I came out of the military in debt. Still working off that debt and slowly started putting a little bit away every paycheck after my toddler had seizures and put me another 4k in debt because i didn't have anything put away. My personal goal was 5k to start. Currently, I'm about half way there. After that the goal is 10k. Basically everything you said is great advice, barring webull for people whom have trouble leaving money in there and pull out when the stocks drop.