re: Beginner wood working advice

Depends on what you currently have and what your looking to do. Do you just plan on using plywood and 2x4's? Can build most workshop and outdoor stuff with skill saw, speed square, and disc sander. Dewalt makes pretty good intro stuff in general. Also like porter cable. Anything beyond shop, camp, outdoor picnic table type stuff you should invest in some more tools. I'd recommend a good table saw and router.

For table saw get a smaller job site saw and make building a workbench/out feed table as one of your first projects.

This is a good safe one and can use with dado set. While your learning, provides extra protection from cutting your hand off.
LINK

This is decent lower priced one - no dado or safety features.
LINK

For router I'd go porter cable or Bosch.

If you want to start getting into furniture making, you are going to need a tabletop planer and jointer. I'd see if you stick with it before going past router.