Advice for a New Investor

[Thomas Brucker]

Background about me: Hey everyone! My name is Thomas and I am new to BiggerPockets. This is my first post and I'm hoping to get a couple questions answered and receive advice on how I should get the ball rolling. I am a 19 year old student who attends a local community college and want to achieve achieve financial freedom through passive income.

Financial position: I work part time as a server, making relatively good money for the position I am in (2-3 grand per month). I don't have any real expenses besides car insurance/gas/personal as I still live with my parents (60%-70% of income is saved). Right now I only have about $6,000 in my savings as I was in a position where I needed to purchase a car ($19,000). Right now I am just building my savings account back up; however, I feel like I should be doing something in the meantime to prepare for a future investment. 

Questions I have as a newbie:

1. Should I continue to put money into a savings account or should I put it into an ETF or an account with a higher rate of return? If neither, what do you favor in terms of saving money?

2. For rental properties, how would one recommend getting started? House hacking, AirBnB, single family, multifamily, apartment complex... etc.

3. What books, articles, or resources are useful as a means of learning?

4. What steps would you recommend a new investor take to be more successful?

5. Lastly, have what mistakes have you made in your own real estate journey and what advice do you have to give on those issues?