Based on advice from friends, I started out with a company headquartered in San Francisco called CoinBase. You can connect Coinbase to your bank account for simple and easy transfers. The tricky part is that it takes about 7 business days for your initial transfer to show up in your Coinbase account. The KYC (Know Your Customer) protocols have been streamlined, but it will still take some time to be approved. Patience is the key. You can also add a debit or credit card, but your initial transfers are limited to $100 per week.
If you want to give Coinbase a try, you can use this Coinbase link to get an extra $10 after transfering $100 to your new account. Please note, although Coinbase can be used as a hot wallet, I feel it should mainly be used as an exchange to convert fiat money to cryptocurrency and visa-versa. I feel a majority of your balance should be transferred to a cold wallet.