Right. My first phono stage was the ARC PH3SE. It was $2500, almost exactly what I paid for the Basis turntable, and Graham arm. Each. Back then I was already into budgeting but people misunderstand budgeting. The right way to do it is like ghdprentice says above. It never once crossed my mind, "You have a $5k turntable you must find a $5k phono stage" or anything like that. Wrong way of seeing it.
A better more sophisticated view is with an aim to building the whole system. I must have auditioned a dozen phono stages. All highly recommended by the way. Everything from Lehman Black Cube to EAR843 and all the way up to an even more expensive Linn. I thought the PH3SE would be the pick based on reviews but was hoping and praying to not have to spend that kind of money.
In the end, because I did get the right one (and not the "budgeted" one) I was happy with it for nearly 20 years! So long what I paid so long ago hardly matters. If I had followed the budget guide the way a lot of guys do I would have settled and upgraded, settled and upgraded, in the end spending easily more money while going with mediocre sound almost the whole time only getting there at the end.
The phono stage is easily the most demanding hardest job in all of audio. Get the right one and it will last you a very long time. Mine lasted me through 2 turntables, 2 arms, 3 cartridges. So budgeting is much more a guideline than a rule. Where it shows its true value is when people use it to put as much into wire as other components. But that is another one for another time.