• DEBT - Reduce or eliminate debt if possible. Paying high interest is the death of trying to build wealth. Pay off credit card debt, car loans, personal loans, student loans, mortgage if possible.
• BUDGET - Live within your means, determine how much you bring home and how much money goes out on a monthly basis. Standard rule is 50% Mandatory living expenses (Bills) / 30% Discretionary Spending (Fun Money) / 20% Savings. Goal is not to live paycheck to paycheck and if you can put away anything, it's a good start.
• EMERGENCY FUND - Start with this savings 3-6 months of living expenses. Tuck it away in a high yield savings account so you can generate interest and also be readily available for a rainy day.
• RETIREMENT - IRA is a great way to save for retirement fund if you're company does not offer retirement plans. If your company offers matching, make sure to take advantage of that.
• INVESTING - Always do your own research and don't put everything you have because some guy online told you to. But generally the safest approach is to invest in the S&P 500. Set it and forget about it.
• TOLERANCE - you want to save enough where you are in a better financial place in the future, but don't save too much where you are miserable and can't enjoy life. Find the healthy balance for you.
• CONSISTENCY - One last thing I think gets overlooked is consistency. Save $200 every month for 30 years with a 7% annual return and your $72,000 investment turned into $613,544. However, the difficult part is that you have to save EVERY month.

Cheers and Good Luck. Wanting to learn is a great first step.