I know what you mean about funds being hard to find when you need them ... my first expensive knives and my Sig were bought on what you guys would call "lay away" or "on tic" over here ... lol ... I even needed a fair old time to pay off the magazine's for my Sig P210 ... they were'nt cheap ... but as you say it depends a lot on how much you are going to shoot the pistol ... no sense spending a fortune if it is only going to get moderate use ...