as people in the thread have said, play to have enough for the next stake and move up until you reach the stake you want to play or feel most comfortable at
at first i played maybe 10k hands or so at 2nl won maybe $20 or something but i started from 90cents from freerolls and made $70 in sng's and moved to 5nl at $90 or so, played about 45k hands or so of 5nl then moved to 10nl and got murdered, after 400k+ hands im still at 5nl
but yea the goal is just to play good poker and move up as your rolled for the next limit