Its depressing to make comparisons, but 99.9% of developers will never make half of what a specialized MD or successful lawyer or someone in finance might make.
What percentage of people with law or finance degrees to you think actually make what you seem to think people with law or finance degrees make?
Not to mention that by being a developer, I started earning money in my early 20's, without hefty university debt. Less risk (plenty people study for the bar and fail) and upfront costs.
There's also less chance of getting a casual 9-5 environment in finance.
I'm having a tough time finding it, but there was a really good article that analyzed median performance of law school grads and found that, if law school was a security, it would be below a junk rated bond.
Nice chance is overstating it by a HUGE amount on the 'making it big part', yes quite a few developers in the start up world can get equity, the former rarely happens.
