Reddit mentions of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Personal Finance in your 20s and 30s, Third Edition

Follow these steps and you will be setting yourself up for success:

Open a high yield savings account and put in 6 months-worth of essential living expenses. This is your emergency fund. I use Ally Bank's online high yield money market savings account, which yields .84% annually.

Open a Roth IRA at Vanguard or Fidelity and create an automatic contribution plan. Invest in a broad stock index fund, you're young enough to take the risk. Once you set this up, don't look at it, don't touch it (you can't anyway without paying a big penalty). Contribute $5k to that puppy right off the bat (it would be better to contribute a smaller amount each month that comes out to $5k at the end of the year so you can take advantage of dollar cost averaging, but the minimum contribution at a place like Vanguard is usually $5k so you'll have to bite the bullet this year).

Pay off any credit card debt you have. Student loans, too. Because of the obscene interest rates on these types of debt, paying them off provides a much higher "return on investment" (~18-24%) than even high performing stocks would.

You need to find a better investment vehicle in which to store your $25k (since you're putting $5k in the Roth IRA). If you are thinking about college, grad or professional school, or really any type of accredited higher education, starting a 529 is an excellent idea (tax-free savings). You will want to read up on investing, since the best place to put this money at your age is almost certainly the stock market (with a smaller amount in bonds to cushion you should the market turn down), otherwise it will just sit in some shitty bank account losing 3% of its value each year to inflation. I highly recommend these two books.

If you don't have a credit card, apply for one so you can start building credit. As long as you pay it off in full each month and use it sparingly, there's no drawback (get one without an annual fee if at all possible; rewards are even better). Also, since you have the money you might as well take out a secured loan with your credit union. It will bump up your credit score nicely and is the easiest thing to do ever. Just walk n and say "I want a 12-month secured loan for $1,500," and the loan officer will take it from there.

If your checking account is with a megabank like BofA or Citi, switch to a local credit union so you can avoid horrible hidden fees and help not ruin the world. There is literally zero downside (people will say "but credit unions don't have 50 billion ATMs!" and you'll say "voila! le debit card!").

Also, if your work offers a 401(k) or 403(b) make sure to invest at least a little in it each month (it'll come directly out of your paycheck). If they offer matching funds (i.e., free fucking money), contribute up to the maximum amount that they match.

Here are two final personal finance resource for you.

Good luck!