What's some good investment advice for a someone just beginning to save?

I'm 24 with bad credit, and about 2 grand in da bank.

Go to your library and check out a couple of books on investing.

Invest in Tax Liens so that you can earn a better percentage on your investments. Most tax liens will yield you a 10%-45% yield on your investment.

Your $2000 should be thought of as savings rather than money for investment. Having this money in reserve will help you avoid the problems with debt that you have had in the past. You should put the money either in a high-yield money market or a short-term CD.

You should increase this savings until it covers at least 3 months of expenses.

If you get a company match on a 401k you should be making contributions to that, up to the maximum match amount. If you do not have a 401k available to you, you should open a ROTH IRA with an S&P index fund or some other low-cost broad market fund.

It is great that you are looking to work on investments when you are young. You can invest for your retirement and have the power of compounding working for you.

Right now, you need to focus on getting good credit. So pay off your loans, starting with the highest ones first. Once you have that cleared up, you will want to build up your emergency fund. This will allow you to pay on your debts even when you aren't getting money coming in. I would put the first 2k in a savings account. When you get more, you can put some in staggered CDs - so you have a month's worth of expenses maturing about the time you will need it.
After your reserves are built up (6-8 months worth of expenses), then you can talk about investing. Then I would recommend no load index funds.

Get multi-jars and hide them in your back yard

Once you get an emergency fund built up, then implement your financial plan. At your age, you should definitely have stocks in your portfolio. Talk to a CFP (Certified Financial Planner) to determine what the right mix of assets and what your long-term goals should be. (it will change as you age) Good luck.

hey man im in your boat and the best thing to do with that much money is put it in high yield savings account online- i use emigrantdirect.com(there is also ING direct or capital one savings) with 5.15% interest rates. Then you have easy access to the money in case of emergency.

Next thing im going to do is start a roth ira for my future retirement.

I would study the market carefully before investing a single cent.
I would suggest looking at http://www.top10traders.com - the site lists out the best performing stock portfolios. You can also create your own portfolio with $100,000 in "play" money. The site is totally free. If you want to find out some investing ideas, just look at what the best traders are buying. When you feel comfortable with a stock that you have in your 'play' portfolio at http:www.top10traders.com then you can go out and buy the real thing. Good Luck!