@obrhoff yeah, the SSD prices are crazy. If you don’t need to access all your storage on the go, a NAS could allow both laptop and desktop to access arbitrary amounts of storage at least while you are at home. I wouldn’t want to care around a portable SSD because I feel they’re easy to loose or get stolen.
For the broken laptop while traveling scenario, with appple devices at least you can get a new one within a day or so in most developed countries.