If you don’t have at least a few BTC to devote to a routing node, keep things simple. 3-4 private (unannounced) channels to well connected nodes is all you need for personal use and payments.
Discussion
Are private channels capable of routing or are they designed specifically for personal use. In the end that's where I'll land, but I am willing to do some routing for the experience.
No since they are unannounced they won’t show up in the LN network graph. They only route if you know they exist, ie use route hints when creating invoices, or sending from one of the connected nodes.
Once you begin forwarding payments, you open yourself up to a lot more risk related to stuck HTLCS, forced closures etc. This is where a lot of the unexpected costs of running a node come in