Obviously lots of good advice already. I might add, that as feeltheburn said, your issue looks to be more or less around you adam's apple. I had the same issue. I try to avoid shaving over the "bump" by using my fingers and moving the skin that is over the apple to either the left or right side. Depends what works for you - I usually have to pull the skin to one side, shave and then pull it to the otherside and shave. It takes practice, it takes time and it takes patience, but for me it's worked and I've been able to avoid neck nicks all together. Good luck and welcome to TSD!
Hey, just thought I'd give an update. I have solved my problem!! The issue I was having was related to shave SPEED. My strokes were too slow, because I was trying to be extremely cautious. This approach backfired and actually caused the razor blade to get caught on every little imperfection on my face. I now changed to short quick strokes and the result is dramatically better! No nicks and almost no irritation. Who knew stroke speed would make such a difference... I now look forward to shaving! Cheers!
" My beard direction is fairly well behaved on the top part of my face, but my lower neck is sort of a free for all and the hair tends to lay more flat than stick up. My neck and adams apple are problem areas for me." Yup, that's a good way of describing my lower facial regions. Welcome from another new guy.