I need tech advice, so I figured you nerds were the people to ask.

I'm ever so pleased with my Mac Mini. It is fast, has never crashed ever, doesn't complain about the things I make it do, and is cute on my desk. But I'm going to be traveling again, and I kind of want some portability.

I figured my options were: macbook (or pro) in addition to my Mini, which seems silly, because I don't need that many computers.

Keep the Mini (and put it in storage when I'm traveling) and rely on iPhone when out and about. I like this in theory, but I want a keyboard, a word processor, flash, all my music, and the ability to switch email accounts (which I could set up I know but I'm lazy).

Get rid of my Mini (I'm thinking mac recycling program) and get a Macbook, or Pro, or Air. Probably refurb because I'm cheap. Also, keep in mind that I will probably plug it into external monitor and wireless keyboard/mouse when I'm using it at home.

Option three is the strongest contender right now.

If I go with option three, here's a quandary. I would send my mini in (to get a couple hundred bucks) before ordering my new laptop. I currently have all my stuff backed up using TimeMachine on an external drive (the kind that still has a spinning disk inside, which I understand is slightly more likely to fail). I could just keep the TimeMachine back up and then put it on the new laptop, but there is probably plenty on my computer that I don't need/forgot about/shouldn't have anymore.

So then I'm thinking I reformat the drive and just transfer the stuff I want- files, music, pics, etc. Start fresh. This sounds appealing to me. I'm a little terrified, though, of putting all my stuff on one poor external drive, waiting for a new computer.

Sooooooorry for the tl;dr, but thoughts geek friends?