I'm currently in a contract-to-hire position. Considering the department's history of contract positions (11 of 12 contractors were brought on full time, the other had personal issues), I'm confident in being brought on full time. That will come with a matching 401k, which I plan to make max contributions. Right now, I'm contributing $200/mo to a betterment account. Its not much, but I also only just started it and wanted to get a feel for it before expanding.
I just finished paying off over $5k in medical bills, which felt like a great win for me. Now its just the final car and student loans, which still feel burdensome. I understand your reasoning behind paying off the student loans first (higher principle + higher interest rate = money sink) but I can pay off the car loan easily within a year, and I could really use another win, you know? Plus that would free up an additional 400/mo (which is what i'm paying now, which is well above the minimum payment) to go towards the student loans. I suppose I should sit down with some financial calculators and figure out the difference in total cost based on the order in which I pay them off.
But as far as my original post goes, I thank you all for the help. I think I'll make a small compromise: slightly increase my contributions to my emergency fund and investments, and dump the rest into the car/student loans (still need to figure out which is more cost effective in the long run).