(cf Venkatesh Rao's answer to this question: http://www.quora.com/Startups/I-want-to-start-a-tech-startup...
"Find a couple of other older people with some experience and their own warchests, form an angel group. 200k will allow you to participate in like 4-5 good ideas within a year, and as an investor with good partners, you'll learn far faster than on the founder side. Founding is for people with no money, or people who've done it before. Money can buy you into the game in smarter ways. In particular it gives you the luxury of portfolio diversification which most founders lack.")
If you want to succeed in the startup game, a portfolio approach is best. That's possible for investors and employees (who can try several jobs until they find one that takes off), but not for founders, most of whom will spend years on a venture that likely doesn't go very far. So angel investing might be a better route.
Of course, that depends on how much you want to be playing the game yourself as a founder or just taking on an advisory role.
Heck, if you really want to ramp up your coding skills, I wouldn't mind tutoring you for a reasonable fee. Let me know if you're interested (email in my profile).