Honestly, get a job. What has taught me most about programming is having new problems to solve that required new skills, techniques and tools. The best way to "fund" your development is to find someone who will pay you to solve their problems.
I started out of school doin front-end, then the next project I started with frontend and then had to learn Django. Job after that was all Django/frontend. Then, Django to Rails. Now im doing Node/Go/hardware/etc. Each job paid me to learn new languages, adopt new techniques and find better ways to solve problems.
I'd hop on Craigslist or one of the millions of freelance sites and contact a few potential jobs that you think you can pull off but would require you to learn a bit. It may seem a bit haphazard compared to a more academic approach but it will be more of a realistic growth curve compared to the realities of the freelance world.
Also, side projects are a great way to experiment.
I started out of school doin front-end, then the next project I started with frontend and then had to learn Django. Job after that was all Django/frontend. Then, Django to Rails. Now im doing Node/Go/hardware/etc. Each job paid me to learn new languages, adopt new techniques and find better ways to solve problems.
I'd hop on Craigslist or one of the millions of freelance sites and contact a few potential jobs that you think you can pull off but would require you to learn a bit. It may seem a bit haphazard compared to a more academic approach but it will be more of a realistic growth curve compared to the realities of the freelance world.
Also, side projects are a great way to experiment.
Think of it as "job driven development".