It's good to see someone my age persuing the dream of working in 3D.

I wish I had the guts to try it as well. I started out as a computer systems engineer and after 20 years of constantly getting layed off every 5 years due to the eb and flow of the economy and now more and more due to outsourcing, I went back to school to work on my phd in medical physics (biomedical imaging will be my focus).

But deep down I wish I was a professional 3D modeler. I truely enjoy modeling, it's so rewarding to see flat 2D images pop out into 3 dimensions. I think I have the aptitude, but I probably lack the artistic skill. I can do alright given references to work from but I would struggle to create things myself.

Best of luck to you!

PS - Although I am not an expert by any means I would agree with Micheal M. that it is best to learn one package well, then learn others as needed. The tools and workflow in most packages are similar (I have played with Maya, Max, and Modo), but there is just enough difference that learning more then one package at the same time would be confusing.