You don't need $300 gear to do Level 2. A lot of people who are pretty up there the "pro" scale use something similar to a FNIRSI DWS-200 200W, which I bought for $90, with shipping. It comes with 8 tips, and is extremely tight, supports fast tip switching, very fast heating (auto-spleep, etc), very nice interface, short tip, etc. Yes, the tip is not well-calibrated temp wise, but you can get a non-certified calibrator for $15. I work on RC planes and associated flight controllers with it all day long. The annoyingly expensive area is the hot air station, actually, but that's really a bit "out there" -- the cheap(er) copies don't yet exist, so it's still on the expensive side. A good hot air station is where it's more like lev 2.5 -- with it, you can do HDMI/USB port changes reliably, and in seconds. The BGA etc. is lev 3.

Beyond the soldering iron, my recommendations that are not too obvious at first sight:

* solder paste (verrrry useful, just get it, and use it)

* something to purify air that _pulls_ it (a reverse fan) with a carbon filter (~30 USD)

* magnifying glass, hopefully attached to a ring of LEDs + a stand so you can see what you are doing (30-60 USD)

* solder sucker, hopefully automated (5 USD non-automated, 80 USD+ automated)