I know that I am certainly glad I waited until after the biggest initial part of the learning curve was over (PPL in hand). I purchased the plane when I was far along enough in my training that I knew this would be something I would be doing as long as I could afford to, but didn't actually start flying it until I finished the checkride. From then on out, it was all about learning my own plane and learning how it behaved, which oddly enough seemed to feel a bit different than the 152 trainers I had used.
I was well-enough informed to be sure the plane I bought had complete logs back to day 1, even though I did not fully realize the implications of this until my first annual. I have since spent many hours sifting through the logs, compiling difinitive lists of all ADs, and major service work that will be affecting me in the future. But to me, it's all been worth it and very rewarding, learning and working on my own plane. I also plane to use this for at least a couple more certificates, so I'm hoping that will be the ultimate justification.
It really has to be a careful consideration for anyone who is thinking about it. Fortunately, these birds are keeping their value better than anything else I own, so as long as you don't overpay for the wrong reasons, you should be able to get out at any time with minimal losses.
