I recommend colocating if you can stomach the trust required. I do it with a local guy, whom I know personally.

Keep in mind that your energy price is the bitcoin price. Bitcoin is energy.

Mining is a great savings plan because the corn is fresh, and if your hashrate and electricity costs are relatively stable, then your reward can be volatile, hopefully to the upside.

It's bitcoin-cost-averaging, which is way more fun than dollar-cost averaging.