What Ray says. Frustrating as it is,most of us have started out and then ended up upgrading all or most of our machines. You simply do not know what you need or can not afford to buy what you really want. You have to jump on the train somewhere. Also when people ask for advice we tell them to buy what we ended up with after 25 years,forgetting that it took 25 years to figure it out and then pay for it. My best advice would be get a cabinet saw for a tablesaw first. Then fill in with tools so you can work ,think critical mass or at least one way to accomplish most things,so you can actually make projects with wood. Worry about the upgrades later as you need them. A jointer is meant to do the face of a board and then the edge to give you a flat surface and a square edge. This is where the 6'' is marginal because you can only flatten to 6''. I would still purchase a 6'' to start because it is still better than no jointer and far easier to find than a 8'' model. It will be fine for edge work and flattening boards up to 6''.