Security is the most important thing when working with crypto. Do not store keys in accessible places, that is on a computer. Better on a flash drive and on paper to write down, and there are still cold wallets. I myself use Metamask and others .
If you want to encode and put hide in plain sight, hackers are smart guys, and if just stored on the computer that it's dangerous, but if it is good to encrypt your key is not one hacker in the world gets to your personal data.