Traiding up ideas

[HAPPeBOY]

In several threads the idea has come up of buying a less expensive camera first then down the line buy something better.

I’m not a huge fan of trading up on things; I usually buy the best of what ever I can afford. And I use it until it is unusable or totally out of date.

Should I abandon my thinking in this case.
Will it be harmful to my development (pun not intended) if I splurge and get a Rebel XT or Nikon D50?

Or is the lifespan of entry level dSLR not long enough to get me through the stages of something below (ie Canon S2) and the entry level dSLR?

I wonder because my fathers SLR's still work (they are like 10 years old) though I know film SLRs are by nature more simple then dSLR. Can digital last 5 or 10 years.

The way I see it is I would totally blow my budget now but in the end I would save a lot of money in the long run, and get better pictures too.

I think I'm over analysing what camera to get.

thoughts?

thanks