A little background before I get into this, I have barely touched animation before in my entire life, I have some cash that wouldn't be too put out by spending if I thought I was getting something good, and I am currently interested in doing this as a hobby, starting with the small stick man animations, building up into more creative projects. The thing is I am fairly terrible at drawing but I have, what I would like to think are, a few good ideas that randomly pop into my head but are forced to stay there because I have very little artistic ability.
With that out of the way I came here to ask for advice and recommendations for some animation software that anyone who currently works with animation as a profession or just on a daily basis would give to someone who is looking to start it as a hobby. In other words, if you were able to go back to whenever you started working with animation and give your younger self a software from today that you believe would best get you into working with animation. Nothing extremely fancy or difficult, just something to get your feet wet with.
So basically I would like a good piece of software that I can use now and further on down the line, when I decide to try more ambitious projects. I do not mind buying something as long as I know it is fairly good, not being extremely difficult to understand or learn but also having the tools to allow me to expand when I want to.
One more thing, I am not opposed to having to learn how a program works, meaning that I am willing to sit and watch a tutorial or read about it if I can reasonably say that it would be worth my time.