Tech Forum

Start with a soldering kit (such as RadioShack's Cat. No. 64-2803), plus a couple of rolls of solder removal braid and a roll of rosin core solder (the RoHS stuff is "greener" but it's a pain even for seasoned veterans). If you plan to remove a lot of components from scrapped boards, a vacuum desoldering tool will keep your hair on your head.
 

I learned to solder at eight years old (52 years ago) with my grandfather's 250 watt soldering gun and a roll of solder that looked like it could be used to solder pipes, so the low wattage soldering irons used today are a snap. At 10 years old, my grandfather gave me a guitar amp. I learned not to troubleshoot the black tubes by touching them to see if they were warm (fried a finger tip in the process).
 

CAUTION: Wear safety goggles or glasses when soldering and don't even think about surface-mount devices yet.

Practice soldering by attaching two small wires together and then move up to a kit. Ramsey Electronics (www.ramseykits.com) has a lot of neat electronics kits for both beginners and old pros. Later, you will build some of your own designs or those from the authors of Nuts & Volts, and will need components; Jameco (www.jameco.com), Mouser (www.mouser.com), and Digi-Key (www.digikey.com) are good sources. Don't worry about microcontrollers now, but later you may try them and catch the programming bug.
 

Good luck, keep trying new things, and don't give up. Before you know it, you'll be an old pro too.