An Enthusiastic Amateur

A microscope enthusiast will want more in a microscope than a student or an amateur. Higher resolution objectives, an oil immersion sub-stage condenser with a filter holder, perhaps a trinocular head for photography (although I will be showing you how to do great photography without one), and most likely some good ergonomic controls to make long sessions at the microscope pleasant.

This microscope will have semi-PLAN or PLAN objectives, so that more of the field of view will be in focus at once than with the less expensive achromatic objectives.  The objectives may also be apochromatic, so that all colors will focus at the same point.

Those are the places to spend the money.  But a microscope with those features will most likely also have many user-friendly ergonomic features, like coaxial fine and coarse focus, set low to the table so the arms can rest, a mechanical stage with low coaxial controls, and a backwards facing nosepiece to make working with slides easier.

This microscope will cost what an enthusiast's camera would cost, or an enthusiast's computer might cost.  But the important features (the objectives and the sub-stage condenser) can be upgrades to a less expensive microscope purchased earlier, when the interest level and income were more modest.