Mining is a long term commitment and there is some safety in it. IMHO it is like the crypto equivalent of real estate investing. The biggest advantage in mining I see is the ability to make a profit even in a bear market. Take a look at https://trinsicoin.com The market price of BCH is 196% of Mining cost of BCH. You are going to loose some coins in fees and expenses may vary on various factors and taxes. But this is quite safe compared to the 95% drop of STEEM price.

Setting up mining takes some work and investment into ASICs. Mining with your PC is most likely to make you loose money (unless you HODL). Genesis Mining allows you to buy 2 year mining contracts based on various mining algorithms. It's basically renting mining equipment through the internet. It's not bad. But I have come to prefer trading and investing into coins despite the higher risk. 

One thing you could do is get the [Byteball Wallet](https://steem-byteball.org/#4C4VK6Z437CCCID24ZCSV7FSCM3QM4MB) and help medical research with the idle power of your devices. It still won't make you any profit at market prices. But I see a lot of potential in the Byteball (now Obyte) project and you will be helping  real research instead of solving random mat problems.

https://steemit.com/research/@vimukthi/why-i-stopped-mining-and-started-earning-byteball-passive-income-by-helping-medical-research-at-world-renowned-wcg
https://steemit.com/byteball/@vimukthi/byteball-leads-world-community-grid-thor-challenge-2018-with-the-power-of-incentives