That's fairly similar to what I've done over the last 8 years...Went for the degree, worked my way up in a non aviation related industry over the last 5 years. I aim to enter training in the next 6 months, with the plan to finish training early 2012.
By then I'm going to be in a position to pay off large levels of debt raised for training through the selling of a property I bought with the proceeds of working for the past few years.