You are ahead of 95% of all Bitcoin users by following these steps

EXCHANGES

Don’t store your Bitcoins on an exchange long term, it doesn’t matter how reputable the company behind it is, the biggest and most trusted exchanges were victims to exit-scams and hacks in the past.

Exchanges are good for one thing, exchanging, buying or selling for the best rates. That’s it.

WALLETS

A Hardware wallet will always be the safest method of accessing your funds. It’s a device that stores your 24 word seed offline on a chip. The private key won’t be exposed even if your computer is compromised. Note that no Bitcoins are ever stored on the device itself but on the Blockchain.

The most trusted hardware wallets by the community are: BitBox02, Coldcard, Ledger & Trezor

Every device has their upsides and downsides, do a comparison yourself to find out which device fits you the best. Make sure to only order from the official website and no third party source. Also request the deletion of your customer data, Ledger was victim to a data breach that revealed personal information.

SEED BACKUP

You should always back up your 24 words that are the keys to your Bitcoin address. The most common methods are either a plain sheet of paper or a metal plate. I would recommend a metal plate since they are resistant to water, fire and earthquakes.

Here is a good overview of metal backups, rated and stress tested.

Only store your keys offline. Never ever type them in any device other than your hardware wallet. There is numerous malware out there that targets this information.

USE COMMON SENSE

• If it’s too good to be true, it’s too good to be true.

• Never share your Bitcoin balance anywhere, you’ll be targeted by scammers, hackers and other individuals.

• Don’t hand out your keys to anyone. Not to official exchange support, friends, invesment bankers etc. (With the key your Bitcoin can be stolen from anywhere in the world.)

• Most Bitcoin are lost because they lose their private keys. Be responsible, don’t make it overly complicated by splitting the seed. Just store it somewhere securely.