When I bought my Janome, I had very specific desires. Make sure you know what you really want in your new machine - test drive lots of them to find out what you want. I REALLY wanted a bigger "throat". I wanted a heavier machine that had the thread cutter button (I LOVE that button). A few other things were on the "have to have it" list.
I also wanted a machine I could "grow into", so I deliberately got something more advanced than I felt I currently needed.
Then I tried to figure out how long I expected to use the machine. I expect this machine will be my "main" machine for at LEAST 10-15 years. This helped me sort of amortize the cost out a bit and make sure I was getting enough "bang" for each buck.
In the end, I'm very happy with my machine, zero regrets.
Happy hunting for yours!