So. I'm going to post an answer to your question. But I am not the person to trust point blank on this--hopefully some others will chime in and correct me when I'm wrong.
I'm beginning to grasp what I should do.. definitely max out my 401k to put in $18,000 per year, and then generally I think I want to go with the traditional IRA account for the majority of my savings, after reading the MadFientist post.
Meanwhile, I'll put the rest of my savings into a tIRA, which will be the main account that I want to build up with savings (not emergency fund).
I don't think this is an option for you. You get one tax advantaged employer sponsored retirement plan--you sound like you have a 401k, so you can use that. But a Traditional IRA, if it is not offered, is not the same as a taxable account for surplus money to then put extra money into.
For my emergency fund, should I build up $5,500 next year into a Roth IRA, and just leave it as an emergency fund that I can tap into if ever needed? Maybe the year after that I'll do the same thing and max my emergency fund at $10,100 (which I think is sufficient), and then never contribute to it or withdraw from it again, except for an emergency?
You're mixing a bit of advice here. A Roth IRA is the second tax advantaged savings account you can save into, up to $5500 a year, but no more. It is independent of employment, hence why you can also do this in addition to your 401k. You can withdraw from that in case of an emergency, so it serves a dual purposes. The point, however, isn't to use it only as an emergency fund.
Instead, the point is to save tax advantaged savings while still having access to the money as bridge while you build up a real EF.
My line of thinking here is since I can't withdraw from a tIRA without penalty for an emergency, it is not a good option for an emergency fund, and that I should instead make use of a Roth IRA for the emergency, and tIRA for actual savings? I'm still a little confused where I should put my emergency fund that I can freely withdraw from in case of emergency.
If I'm right, you will only have the 401k and ROTH. This eats up $23,500 for 2017. Planning for 2018, it will be $24,000 (cap increase). That means that any money you want to invest after that $24,000 next year will have to be in a standard taxable account--not a tIRA or other vehicle.
That extra money is going to be your emergency fund. Yes, you can withdraw from your Roth, but treat that as a bridge until you have an actual emergency fund (at your spend rate, 3-4 grand seems like plenty, but if 6 is what gives you the feels, go for it). At a certain point you can't put more money into additional ira's and 401ks (saving comments on sep's, HSA's, etc for later).
So, you want tangible advice? It seems like the following plan would be a good one after wiping any long term CC debt.
(*You're at 100 level classes. Once you get the basics down we can start optimizing, but this will get you 85%+ of the way there)
First, find a way to make your 2017 Roth IRA contribution ASAP. The earlier you do this, the more dividends and growth.
Second, set your monthly 401k withholding for 2018 to max out on your last paycheck (we can talk frontloading later, when you understand more/get an answer on minutiae of company match policies problems)
Third, build up the $6,000 in your EF. At this point in your early investing life, just put it in a bank account. Yes, you can use any Roth contributions in a true emergency, but with certain exceptions, once you take it out, you can't put it back in to continue growing.
Fourth, max out your 2018 Roth IRA of $5500. Again, the earlier you do this, the more dividends and growth.
Fifth, either get a Vanguard account to invest in index funds or, since you're entitled to have goals outside of investing optimization, start setting aside money to buy a house/woo a spouse/improve your health/fund a side hustle/buy the good acid.
Once again, I don't have tIRA experience, but I think I'm right on the fact it is an either or proposition between the tIRA and 401k, with the ROTH as a secondary option regardless. If so, this plan will set you up nicely, and there isn't anything in it you would be doing wrong, just a few things you could be doing more right. If this is all you did for the next 20 years of your life, you're still staring down ringing in your 50th birthday a millionaire.