Have you had your Squire setup by a tech? Maybe new strings and the setup can make it good enough until you're not a beginner. Just sayin'.
Nah. OP has money burning a hole in his pocket. A set up and new strings isn't going to satisfy him, even though it's probably the best thing he can do now, especially since he has no idea what he wants. I'd get that thing set up and playing nice and in the meantime go out and play as many basses as you can to figured out what you want.