Now they have 2^10 problems.