I know that there is a massive thread about it but in this thread let's discuss the process of acquiring bitcoin.

Don't.

No one but asians understand bitcoin.

You're 10 years too late.

You are too late, short version, bit coins are "mined" this means using energy efficient electronics, most commonly graphics cards to run through a shit ton of processing to "mine" on up.  The cost of this is the electricity used run the card to mine one coin.  You want to mine more coins than the cost of electricity to do it.  When it first started coins were "easy" to find.  As more and more coins are mined it takes longer and longer to mine one up.  The is a finite amount that will ever be released.  At this point you need a huge efficient operation to be profitable.

Long version, read the Wikipedia article or something.

If you are talking about using your money to buy them, I dunno but I wouldn't.  The era of basically printing money via mining is gone, very slim pickings now.

Gaga googoo

Buy low, sell high

LOL.

The easiest way to get bitcoins is to buy them. Most people go through an exchange like coinbase.com. Once you link your bank account you can directly purchase bitcoin from them or move some cash onto the exchange for use later.

Once you have some bitcoin, you can leave it in the coinbase wallet or transfer it to your own wallet for more security.

Coinbase is very fraud wary, so expect a few days hold on your money before your bitcoin is available. If you have cash on their exchange the transfer is immediate.

To cash out, you sell it back to coinbase and transfer it to your bank account. If you want to use it to purchase goods, then you send the bitcoin direct to the person/company accepting bitcoin as payment. Newegg and quite a few precious metal shops accept bitcoin payments.