Wallet help

[Ellmay88]

Hi,

So I'm pretty up to speed with how bitcoins work and I'm keen to buy some as an investment. However I seem to be having trouble understanding wallets and how to buy and store bitcoins securely.
I've been told that storing them online leaves you open to hackers so I was looking at storing on my PC.
A friend recommended coinjar ..are they a wallet or an exchange or both? And are their wallets online or do they have a PC wallet option that I can't see?
Or does someone have a better set up? Maybe use mt gox as an exchange and transfer to electrum for storage? I've also read that you need to back up ur wallet on a USB. How exactly do you do this? I've done a lot of research on this but I can't find anything that explains step by step how to set up a wallet and purchase bitcoins. I've even bought 2 e-books but not much on there either. Would very much appreciate any help, I'm super keen to jump on board but I'm worried I'm going to miss the boat because of my lack of technical knowledge.
Thank you

Ell

[1714047473]

1714047473

[Apostata]

Great explanation of wallets found here http://bitcoin.org/en/choose-your-wallet

But they don't explain paper wallets, which can be the safest.  From bitcoin wiki http://blockchain.info/wallet/paper-tutorial:

"A paper wallet is a way to store Bitcoins that involves printing the Bitcoin addresses and private keys directly on a piece of paper. When done properly, paper wallets are one of the safest ways possible to store Bitcoins."

There are tons of resources and videos to show you how to manage your wallet, many here on the forum or try google 

And I'd recommend looking at alternative exchanges than MtGox, depending on where you live.  Mtgox is very difficult to get funds out of.  Search the forum for recommended exchanges

Good luck!