Sounds like you're going the way I do, buy youngsters and train & keep them as long as you can. In a level or two your facility will start producing Youths, the ones that cost Tokens tend to be fast trainers (and don't cost $$) and I usually go for them if they are an upgrade for who they are replacing.

Even on my 35T team I try to buy the expensive youths from the TL for key positions, in the long run it saves me T.