I shall make my bold return back to the forum and say congrats on 10 years, Dave!
There was a discussion earlier on a startup bench kit... but I have another idea. I travel a lot, and currently, I don't have a bench anymore (been in storage for about 5 years) What about a portable kit of some sort that you can take with you? Like the real super basics kit when you're in the field? I have mine in a small tool box which consists of a small folding multimeter, a pair of needle-nose pliers, small cutters, solder (60/40), a small roll of 22 AWG wire, an iron and some tip cleaner, extra tips, some small screwdrivers, and even a spare PC board. I'm probably missing a few things, but I can only fit so much!
~Chuck