New Nurse and Retirement/Savings?

I'm a 22 year old who recently entered into the jungle of nursing. I came into the adult world right as the "Great Recession" was hitting full force and saw many of my loved ones struggle to keep their finances afloat. Unfortunately for most, things still haven't gotten any better. I want to start saving money for my golden years and incase I ever deal with financial hardship, but I'm kind of confused on where to begin. Is there a specialist I can talk to for saving/investment advice? Bankers? Accountants? Santa? Any advice or guidance is definitely appreciated!
Start contributing to your company's retirement plan (401K or 403 B).

Quote from Don1984Start contributing to your company's retirement plan (401K or 403 B).

The sooner you start, the better. I've been investing/saving since age 21. I can retire at 55 if I want to. Of course, it helps that Ontario hospitals have an excellent pension plan!

Right now you should not need a financial specialist. As others said find out your employers retirement plan. Ideally you can have your contribution automatically deducted from your pay check into your retirement account before the standard tax deductions are applied so you pay less tax. You cannot take your money out of these retirement plans (but for a few rare exceptions) without paying a tax penalty, but that is their purpose, not just to save some money for a few months then use it to buy things....it is for retirement.Well......I think, anyway I am terrible with finances, financial advice, financial terms. Yet my husband and I always put something into our retirement accounts at work. Honestly I understood very little of it....good to be knowledgeable but sometimes you just need to trust things on faith. Same as a lay person may not understand a lot of medical information, they just have to trust on faith what their doctor and nurses tell them and do to them. If you work for a basic reputable company there is no reason to over think it or worry.And here my husband and I are 40 plus years later with a real nice nest egg. Of course that goes along with not buying things, expensive vacations, the fancy house, etc. spending more than we could afford!

There is a lot of information out there.If your employer has matching contributions make sure you take advantage of those.You can also open an IRA, in the stock market or a bank or credit union, though the return is low in a bank or credit union(though it is safe there except from inflation) with interest rates now being in the toilet.Start early and put in as much as you can. Money put in early grows to a much, much larger amount than money put in later.http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/publications/10_ways_to_prepare.htmlhttp://www.irs.gov/Retirement-Plans/...regarding-IRAshttp://www.irs.gov/Retirement-Plans/...rement-Plans-1

In addition to utilizing company's retirement plans, you an set up accounts on your own via Ameritrade, Buy & Hold, E-trade, etc. The advantage here is that these accounts are not dependent on your employer in any way. Another advantage: you can open accounts with a small amount of money.I've had my own money market account since 2001 and my own Roth IRA since 2011, and I contribute to both monthly. This is in addition to my company's retirement programs.

If you don't have much money, there are a lot of cheap to free resources out there. I'm a big fan of Bankrate.com, Mint.com, Suze Orman, and Michelle Singletary.