It's always a good position to take... I don't know. Not enough people do that now, for fear of something (especially in public life...). However, if you don't know, then it is possible to learn... It's something that I keep telling my kids...

I can recommend a few exchanges ( writing about the altcoin exchanges is on my list of things to write about) that I've been happy using (referral links).... of course, I will have to say that you should be really careful, most of the projects will drop to nothing and so it isn't a good idea to put in more than you can afford to lose. I would still recommend holding onto a bulk of BTC and some of the better known/tested projects. (also, enable 2FA)

If you are using Coinbase as your on-ramp, try to use Coinbase Pro (formerly gdax) to convert from fiat to crypto, this means that you attract a much lower fee.

Altcoin exchanges that I recommend are:

Binance: It is the largest one around. Their address on Steem is @deepcrypto8, so it is easy to move Steem to there. There are heaps of alts there, and it is a trusted platform with a decent mobile app as well.

Kucoin has some alts that aren't listed on Binance. It also has some interesting competitions and easy ways (retweets) to pick up some small amounts of BTC.

Poloniex is owned by Circle, which is owned by Goldmann Sachs. It is one of the few places that have a SBD-BTC pair, which is pretty useful!

Bitmex is a derivatives and futures platform. Leveraged and Margin trading, high risk and high gain... use with caution!

There are many more, but I wouldn't recommend it to begin with!

Also, I would always recommend a hardware wallet: