Mine or Trade Cryptocurrency???

Not easy to be a noobie in this new era of Cryptocurrency!

I believe the questions are fair and valid, where do I start? Do I try to find my way in by trading? And yet the infrastructure just received a massive blow to its core with a surprising amount of registration and signups all at once cause the Cryptocurrencies revealed themselves to be the future of money. Is it worth investing thousands of dollars in really loud machines to mine? 

As a new comer in this incredibly vast market, where to start? First of, seeing how pricey the Bitcoin just got lately, is it fair to admit that I have missed the boat or is it a currency that will only grow from now on? I have tons of questions and the answers seem to be harder to find than a needle in  a hay stack! 

Is Ethereum the next Bitcoin?!?

How likely is it for a Cryptocurrency to just vanish? These are real questions I don't have the answers to, I want to learn and all I find is way too many sources of information. How to find, which one is the good wallet, which one is the best exchange? Mining requires specific video cards for processing (this I have to admit I was really surprised).

Please, leave comments, give your input, inform me and other people who may read this!