I'm a developer of a few years in the financial industry and will soon need to decide what career path to try and row towards. Broadly speaking I have two options: something more 'people' oriented like BAs, or keep coding and try to make more technical decisions like the Architects do where I currently work.

Here are my perceptions right now:

Business Analysts:

• get paid way more than devs
• once they do their job, it seems like they usually have no worries
• more likely to go REALLY high up in the organization (VPs, etc)

Architects:

• things like certification matters (I see this as a con)
• called in when things go wrong more than anyone else (weekends & overtime)
• long career path to get to (dev -> senior dev -> team lead -> architect)

I would find the latter more intellectually rewarding, but when I look at it I just can't justify it in terms of lifestyle. Am I wrong / what am I missing? Can you really make a lot of money in a technical role or must you really get out of coding?

Thank you for any constructive input.