Read Brandon Turner's book on rental property investing and go from there. That book will show you the fundamentals on why real estate is so powerful. It totally depends how much cash you're talking about, but if you have a meaningful nest egg that you can use as a downpayment on a multifamily and house hack (live in one unit and rent out the other(s) to cover your payment, living for free and building equity) that's the route most beginners take.
I'm a junior in college and am going to be house hacking here in the next few months. Is a house hack a goal of yours in the future? Definitely study the requirements for an FHA Loan like a book and make sure to set yourself up for success. Examples would be building up your credit, getting the most recent tax returns for the last 2 years in the same field, building up capital for the down payment, closing costs and 6 months in reserves so you can use as much of the rental income from the other units as your own income when you getting qualified. Let me know what questions you have. This isn't legal or lending advice, and you should seek professional assistance.
Depends on how much you have? Do you have 10k, 50k, or 100k that you're not sure what to do with? If it's anything less than 15k I would make sure my credit is good and start reaching out to your "team". If you have more than that, depending on where you live, you could possibly House-Hack and buy your first investment property. Look at buying a multi-family like a duplex to live in one half while renting the other side out. That would be my opinion but again, I don't know where you're located or how much cash you have.