if you have the money to do it, do it. But, in my opinion, if you are only an occasional photographer and dont shoot that much, it im assuming being your first dslr. i would go with a canon, something along the lines of rebel xt or xti those two camera's in my opinion are marketed towards begginner users

the nikon d40 is a very good dslr but for someone starting out i wouldnt go to that. thats just my opinion, its a little bit more in depth then you might what, nikons are built for professionals even their lower end slr's but they are good camera's none the less.