Mining is a lot of fun (and time consuming too), but at the end, all hardware is a passive asset, that will loose value with time. Even if you recover your initial investment, and have a profit, at the end you would end up with a lot of money invested in hardware that could not be easily recovered. Other thing is power cost, witch make sense only if you could use solar power.
Cryptocurrency is an asset, in the worst case scenario, you could end up with a fraction of your money, and not with a bunch of hardware to sell and power bills to pay. I've tried both, and right now my return of investment for mining is 18 months, and until then I'll have a profit. On the other side, I invested buying bitcoins, ethers and ripples and manage to have a profit of 50% of my initial investment in just 2 months. But just as you said, it's a big risk. Take your decisions in a bad moment and you would loose part of your investment, but if you are meticulous you could gain a lot.
In conclusion, I'll rather invest that money in trading, but only if you are debt-free, and all your basics are covered (in other words, money you could loose without financial consequences).
Exactly what I wanted to convey. Another point that you raised about Solar Power is also very much true. If you can manage solar power, it would be great. But this tend to be an issue in western countries. As it would require some extra place and sun out all time. I find Asian countries very attractive for this sort of adventure. Solar equipment are also very much cheap as compared to western countries.
I wish I had more money, I would have jumped.