Architect_1077, I was fortunately enough to grow up with a dad that liked electronics (and all technology-related topics for that matter) and therefore I started at a really young age watching him solder things and create toys for me and my brother. As time went by, I started helping him solder things (holding the solder wire or the pliers) and, at the age of 9 or 10, had my "trial by fire" assembling a circuit on my own - which didn't work at first time, of course.
Then one of my dad's friends gave me the same Philips EE20 kit mentioned by Tube_Dude (still have it!) and it really helped me get more experience with electronics (with pre-tested circuits). From that kit I moved somewhat backwards to circuits using Tubes (AM transmitters, audio amplifier, etc.) and eventually landed in the digital circuits. However, back then (late 80's) Brazil restricted ALL imports (and the economy was going down the drains pretty fast) and therefore it was very difficult and expensive to get anything modern in terms of electronic devices - couldn't get any of the modern transistors or integrated circuits shown in magazines like Elektor or Nuova Elettronica, let alone get anything programmable like the "new" microcontrollers/microprocessors!
In the 90's my hobbyist electronics activity diminished slightly during college (EE) and after graduation I eventually landed on a more computer-focused carreer; electronics became a "dormant giant" for 10, 12 years.
Although still working on software-related position in a large semiconductor manufacturer, this year I restarted strong at the age of 37.
Therefore it is never late to start, restart, learn new things.