Don't ask why, but I'm in an odd position where my income is non-taxable, so the closest thing to the more traditional safe ways of investing (IRA, 401K, etc) is putting my money in a HYSA (which I've done).

The stock market has always intimidated me because, as an outsider looking in, it just feels like gambling. However, I'd like to do more investing than what I'm doing, and a friend recommended investing in bigger companies (Coca-Cola, Apple, General Electric, etc), but even that is intimidating because I really don't know what I'm doing.

Any thoughts or recommendations? I'm not looking for get-rich-quick stocks or anything like that. I'm just trying to find safer ways to invest that aren't expected to depreciate in the future.

Thanks in advance.