A local backup to an external drive is fine but it does not protect against disasters like fire since the computer and backup are in the same location.
If you feel that you have objects that must be recoverable, such as pictures, then a cloud solution needs to be examined.
I have used carbonite for two years and it works fine. I can access the files online from another computer as well. I have heard good things about mozy as well. There are others.
Usually, if you sign up with one of these companies, you can get two months free by using some radion hosts name as a promotion code.
Carbonite lost my business when they listened to a bunch of leftist non-customers and made a big production out of removing ads from Limbaugh because of the Fluke business.
You can get “hardened” external drives that are fire and water proof. I think LaCie makes one.