Lvl 48, found exalted orb: How to invest?

Hi

My only character in nemesis found an exalted orb today and i now wonder how to use it to improve my character. My guess is that i need to lvl up and invest it in some high level gear, but that may not be the case.

I am following this build: http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/105920

Thanks in advance

Char gear dump:

Get a 5L chest, a decent one. Maybe not even one you can use yet, because ideally you would want a crusader or an astral or a glorious, unless you have iron reflexes and then you have more options. You could probably get a belt with a decent life roll as well. I guess what I would do first is convert it to chaos (ie sell it for chaos) and then you could upgrade a lot of things. There is honestly not one item you have except crest of perandus that couldnt be upgraded for a few chaos. The shield is easily the best "bang for the buck" item in the game, and getting a better one is very expensive.

Like he said "convert it chaos's". Then start flipping currencies:

If you sold the EX for N chaos then wait and buy your EX for N-1 chaos, you just won 1 chaos. I never did it and i think it's boring, a friend of mine did it though and he won a lot. But yeah, if you want to upgrade all your gear.. 1 ex is not going to be enough.