Hakko is good for a hobby person... When you get into doing repairs for others or you just want something that will last you many years, get a Pace unit.
I have one on each of the 3 repair benchs in my shop and a couple of spare units just because I use them so much.
If you can't afford these options then you can do a few things:
- Buy a good quality fixed heat iron such as a Weller or Edsyn.
- Troll CL for items that suddenly show up.
- Troll eBay several times a day for new items with a Buy-it-Now price you can afford
I did the trolling for items and have picked up many deals. One of the best was a Pace analog 2 channel system with a soldering iron and desoldering iron for $45 on the local CL. It takes a lot of work - you'll be searching several times a day for "soldering", "solder", "desoldering", and "desolder" key words. You'll get tired of it. You'll want to stop. Then suddenly it'll eventually pay off and you'll find something.
RJ