I agree with what you have said John, you will be happy with the service and the machine from Tormach, they are good people to deal with.
I bought Alibre and Sprutcam with my machine, Sprut I like for the cam program, I did buy Rhino for the cad program after a buddy let me use his for awhile as it was much easier to learn for me.
I have had mine since last Februrary and have a fairly decent handle on everything now, I am in your age bracket so it has been a bit of a hassle in that respect ha!
So far I only use mine for my hobby stuff but I am well pleased with the machine.