@MsElleElle
I'm sorry about the disruption with the fiancΓ© situation. Awful. That's surely a setback. But the bright side is that you now have only yourself to be concerned with...no (ex-)spouse, no kids (college, etc).
No better time to start than today! Yeah, it might've been easier to start years ago but there's no point in remorse about that. Right now you have 16 years until your Full Retirement Age for Social Security (age 67). 16 years is a enough time to make use of the power of compounding your invested money with some reasonable investments.
Don't go for the get rich quick schemes. Invest in some simple, inexpensive stock and bond Index funds from Vanguard, Fidelity, Schwab, etc. Invest only in investments that you can track in the "newspaper" every day; that was the mistake that Bernie Madoff's clients made...they were too greedy and invested in something that was not reported in the public domain. Don't know who Bernie Madoff is? Well, take 10 minutes and read up on this recent history before you buy any investment from anyone. At this point in time you can't afford to lose money to crackpot investment schemes or crooks (my brother-in-law has done both of these several times over and it is not a good plan).
My suggestion, join the "Bogleheads" financial forum and read it regularly. Read their "wiki" (https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Getting_started). Heck, you don't even need to "join", just read and learn. Then you can post and ask questions. These people are straight shooters. There're are tons of other useful financial forums on the internet but this is one of the more prominent.
(why "Bogleheads"? They follow the concepts of John (Jack) Bogle, founder of the Vanguard Group of mutual funds, so a bit like "Deadheads", those people who followed the Grateful Dead around). Bogle was a proponent of low cost mutual fund investing and started Vanguard in that vein; this was revolutionary in the 1970's. He also was an early developer of low cost "index" funds. He is highly regarded in the investment world.
Why "index" funds? Investors need to diversify; why? for safety, in the event your one fave investment craters...think Enron (another one to read the history), et al. Nobody knows what the future holds for investments. Nobody knew ahead of time to buy Microsoft, Apple, Dell, or Google...there were tons of other computer/software companies, nobody knew which ones would survive (many didn't) and thrive. So you buy a "basket" of stocks (or bonds). And most effective, over the long term, is to "buy the index". They talk about the "Dow 30" or "S&P 500", so don't buy just one stock from those indices, or even 5 or 12. Buy them all by using an Index fund that tracks the particular index. Such funds are very economical... no fees to buy them (oh, please, do NOT buy a mutual fund for which you have to pay a commission! there are so many good funds available without such fees) and have low ongoing expenses.
(Don't listen to Dave Ramsey. Maybe he helps a certain type person get out of debt, but his investment advice is abysmal and misleading. Don't listen to Suze Orman either. There are some very good financial columnists out there in the Washington Post, New York Times, etc, and they are on the web too. Don't invest with Edward Jones.)
Be suspicious or skeptical of those who want you to invest with them. Many such have only their own best interests at heart. Same goes for financial columnists or advisors. You need to go through a crash course on this. ...see that link to the boglehead wiki I put above; that's a good place to start.
You have 16 years until the finish line (unless it comes up sooner by some tragic event like layoff, disability, etc). There is time but you really have to buckle down and get serious about this. You'll need to determine how much of a nest egg you may need or want and then determine how much of a nest egg you can realistically expect to obtain based on those 16 years and how much money you can save and invest.
Good luck!
