[lemonberry]

If you're a self-starter take advantage of all the free resources available and throw down for some quality books. If it's over your budget and you may never use the skills professionally it's difficult to see how it could be a "good return on your investment".

Programming does not teach you how to think. It's a great way to practice problem solving and critical thinking in a specific domain that has some carry over to "real life". If you are interested in how to think check out a website like Lesswrong.com and read a lot of books, be humble, listen and hang out with intelligent people that have different views than you do.

Good luck.