I may not have room to talk because of my jump number, but here is where i stand on the topic at hand. I only have nine jumps, but I have already purchased a rig that will get me buy a couple hundred jumps. I dont mind staying with a big canopy untill I am ready to downsize, which souldn't be after fifty jumps anyway. Some people may take longer to downsize or may not want to. If you wait until you have 30-50 jumps you have already spent. $750-$1300 extra depending on how much your gear rental is.That is money that could go towards a used gear purchase, but its gone now. So I would suggest getting your own rig asap. There is alot of used gear that has a decent resale value, so you wont loose the $750-$1300 that you would renting gear. It just makes sense to cut back on startup cost by not renting gear that long.