If you can afford it, I'd recommend pursuing a formal route. It exposes you to a lot of ideas and ways of thinking that are hard to get in practice. After having programmed for around 4 years now, I often wish I'd studied CS.
In lieu of that, I think Udacity's nanodegrees programs are probably a good way to end up in a paid position relatively soon.
(I'm assuming you're looking to break into web programming. I can't speak for other areas.)