wanted to take a sec to say thanks to all the folks who chimed in here. After a LOT of thought, I've finally come around on my thinking and we're going to buy a smaller pre-owned boat as our first boat, rather than going all in off the hop with something big and shiny. I haven't owned a boat since my folks had one when I was in high school 25 years ago. I've never trailered a boat and never launched or loaded (we lived right on the water) and it would be insane to learn all this stuff with a brand new boat. So we're looking at a 14' Lund Rebel for about 5 grand and it'll be a perfect "learner" boat for us, and the bonus is, it gives us a lot of room in our budget to finish our basement, which is our other priority right now.
The way I figure it, in 5 years we'll have our vehicles paid off, our basement finished, and we'll be ready to graduate from our learner, into something much nicer and we'll have more than enough money to afford it!
Thanks again for all the info, folks!!