Good for you! I started investing about 40+ years ago, all on my own (with the definite help of Money, Kiplinger magazines, Wall Street Journal, library books, brochures handed out from brokerage firms, personal finance articles in various magazines). It wasn't until relatively recently we all had PC's and could instantly find info.
I've always had difficulty understanding why people could not see that wealth could be created in the markets, and why they didn't put in the time and effort to find out how this coiuld be accomplished. A great deal of lost opportunities in our boomer generation.
i do have to state, I spent a lot of my free time reading very dry articles on investing, saving, where to get highest cd rates, best credit cards, and just understanding macroeconomics, market terms, risk vs reward, and dozens of other principles. I assume you had to discipline yourself to do research and read what were probably, fairly boring articles and numbers.