@silverbug, you can also open a bittrex account if you want, it's very quick and immediate. You can transfer steem that you have directly to there, then exchange into bitcoin or anything else. I personally do not buy any crypto at all, I only mine it. The reason is that I love hardware that I can physically touch, if crypto goes to hell then I still have my rigs, maybe a 50/50 approach is the wisest, but I have had it all, including exchanges fucking me, that's why I distribute my risk and focus on coinfolio. I mine DASH, BTC, ETH, UBQ, SC, BCN, XMR etc.. My mines send the money to either:

1.) Digital wallets that are also actual nodes
2.) Cold storage wallets (see my video on how to make a paper wallet)
3.) Exchanges (such as Poloniex and Bittrex)

The current amortisation period for mining equipment is approx. 100 days.

20 Rigs will cost you around 70 000 AUD, they will currently deliver approx. 700 AUD of revenue a day, and cost you around maximum 6 AUD electricity to run per rig and day.

If somebody told you it's all easy no worries, then they are lying, you have around 6 months learning curve until you know what you are doing. After around that time you will have the ability to tweak your equipment, the differences can be considerable, such as +20%.

Hope that helps.