no u don't "need" to spend money. takes 10 seconds to travel to a vendor then back to where u were. also in beta u could buy gems with in game gold so i would assume it'll be there in release
i would suggest going on the forums and asking someone to recruit a friend u. the triple xp is very well worth it as long as they r willing to lvl a new char with u. I'm about to start a new char so pm if u want a recruit a friend bonus