Start reading here:

Lightning gets a hell of a lot safer and easier to use when it's not trying to be run on a phone

Get a $5 VPS or slap a clean Linux install on an old laptop you can leave under your bed, the rest is automatic:

In response to where to start, it would be self-custody wallets, open source and easy to use and good connectivity.

Among the open source self-custody ones there are some like Phoenix, Zeus, Breez.

In my experience Phoenix is the best option for self-custody for beginners.

Although ACNQ is at the other end of the channel, it does not interfere with its assets. Opening can be done with a deposit of 11k SATs (around 6 to 7 USD), both Onchain and in the LIGTHNING network. With a cost of 1k plus mining commission to open the channel, currently 1.13 USD, depending on how the mining commissions are. It connects even in low coverage conditions, some tests were carried out in Zimbabwe and together with Wallet of Satoshi they were the ones that did not fail.

So SELF CUSTODY, OPEN SOURCE, GOOD CONNECTIVITY, LOW AMOUNTS TO OPEN CHANNEL. Couldn't be better

When you click post go to more types and you should find the bounty tab.

If you want a non-custodial Lightning wallet in your pocket, look no further than the node in the phone — ZEUS.

Here’s a guide I created to help newbies get started. 🤙

join us on LNMarkets telegram group and youll be the Chad of LN 😎🤘😁

That's great

If you have up to $5k to put into lightning I think the best way at the moment is to simply buy base layer bitcoin and use it to open a lightning channel on a mobile wallet like Electrum or Phoenix. Then loop out a large chunk and open another channel to a different peer. You could do the same again.

If you are starting with small amounts like a $50-100 and want to DCA with lightning this needs a different approach. I would start by sending sats into a custodial wallet like coinos.io. Then after stacking 1-2 million sats I'd use that to open a noncustodial LN channel. Loop out a large chunk to give yourself receiving capacity and keep stacking LN sats until its full again. If onchain fees remain low, continue to loop out to the base layer. If onchain fees are high you can consider looping out into liquid until the next low fee environment. You might want to look a bit more into liquid too so that you know more about what you're holding.