How should a beginner photographer spend their money?

Different way of asking how others got started. Knowing what you do now, how would you recommend a person who is just getting started into "wanna be" professional photography (sorry only term I can think of to express transitioning from point and shoot to DSLR camera)?

Would you suggest money be spent on expensive top shelf camera gear? Books? Software? Memberships with photo organizations? Online courses?

Which of these would you say is most important?

Thanks again,

Stacy

Get a decent-quality setup, but save some money for later -- you're almost certainly not going to know what sort of equipment you're going to want until you've been shooting a while.

Think about the areas where your P&S doesn't perform the way you'd like, and concentrate on improving those with your DSLR setup. If you don't know what sort of shooting you'll be doing, or you don't know too much about lenses, a kit lens will be fine to start with. Use it and learn what's good and not good about it, and if you decide to move up to a better lens later, sell the kit lens. One of the nice things about DSLR setups is that there's a decent resale value for most of the equipment.

Try to dabble in post-processing a little, too. You can probably start with the software that comes with your camera, but before long, you'll want to move up to Photoshop Express, Lightroom, Aperture, Paint Shop Pro, or something like that.

If you tell us a little more about what sort of experience you've got and what sort of photography you're trying to get into, we may be able to give you better answers.

IMHO you can never get enough education, so I would say books, books and more books!

Invest in a good few courses at your local college in business and marketing. Read the threads here on going into business( especially the answers by bdroberts) and look him up in the directory. Ask his advise and see if you can find a successful local pro to mentor you. It takes more than a camera and lights to hang out your shingle and "go pro" these days.

Technique - learn technique, and then learn it all over again.

Guess what I am saying is get a camera within your budget, don't try and get the ferrari of cameras, unless you absolutely have to have the best. Possibly with a kit lens or a reasonable good lens.

Then practice, post - get constructive criticism on how to improve and look around you to see what others are doing.

Participate in the forums, read as much as you can.

develop your technique, then you can decide what you like to take pictures of.

try everything, learn lighting, try a program like photoshop essentials or corel paint shop pro they are cheap enough to get you started and give reasonable or even excellent results.

Always remember the photographer is the most important thing about taking a picture, next is the lens (glass) and then the camera. I shoot with a canon XTI right now, have taken close to 50000 pictures with it. I have spent most of my money on my glass since I bought the camera.

Now we have dealt with the photography part of it.

Now the business:
Learn the Business part of it take courses on marketing, accounting, presentations, Customer service, get advice from BDroberts, join your local photo club. General Business Courses

Bottom line though is enjoy yourself and learn.

I read magazines (photo and others) and books, and I read various Photography blogs, participate in forums.

In a short answer to your question, all are important, none is less important than the other.
But experience can only gained over time.

Stacy. If there is a camera club in your area, visit it. There are some GREAT ones and some that are run by "certain other types". If you find a good one, they are usually very inexpensive and have the whole gamut of experience levels. It is a good source of learning, watching, asking and often just plain fun.
I belong to clubs in two countries and both are very helpful.
Supplement this with the other suggestions here and you are on your way.