I completed my degree in Psy in 1980 in over 30 years of working I've worked for Health, Education, Social Services, charities and private industry. Perhaps you need to think about who you want to work for organisation wise, then who you want to help as an end user of your knowledge, then how much a good salary means to you, finally where you want to live. The other issue is getting a professional qualification.

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It depends on what your values are. If you like parks or shopping or culture or food or markets. I would write a top list then create a spreadsheet to tally which areas meet your needs. I've lived in North London and South. Muswell Hill is awful for travel but great for everything else, so that illustrates the TOP priority in London that of transport.
Or look at somewhere like Woking, it's 25 minutes by train to Waterloo and cheaper rents. 

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Are there any other older students out there. I've just given up full time work after 30 years! I've started a PhD this month, self funding, but hoping to work out how to apply for funding, and still doing a bit of work to pay the fees. Love my student card and the discounts I can now get, just wish this applied to travel too as I neither qualify for a bus pass or a young persons railcard. I ride a bike to Uni each day to save money on car parks, and sit at a Faculty desk to save money on electric and gas bills phone and printing too. The lack of a salary each month is a shock, but frugality is a good discipline to acquire. Any advice? Any thoughts for older students.
Why am I doing this now? Certainly not to improve job prospects! It's purely for the joy of studying, it's for me.

A baby is a PhD in child development and completely absorbs the couple. I would advise against a PhD and baby combination. After I had my son my husband insisted on doing a part time masters, it was a horrible time for both of us for two years and caused much resentment in both sides, we survived but it left a mark for many years.
The issues were

For me
He opted out of child related tasks all the time to study, I suspected some of this was avoidance.
He was never available to share the stress of child caring as he disappeared to the library or spent time with single childless student friends.
His deadlines were priorities at times I had to sacrifice a lot and my own needs went unmet.

For him
The house seemed chaotic it wasn't but it certainly wasn't peaceful to study there so he had to leave to study which he resented.
He developed separate social lives one with other couples with kids, plus the student childless set.
The baby kept him tired all the time, when it was asleep he felt too tired to study, and resented having to study to a timetable dictated by a baby and wife.

The upside
He got his MSc
Our son is now 24 has left home and working
I've just started my PhD at 52
We've been married for 29 years

Good luck and my advice is if your relationship is very strong you could risk it, but it puts a very severe strain, and this should not be ignored.