NN2X's estimate of a station cost of $3500 is reasonable. This is a lot of money for most of us, but, let us say you use it for 10 years. With a little luck the yearly cost to maintain it should be low. If the resale of the station goes to zero, that is only $350 per year. Lets add $100 for maintaining the station, so let us call that $450 per year. I cannot think of many hobbies you can enjoy for less than that. My friends who snow machine, dog mush, of hunt spend many times that per year, and my flying buddies spend at least an order of magnitude more. I used my 1957 station of a home brew RX and Heath DX-100 (heavily modified) for nearly 40 years. I did not spend much money on antennas until after about 1977 since I was a poor teacher raising children, buying braces for them, a 4H horse, etc. When my financial situation improved, I still used my basic station, with better antennas until about 1997, and had lots of fun. After the kids were grown, our house was paid off, and I actually had some time bought a Ten Tec, extended my tower, and that was fine for another 20 years. We are now retired and our children have their own careers, so I "upgraded" to an Elecraft transceiver, and a good Yagi. So consider your priorities when money is tight. I was fortunate that I never needed to send any equipment back for repair and I still do all of my own tower and antenna work at age 81. This could be very expensive since rotators, Yagi's, and towers do require possibly expensive repair and check ups.
Do I actually have more fun with my two towers and a modern transceiver? Probably not, but since we have been able to travel extensively and do other things more important than ham radio, why not spend some of our nest egg. If I calculate the yearly cost of my ham equipment for these 67 years, probably it is not too high. A side benefit of my ham experience, is that after 10 years of teaching, I was able to land a high paying job in electronics for 27 years. Lots of fun, and my job consisted of flying all over Alaska and troubleshooting all kinds of fun projects. Vacuum tube, solid state, antenna crews, microwave, digital switches, etc. etc. Without my ham experience this would not have happened. I know I was lucky to be in the right place at the right time and not all folks with only ham experience will fall into a position like this. Education helps for sure, at least in getting your foot in the door. I had a degree in physics, and the equivalent of a math major also, but some of the engineers and technicians were not really good at troubleshooting, although they had more technical knowledge.
Enjoy your modest station and later if you can afford it improve it, but ham radio should not be the most important thing in life. If your wife wants a new sewing machine or an ocean cruise, this should take priority.
Rick KL7CW