Hi, automod removed my thread lol

I recently went back to college full-time. Everything is going great, almost done with my first year and I work part time on the weekend. My expenses aren't high, after paying for gas/rent/food/bills/etc I'm left with around $300-400 a month.

I'm actually surprised that I have $17k saved up (I had $20k but decided to pay off my 0% interest APR debt lol wanted a clean slate). I want to invest ~$10k in SOMETHING (and add ~$300 a month depending on how much I spend on stuff I want) and let it sit. I'm considering opening up a 401k/Roth but I don't make much and I'd be dumping all my money into it without being able to touch it. I'm gonna occasionally spend on stuff and I don't want to touch my emergency $10,000. Plan to open a savings account and just let it earn me a crumb of interest haha. If someone wants to talk me out of that, that's fine I'll hear you out. It's just that I grew up poor and I do lend out money to my friends and family on a semi-often basis (they of course pay me back in full) so I get worried.

I'm thinking of either Chase Auto Investing since I already bank with them and have a few cards. Acorns just comes up a lot so I have been giving it some thought. I have read the flow chart if anyone is wondering and I am going to research the sidebar, I just want to see what everyone has to think and see what advice I could get :)