Well, here's my advice:


Take your time and do a great deal of research to start with. Too many times, I've watched people spend money on "exciting" snakes, only to either change their minds later and want to do a different project, or they encounter life changes (some unpredictable, but some they should have seen coming) that cause them to have to get rid of their snakes. Either way, they end up selling out and have little-to-nothing to show for the money and time they put into it in the first place.

So....research and PLAN. Decide what YOU are passionate about and work toward that goal. Decide how you want to house multiple snakes, and figure out how much of your $3k is going to have to go into that. Make sure you have a steady income for purchasing feeders for multiple snakes. In addition to seeing people buy morphs the either do'nt really want or can't keep, I've seen people buy up dozens of animals in anticipation of big breeding projects....only to find the food bill for that many animals is staggering. Or they can't find a steady, consistent supply of that many feeder rodents each week.

Enjoy this phase of it. Save your $3k and add to it while you take this time to study all the myriad of options available and figure out your own desires. Do you want "instant morphs"? Or are you willing to put in the years it takes to raise up recessives and breed for much more rare morphs and combos? How will you house them? How will you feed them? How will you handle the babies when they come?

There's just so much more to consider than which snakes can I get for X amount of dollars. The FUN part is learning and figuring all that out!