Pace152,
Personally, and again it is only my opinion, I would recommend the instructor route to anyone for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it is alot of fun, and you meet some great people. Secondly, one thing I found, is not only did it improve my flying skills, it also improved my spatial awareness, which is one thing I found I was farily up to speed when I joined the airlines. Another thing it does for you, is it keeps you in the loop with whats going on, and builds experience. Also, I found it gave me alot to talk about in the airline interview, and I could talk from experience with alot of the questions that were asked of me, typically 'give me an example of....' type questions.
I know alot of people will argue that having a 1000 hours on a light single is of little value when it comes to flying airliners, which I agree to a certain extent, but disagree in other areas. It gives you skills that you probably don't even know you have gained until you move on and do a different type of flying. Instructing worked for me and my circumstances.
4KBeta, I raised the money through working in the Aerospace Engineering industry for around 4 years of hard saving, along with a small loan from the bank to finish of my IR.
Hope the above helps chaps, all the best.