[dankruss]

Code. Teach yourself how to code. Create a project that you would find useful. Given your finance background, create a system to manage your personal finances or automate some of the tasks you perform at work. You have the mathematics background, so logic isn't a hurdle. If the glove fits... code.

[Sealy]

I second this. You are after all asking the Hackernews community! Like what dankruss says, you have a lot of complementary skills too.

I'd recommend some sort of dynamic web based language so you can launch your own startups in the future if you want.

[h0phead]

Which language though? Coming from someone who knows a bit but doesn't work in the field.

[T-A]

I would say Python. Easy enough to be a good teaching language + a huge ecosystem for real work, spanning everything from web dev to machine learning.

[nindalf]

I second the other suggestion - Python. I think its a great language to learn first up. I feel its biggest strength is its excellent standard library and ecosystem Python allows you to do really cool things with minimal frustration. This is important because once a person gets past the basics what keeps them hooked is doing cool things what they've learned.

[shareit]

Its gotta be JavaScript. Given Meteor, JS is all you need to get an idea out the door.

[zeckalpha]

To get an idea for a web site out the door. Not all ideas are web sites.