Crypto

The two mistakes that cost beginners the most are overpaying on fees and leaving everything on an exchange. The fix for both is boring but effective: use an exchange's advanced or pro trading mode instead of the one-tap "simple" buy button — that alone drops fees from roughly 1.5–4% down to well under 1% — and move anything you intend to hold long-term into self-custody.

The US exchanges we trust are Coinbase (the most beginner-friendly and publicly traded), Kraken (a strong security record and low Pro fees), and Binance.US (the lowest raw trading fees). For self-custody, MetaMask is the standard software wallet. For taxes, Koinly turns a year of messy transactions into a filed report in an afternoon. Each fills one clear slot — buy, self-custody, file.

Be honest with yourself about risk: crypto is volatile and not FDIC-insured, so only commit money you could watch get cut in half without it wrecking your life. We deliberately don't cover leverage, yield-farming, or "guaranteed return" crypto schemes — those are where most people lose money, and they conflict with the one rule this site won't break: we don't profit when you lose.