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Put your money into a Roth IRA, where it can grow tax-free. Fidelity or Vanguard are two good companies to go with.
From there, you can put your IRA money into a number of investments, your best bet being mutual funds. A mutual fund is a collection of stocks that are professionally managed, thus are less risky, and make better long-term investments.
You have a lot of options here, such as:
1. Index funds (Vanguard's speciality. They're nice because their management is automated, thus lowering costs. They're tied directly into an "index" like the S&P 500, thus they tend to rise and fall in tune with the overall market.)
2. Specialized retirement funds. Both Fidelity and Vanguard offer these. You pick a fund based on what year you plan to retire, and go with that.
3. The traditional types, such as growth, blend, value, in small cap, large cap, etc. Google it.
In any case, go with something that has at least a good five year track record and a good Morningstar rating. Don't worry about dips here and there, those are a good thing as long as growth is steady.
After you're all set up, put about 10-15% of your take home pay into it.
