Damon I have to give you my respect for diving right in with very little gear and getting very nice results.
One word of advice: Keep the boar brush until you're ready to splurge on something really extravagant. I even learned to get a decent lather out of a $5 plastic bristled brush so it will hold its own until you decide on something FINE.
I currently own the Wilkinson plastic and the EJ Best Badger. The Wilkinson is used for the first lather with the cheap soap that stays on my face while I strop, gets rinsed and the lather from one of my finer soaps/creams (mostly Colleen's excellent stuff, real steals at $5.95 a cake) goes on with the badger.
However, the badger will be relegated to being a long trip traveller and for occasional variety-changeups once I get the custom piece I ordered from Matt.