RLEUNGZ - great thread. My few cents worth, from a few years down the road.
I don't have a degree, but I do have a job in the IT field, with a company whom a good percentage of the worlds population would recognise immediately and it pays very good money. The company you are going to work for is one of our suppliers - I don't know anyone who has been there for 5 years. I'm struggling to think of many that have been there 2 actually
Take the money, learn new skills, especially learn from your customers, most of them will have 10x the experience you have - listening is a valuable skill.
Many of the people you will deal with on a day to day basis will hate you. Business to business there is undoubtedly value, the people you will interact with on a daily basis will see you as vastly overpaid and under qualified and won't understand that you see next to nothing of your daily rate.
Save at least half of what you earn. If you can't do it you are not being paid enough or you are spending too much.
Your colleagues will gladly stab you in the back to be the next up the ladder.
You won't have the time to do a Modular ATPL theory course properly (learning the material not the QB answers) for a few years, however you should have the money to do a PPL and do some real 'experience' flying - into Europe etc, which the 250hr RHS or MPL student will never have. Spend some on aeros, get an IMC (will save you excess hours on your IR later for less money) etc.
Hopefully you won't end up, putting in the 85 plus hour weeks, becoming a functioning alcoholic and with a mortgage the size of Everest on a flat the size of a shoe box, but the trail is littered with them.
Thankfully after a brief reality check and almost getting suckered by the nasty corporate octopus, I am close to finishing all of my ATPL theory exams and won't be borrowing a penny for my CPL/ME/IR this year.
Best of luck with your dream.