1. Read aritcles/books, understand the conecepts, shoot/practise, self critique , repeat
2. What do you like to shoot and how often do you intend to shoot? If you spend $700+ on a bridge/prosumer now and decide to upgrade to DLSR later you will lose more than if you just buy a second hand DLSR now
I'd wait for fuji to release tier new f and s series cause those look promising.. currenlty the fuji f31d comes highly reccomened for a compact and for prosumers you have the choice of canon S3IS , panasonic fz-50 or maybe a fuji s9000..