Re: Investing/saving
First, make a budget. You don't know how much you have to save until you know how much room left over there is at the end of the paycheck. Make sure to have an emergency fund in there as a line item.
Second, figure out what your longer-term goals are, and make sure you've got that in the budget.
Third, getting the money flowing in sooner is important. People like to look at rate of return, but starting earlier means you have more time to build.
When it comes to actual investment advice:
If your employer has a retirement plan with a matching benefit, that will generally be the best option for returns, as even a 20% match is a guaranteed rate of return that is excellent.
I tend to prefer index funds for their low fees. I've been licensed to sell mutual funds and insurance in the past, but realized that selling mutual funds isn't a good fit for a guy who prefers index funds.
I agree with the automatic deduction advice given above. You can't spend money that is automatically invested for you.
Make sure that you have no outstanding tax issues - throwing this in due to having been blindsided by this before.
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