Well just consider few things:

1. Yes at the moment profitability is on the lower end, but considering difficulty levels you can still mine XXXX cryptos. Difficulty levels mostly will go skywards. You can mine and wait fro the price increases. GPU and ASIC prices are related with crypto prices, they rise with rise on crypto prices.

2. the world is catching up with cryptos and you should not mind spending out to learn the things and consider it as investment or learning fees, you can do group buy with other friends and start experimenting.

Regards,
UBLJ'C