RE: Spend my money.... Transmitter??
6 channels will get you by for a very long time. Even most .60 size warbirds can be flown on 6 channels. It is when you get into the large scale, more complex airplanes that you need more. My main radio has 8 channels but they go unused in most of my airplanes.
I second the Futaba's. I have owned the other brand and I went back to Futaba. They are reliable, easy to program, simple to bind and I like the receivers much better. That's not to say JR/Spektrum is bad; they are good radios, just not my preference. You may also want to take a look at some of the offerings from Airtronics. There are a few at the field and I am impressed with the radio they provide for the money.