First step is deciding what you want to do. An accoustic guitar gets you through the initial learning but if it's your desire to be in a band it's useless. Also acoustic guitar and electric guitar are essentially two different instruments with different sounds and ways of playing.
If you are determined to play electric guitar the first step will be get yourself a good amp. The amp is the foundation of your sound. If you have a shit guitar but a good amp you'll still have a decent sound. A good guitar on a shit amp will still sound like shit. Now you don't have to get yourself a wall of Marshall stacks
drool: ) but getting a good combo is a good investment. It gets you a good sound and they tend to maintain their value infinitely better then cheap Chinese made crap. Note that various amps are geared towards specific sounds. Marshalls favor the heavier spectrum of music, while Fender has a killer clean tone. And Vox of course is Edge's brand of choice.
Next comes guitar cables. Bargain cables=crap sound. It pays to go for quality cables. Remember that a chain is only as good as its weakest link. Cables are often overlooked. A mate of mine bought several amps looking for the right guitar tone only to discover that the reason he could never get it right were crappy cables. Of course never ask a salesman as to what good quality cables are. If he senses you are a guitar n00b he's likely to foist you off with the most expensive ones instead.
IMHO a guitar comes last. If you only have a $1000 to spend I'd spend $800 on an amp, $50 on cables and only $150 on a guitar. The reason being what I said before, a crap guitar on a good amp will still sound decent, the reverse never. Of course, here also, it pays to go for quality. Although quality doesn't have to mean the most expensive. Like amps, what kind of guitar you need depends on the kind of music you want to play. While you can play heavy metal with a Fender Stratocaster, it will sound better with a Gibson Les Paul equiped with humbucker pickups. A good option is to go for a good jack of all trade guitar, reasonably priced and upgrade it over time with better hardware.
As for guitar effects, Boss makes decent and reasonably priced effects. There are certainly worse ones, (Behringer, AVOID, AVOID, AVOID!!!), and better ones (also more expensive). The advantage of Boss effects is that they are build like a tank so they can last you a lifetime. And there exists tons of inexpensive mods for Boss pedals that you can apply with a little soldering that can turn them into world class effects. If you are not afraid of soldering
http://www.buildyourownclone.com/ has an inexpensive series of DIY clone kits of high end effects.
Finally the cardinal rule, you can never try things out before you buy to much. Often you find that some things aren't what you are looking for and it's better if you do that before then after you buy. Since you are a guitar n00b get somebody who knows more to help you to try things out. Don't let salesmen pressure you into buying what they want. Check around in different shops and on the internet. Places like
http://www.harmony-central.com/ contain tons of user reviews on amps, effects and guitars. And you may find that what the salesman whats you to buy is generally considered to be only average at best by other users.