IRA? Retirement Funds? ETFS? Mutual Funds? What do I do with my money?

[Natasha Sadikin]

Sorry, recent college grad / "Just became an adult" question here! 

I was reading up on a lot of investing books. All these books are talking about how I should be maxing out my Roth IRA and putting in as much money into my retirement accounts as possible due to the whole compounding interest thing. And while I do try to put in money into my company IRA account (they match 3%), should I really be putting the rest of the money into my retirement account? Since once I put it in, isn't really hard to take out? Plus it detracts the money I'm saving up for my down payment. I'd really like to be financially free by the time I retire and not need to rely on my retirement account..

As of now, I put about 20% of my paycheck towards retirement accounts and 20% towards just a regular high-savings account. My guts are saying to just match my companies match in my retirement account and save the rest (excluding living costs) in a high % savings account and possibly in a brokerage account under ETFs. 

My question is, how much do I put towards retirement, if any? Where do people put their money while they're saving up for downpayents? Below their mattress? in CDs? ETFs? Regular savings account?