When starting off cubing, it’s good to do speedsolves until you feel like you’re at a comfortable spot with whatever method you use. Afterwords, build off of that method by removing time consuming steps and adding more efficient ones. For example, in the very beginner's method, cross is built using the daisy pattern. This can be replaced by lookahead and intuitive patterns. Another example is in layer building. Layer are solved one piece at a time in beginners' method, but by implementing the first-two-layers strategy from the cfop method, one can build the layers two pieces at a time. When starting out, you don't necessarily need a top-of-the-line magnetic speed cube. I used a non-magnetic 7 dollar cube for over a year, and I managed sub-27 seconds. Still, buying a magnetic cube should be considered once serious improvement is made. Good luck on your goals, and feel free to ask any questions.
-1x1 wr holder!