I prefer Solidworks for CAD but Inventor is good too. It depends how much you're going to be using it, what for and who's paying or what sort of discounts you can get. Inventor's probably slightly better value but if you're using it all day everyday then the slight extra power/speed of Solidworks should pay off. It's worth getting a trial of each and seeing how you get on.

If you're talking about free/cloud based CAD you've got to look at OnShape. I much prefer that to Fusion 360, though again it depends what sort of projects you're working on, Fusion may be better for surfacing. I've taught several people 3D CAD through Onshape and its gone pretty well. The collaborative screen sharing stuff is really good for helping someone remotely and OnShape's support is excellent, better than I get through Solidworks. The other advantage of the cloud based packages is you only need a decent internet connection, you won't need a new computer.

Last time I looked, the free HSMXpress plugin for Solidworks looked way behind Fusion 360's CAM. Fusion can do rest machining, pencil, HSM etc.