So I’m going to preface this by saying I’m a smart person with the bare minimum economic know-how. Long term I know that if I change absolutely none of the habits I have now, I’ll be fine, but I’d like to make sure I plan and act in a way that sets me up for economic responsibility over the next few years.

The facts:

• I am an engineer one year out of college and have been with my company one year.
• I have a position that pays 62.5k/year.
• I have a 401k that is 100% vested. My company matches 100% up to 6%, with another 1% yearly bonus applied to the account.
• Part of this 2 year position is that I am provided with housing and utilities by my company at no expense. 10 months remain in this position. I will then have to think about an apartment or house.
• I had minimal student loans (5.5k) that I paid off in full in 2014.
• I have 10k in savings
• My only loan is a car with 8k left on it at 5.4% interest. – I purchased it labor day 2014. Between extended warranty and actual car costs, I’ve so far paid about 12k. I am paying 1k a month every month so it will be paid off within the year.
• When I bought the car, I had no prior credit history. I am not sure of my exact score but I do know that when I applied for the auto loan, it tanked what score I had (auto loan requests were shotgunned out to numerous institutions).
• I have no credit cards.
• My main bank is a credit union with a 3% annual return on up to 15k.
• When all is said and done, (car paid off, food costs taken into account, etc) I estimate I should save about 30k this year, making my savings about 40k.

My questions:

• I know I need to build healthy credit, and I’ve read on here diversifying my credit base is a good way to do this – I’ve got an auto loan, no opportunity for a home for the near future, so credit cards is probably the best option. What do I need to know about CC application, and what should I apply for?
• How can I find out my credit score? What’s a good score for someone my age/ circumstance?
• Should I continue to save? At what point should I consider investment?
  
• When this position ends I will have a guaranteed position within the company – at that time would it make more sense to rent or to buy?
  

Any and all advice is appreciated. At this point, like I said, I know what I need to do for long term, but I feel like I’ve got about 10 months to make some really responsible economic decisions – I want to take advantage of this oppurtunity.

edit:formatting