Welp, my first hardware wallet arrives tomorrow, so I'll be downloading the live CD ISO file to initialize everything on an air-gapped machine--after I go through that whole hash verification process, that is...
I looked into Bitcoin Core too as FireTreeActual mentioned. I might use a combination of paper, hardware, and software just for the fun of it.
Edit: ISO downloaded... Just gotta wait for the desktop back since we're signing a new lease to move in the near future--I heard this helps finding new blocks.
The catch with core is that you shouldn't run it on a windows computer.
So many viruses, key loggers (microsoft logs all your key strokes also), and general problems that it's just not worth the risk.
Bitcoin is of course big time now and a clear target for people to try and hack your wallet.
For a hot wallet, it really is best to run a small i3 16GB RAM PC with Ubuntu on it just for the wallet and put nothing else on there.
Leave it running as long as there's not 10's of BTC on it, and use that to pay for things as required.