Where to start?

[fauxjargon]

My situation is as follows:  24 year old, living in Canada on 1600 dollars a month out of 2600 dollar a month after-tax income - so $1000 gross with no debts to pay down.

The real question is, what to do with my $1000 a month?   Pay a down-payment on a rental property?  Stock market?  I really know nothing about money except that I should be doing something smart with the surplus I currently have.  I could probably push that to 1200 dollars a month, I am pretty frugal already but I bet I could squeeze a bit more.

I am a very competent home-improvement/DIY person so I could fix up a rental property pretty well for not much more than my time (I work 40-45 hours a week so I have lots) and material costs.

[Michread]

Start with your goals. 

Do you want a house?  How much money do you currently have saved?  Is your job stable? Does your company have a pension plan or retirement investment program you can contribute to?

[Petari]

I'm 23 and started my first "real job" after university in June, so I'm probably in a pretty similar situation.

I would first stash away some "emergency cash"...people can debate endlessly about how much is enough and this depends on your job security, but 3 months minimum, maybe 6 months living expenses is probably reasonable. I keep mine in a savings account in my TFSA at ING Direct.

A rental house can be a good investment, especially if you have DIY skills but I will leave that to someone else as I'm not too knowledgable about it. If you're in Ontario, do review our landlord/tenant laws as they do lean towards the tenant over the landlord to some degree...if you're not in Ontario, congrats.

For investing, perhaps start with Canadian Couch Potato http://canadiancouchpotato.com/, which I think is a great introduction to passive investing.

You may wish to read jlcollinsnh's stock series for a bit on stock market investing; I found it very enlightening. Keep in mind he is a very aggressive investor: http://jlcollinsnh.com/stock-series/.
Another good Canadian-centric website is Finiki http://www.finiki.org/wiki/Main_Page with lots of personal finance/investment advice.

Also, give yourself a pat on the back! You're already on track to be financially independent at 50, sooner if you can decrease your spending and/or increase your income.