Mining is just speculating on bitcoin in a different way.  Right now you will at best break even mining, so by mining you are essentially saying that you think the price of BTC will rise.  That is the same thing as simply taking the same amount of money and buying some BTC.  However, with mining there is less of a trail to you of how you got your BTC versus an exchange.

If you look back on this forum this has almost always been the case.  Mining wasn't profitable at BTC prices of those times either, but it damn sure was in hindsight.  Hence my point that mining is speculating just in a different way.

So I would say if you want to learn more about bitcoin by all means mine away!  But don't expect to make money unless BTC continues its rise in price.

Good Luck!