Live boot on SSD and use remaining space

I would like to use a live boot of Linux on an external SSD. First is this possible or should I use exclusively USB sticks ? If the first answer is yes, I’d like to still use the SSD to store data or programs. Is this possible and how should I partition the disk and use Rufus in order to achieve this ? Of course I’d like to use the persistence of the data for the live boot. Thanks.