I would recommend using either Poloniex.com, which is a market place which you can trade and buy different coins. I usually deposit bitcoins into Poloniex and buy so on... in the exchange market. But up and coming is Bittrex.com and a lot of people are leaving Poloniex for Bittrex. And I can send you links to these three coins but I think its better if you look them up. Discovering them and fully understanding them is the best way to feel confortable investing in them.

Mining isn't really worth it for a home setup unless you're running a rig with like a min. of 6x GPU's (Video Cards) and each Video Card is going to be 220-250$ because they have to be state of the art because you want the must efficient working machine and that's not including a Motherboard that can handle 6x GPUs, processor and everything else. Plus all the learning you have to do before you even get started with that project. I would recommend looking into GenesisMining.com Where you can buy a mining contract and look up calculators to estimate what is the best option for you!