See the 'Investment Order' tab in the 'Case Study' spreadsheet:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bxe0EgraZFRBT2pGYjBEbG1qYlk/editI can answer a couple of your questions, and you can 'edit' your post (above) to update these items:
Adjusted Gross Income - this should be the total annual earnings. A good estimate is to use the number from your 2015 1040 tax return.
Taxes: again, annually - how much did you pay last year from your tax form?
I would pay off that 6.24% car loan first. In general, payoff any loan over 4% first; then start saving/investing; then pay off loans lower than 4%, then max out pre-tax/tax-advantaged savings opportunities. With a photography business, look into setting up a solo 401K to save even more in a tax-advantaged way.
Assuming you're going to FIRST aside a 3-6 month emergency fund, and work forward from there....
The investment order I recommend:1) Max out your 401K contribution to get the dual benefit of saving
pre-tax dollars, and
reducing taxable income. At a minimum, contribute to your 401K plan to get your employer match - that's FREE money.
2) Max out your HSA account (must have a HDHP to have an HSA account).
http://www.madfientist.com/ultimate-retirement-account/3) Max out a T-IRA or ROTH IRA contribution. A tax-advantaged $5,500/year saving bucket above and beyond the 401K/Roth401K.
4) Invest in a taxable account. You can always invest in a taxable account. Purchase low fee ETF's >> Total Stock Market Fund / Total Bond Market Fund, and/or REIT's if you want a real-estate component to your investment portfolio but don't want to be a landlord (
http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2011/08/15/become-a-lazy-landlord-with-reits/) No one tells you that commissions can be waived when buying ETF's in a brokerage account at that company. Example: in a Vanguard brokerage account, you can buy Vanguard mutual funds with no commission (true of all account types: taxable, IRA, Roth, custodial, etc). Same for Fidelity Funds in a Fidelity brokerage account.
Also... setup your investments to DRIP - Dividend Re-Investment Program. Each stock trading company lets you re-invest dividends into the stock that generates dividends. In
most cases, you'll have to manually specify you want dividend reinvestment for each holding in your account.
Keep up the good work, and all the best!