Get one now, and make it pay for itself.
Yeah, that's pretty much my thinking. "Now", though, means more like a month or two, when a substantial cash hit will be coming my way.
As for "pay for itself", this is another issue I could use advice on. When I was forced to give up my last really serious photography phase because my car was totalled on the way home from Zion, my whole program was derailed and I'm just now getting ready to get back into it. I sent CD's with pictures to several companies that market stock photos and the response right from the beginning was pretty encouraging and Corel bought 11 pictures, but then I never went any farther with it. Once I have a bunch of better pictures with better Photoshop work, I'll make a much bigger effort with the stock photo places. I'm only interested in shooting nature things, not any sort of "commercial" photography (weddings, product shots, etc.). Any tips for how to market, other than hitting all the stock photograph companies? Any tips for shooting and processing to appeal to the potenital markets?