Like macropod, I'm retired as well. I have never had any formal training in programming, and most of the little I know has been learned from just digging in until I find a solution to my own problems or (in most cases) problems others have posted. Macropod has thrown me a bone from time to time as well
Yes, over the years, I have done a bit of paid work, but I would not call it making a living. With a very limited number of exceptions, most of the paid gigs have resulted from people reaching out on my website looking for a simple solution for "x" not realizing that what they really need isn't "x" but "XY and Z."
If you are new to this forum and similar others, you might not have noticed that the volume of traffic is way down from what it was three years (or even one year) ago. AI is now on the scene. A lot of people now get there simple solution to "x" (half baked as it usually is) from AI bots and feel "x" is good enough. Probably a tough time to try to make a living with VBA.