I guess you are asking the wrong question here. Instead asking how much you should ask who will mentor me? It is more important to find a person who is ready to devote his/her time to mentor new programmers. I wish I would be as lucky as Brian. I am also looking for someone to mentor me. At times hundreds of choices confuses the new learner and all of a sudden the interest to learn fades. This is the best part of this article and so so very True - "There are dozens or sometimes hundreds of ways to accomplish the same task in computer programming; this multitude of choices can be paralyzing for beginners."