i just bought the GOTY Editon. I am a long time TES fan and decided to try this one. Any advice on starting out?

Yeah, I'd simply take you're time, explore thoroughly, loot everything worth ten caps and more and put some skill points into repair. It's amazing how many caps you can save by fixing you're own gear. I usually go for 10 intelligence and the educated perk, that way by the time your characters maxed out your pretty much a god. It's also worth putting some skill points into sneak, sneaking can save you're life quite often and guarantee you get the jump on you're enemy.

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Oh, and if you're more into role playing and such, buy New Vegas, generally it's thought to be a far better RPG.

My advice for this one is different from my advice about New Vegas. In New Vegas, you kind of have to stick to the path for a little while.

In Fallout 3 you can sorta kinda treat that like you would Oblivion or Skyrim and just start wandering. There are some good quests to get out of the way first because the rewards are worth it. You should try to settle things with the bomb in Megaton (two paths, just pick one) and you should do as many of the quests for Moira (in Megaton) as you can handle, and also do the quest "Those!" up in Grayditch once you've amassed some ammo (assuming you use guns).

Don't get hung up on bobbleheads, skill books, or so-called "perfect" character builds. You can worry about all that on another character should you find replay value in the game.

edit: man, this is all bringing me back... such good memories

Great. I started a char last night but didnt pay much attention to skills I picked. I choose sneak, security and electric guns i think. I made it to Springvale and cleared out the school but almost got overrun by the ants in the basemant. I stopped there and will resume tonight. I guess I should head to Megaton now. I saw the sign for it. I need to sell some stuff. So what is the currency, caps or pre war money?

Caps are the main currency. Pre-war money is worth more, but you can also use it as ammo. My current evil character sleeps in a pile of pre-war money on his bed.

pretty much what have been said, i ran out of caps really fast early in the game because of all reparations and poor quality items that gives very little money while selling, Broken Steel did partially fix that problem by spawning Enclave Soldier carrying laser rifles and plasma mines all over wasteland even on lvl 1 and personally i like increasing small guns fast and early in the game because they have lots of ammo and it's easy to find and they're quite powerful too, try to get the terrible shotgun from smiling jack in evergreen mills early that will give you quite the advantage early in the game.