Ask HN: How do I make the most money as a programmer

I was wondering what the path is to maximize my income to the effort put in. Is it actually the salary route at a large company? Start ups seem to be the worst route due to low success rate and high effort. Also looks as if consulting tops out at 150K/yr average without being an expert in a field. I wonder what being en expert entails.

Would changing fields be the best route? I wonder if its to late for me to get into investment banking.

Currently making 140K at 7 yrs experience fullstack dev in the midwest.