<prompt> Human: Hi all,This July 1st I will be starting my first salary job as a Resident Physician in the hospital. I will be making 60k for about three years, then as an attending I will most likely make 200k. I do not know too much about personal finance, but have been trying to do self-directed and independent research to learn more about my options. I figured I would post here to get some additional advice. A few tidbits about me:I have no student loans from undergraduate or medical school1k invested in Merrill3k in checking savings combinedI will be working for a state that has their own retirement account that I am required to put in to.I am single, but live with my girlfriend in a rented apartment, and we are looking to buy at the end of next spring my parents are able to help us out quite a bit on this regard.Things I am interested about are whether I want to start investing in a Roth IRAIRA vs mutual funds and how to best prepare myself to acquire assets in the form of real estate.Thank you very much.  <response>: Hey! Im a physician as well. Youre lucky that you dont have any student loans, because that enables you to get wayyy ahead of a lot of other physicians. In order to figure out how much you want to save, and in what form. You first need to see how aggressively you want to save, and if you want to invest. Id say go ahead and build up an emergency fund first. That will take a few months. After that you can start investing, and building your general savings. 