With any wallet you choose for creation and storage of your bitcoin, a most important step is making a wallet backup. Another vital step is testing the backup usability in recovery and even test it with a small funding.

Having your wallet backups properly will help your wallet recovery in future very smoothly and you won't lose  your coins if your initial wallet, device just got severe technical issues and went dead entirely.

How to backup a seed phrase?
[GUIDE] How to buy a Hardware Wallet the right way. You need to buy a good chosen wallet a right way, it's vital. If you choose a good wallet brand but buy a wallet a wrong way, you can have big issues and your coins can be stolen later.

One thing you are forbidden to do at the beginning is to never keep your Bitcoin holdings on a central exchange. The control of the central exchange is completely dependent on a third party and if for some reason the central exchange gets hacked, you will lose your Bitcoin holdings forever.

However, if you are thinking of holding for the long term, then of course you can decide to use a hardware wallet. In this case, by using a hardware wallet, you will be in complete control of the crypto you are holding. And it will not be in an undesirable situation like being hacked.

Of course, not. You don't make a schedule of it. You buy a new one whenever you need one. I had a hardware wallet that became unusable after 5 years. Others may need a replacement earlier or later. The point is that hardware devices don't last indefinitely. They deteriorate over time. They could be damaged. You could lose them. They could be stolen.

There are others who keep a separate device as backup. I don't do this. My seed phrase is enough backup. I'd rather buy a new one than maintain a couple of devices that may need replacement at the same time.

You can buy hardware wallet or still use any software wallet you want. But you should never store your Bitcoin in the exchanges for a long term because that have risk.

I assume you are a knowledgeable person that know Bitcoin more than others so you can select any wallet you want and you think that is comfortable for you. We can suggest so many best recommendations but that will not guarantee you will feel suit for you. You need to search by yourself to find what you want. If you already a software wallet, you may want to try to use a hardware wallet or paper wallet so you will know the different. By trying each wallet, you will know what makes you feel comfortable then you can choose with carefully.

Buying a hardware wallet would have been the best, but another thing we are supposed to be looking into is that it is affordable, and aside from the hardware wallet, there are other wallets that, if you are careful with usage, will be very easy for you to use. And the worst mistake will be that when you decide to keep your funds in an exchange, forgetting the popular saying Not your keys, not your coin, I wonder which they will choose.

And as for a Bitcoin wallet, there are wallets like Electrum and BlueWallet that I have used, and at the same time, I can testify that all you need to do is proper management because there are people who, even without anything, will still leak their seed phrase just because of how they have fallen for cheap scams that have caused them more than enough.

Hardware wallets are cold wallets and good to use but as all wallet types, they have close source and open source hardware wallets. Choose open source hardware wallet to buy, and remember buying it rightly. Other steps are how to use your wallet properly including wallet backups.

It's not like feeling over paranoid but it's necessary for your bitcoin safety.

Open source hardware wallets.
[GUIDE] How to buy a Hardware Wallet the right way.
[GUIDE] How to Safely Download and Verify Electrum.
The paranoid user's security guide for using Electrum safely.
Best Bitcoin wallets.

I even think using a separate device (air-gapped) would be more expensive than a hardware wallet. Not all hardware wallets are expensive , and if I remember correctly the Trezor Model One and Trezor Safe 3 cost only $70-90 . I don't think there is any bitcoin investor who doesn't have this amount, so if we are really serious and consider bitcoin as a long term holding or store of value .  We should own a hardware wallet right away, don't hesitate or make excuses that they are expensive or don't have money.

I haven't used many other hardware wallets but I have had no difficulty or problems using  Trezor , it is not complicated or much different from a software wallet.

The best option is a hardware wallet. But you can also use a software wallet like Electrum, if you know how to keep own wallet secure (basically, just make sure that you do not use the same device to store/use the wallet that you use to browse the internet for everyday online activities - the device with the wallet on it should be air-gapped with no access to any networks) and make sure to keep it secure from third parties.

Web wallets and Centralized exchange wallets are the worst options you could choose.

Electrum is very reliable and easy to use, and suitable for beginners. But in my opinion, if it's a large amount of bitcoin and OP wants to hold it for the long term and the best security, I still recommend using a hardware wallet. Hardware wallets may be more difficult to use but for the safety of assets, OP or any newbie should learn how to use them.

In case OP still wants to use Electrum only and as some members have mentioned, he should only use it with a device that is not connected to the internet (air-gapped).