Investing in stocks that pay dividends is a safe option to gain a few % profit without high risk. Dividends get charged a 15% tax, lower than your normal income tax. If some emergency comes up, you can cash out, but the latest dividend with 2 months gets charged your normal income taxrate.
Look for a stable stock that pays generous dividends. Then you'll have a nice little check every 3 months, you can either cash it out or reinvest it in more stocks.
If you reinvest it, and save more from your job to invest, you can start racking up enough dividends to buy more shares and grow the dividend each quarter. Companies that pay dividends will almost never collapse in stock price. And if they do, it's usually from temporary problems and they'll go back up.
TXNM and United Health Group seem like good deals.