Local BTC Storage, Desktop Wallet, Need Advice

Hey guys, I could use some advice with respect to local (home PC) "storage" of BTC.

Background: I'm relatively new to cryptocurrency production and transactions. As a Folding@Home enthusiast, I've been folding for 16 years. I joined the Foldingcoin and Curecoin awarding teams just this summer. The acquired FLDC and CURE have really been an effective way to offset my Folding hardware and power costs.

I have no issues with depositing CURE and FLDC at my coin exchange, Bittrex, and exchanging the tokens there for BTC. I exchange for BTC as BTC is the easiest cryptocurrency to actually pay for real goods. In my case, paying with BTC has so far been limited to purchasing computer hardware at Newegg. For now, I'm happy with the hardware I'm running and simply want to park my BTC until I want/need to make purchases.

I'm a bit queasy about storing my BTC at Bittrex, which is my exchange, or any exchange for that matter. Maybe I'm wrong, but I think storage would be safer with a "desktop" wallet on one of my home PCs. I'm very good with password security and I routinely run backups of all important data. My backup regimen includes offsite, cold (not online) , redundant backups. (I routinely swap out a hard drive with backup copies at a safe deposit box.)

OK, two questions, please:

1) What do you think about my security assessment of desktop wallet storage versus exchange storage?
2) What desktop BTC wallet would you recommend? Going forward, I would intend to use the wallet for purchases using BTC.

1. No arguments
2. Desktop wallets come down to preference. Electrum or Core (if I want the full blockchain) for me.

Thank you oblox. I've got some reading to do now.

If you are that worried you can look at a ledger or trezor hardware wallet. I picked up a ledger nano s and like it so far, however I can't compare to the trezor as I've never used one.

Oops - edits gone bad. See the post below.

Worried" is the wrong word. I just look for good security practices, that's all. I'm just doing my best to limit risk. I realize we can't eliminate all risk; but we certainly can limit it, to address our level of our risk aversion.

As it turned out, I am now using the Electrum wallet for BTC local storage.

Oblox and Eickst, thanks for your input.

Did you ever think of using a paper wallet?

Paper wallet? I believe my risk tolerance is such that I don't need to go that far.

Linden said:

Paper wallet? I believe my risk tolerance is such that I don't need to go that far.

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You need a combination just like anything else. Bank account, paper money, retirement accounts, gold, silver, real estate

Exchange account, online wallet, offline wallet, hardware wallet, paper wallet

Never put all of your eggs in one basket (especially with the history of crypto and it's exchange scams, hacks, breaches etc)