A 23-year-old Learns About Retirement Accounts (and their tax benefits)

So I didn’t really know about this, but apparently opening a retirement account and putting money into it instead of savings is a really nice way to get higher tax return (or owe less taxes) and a much better interest rate as well.

Contributions to traditional IRA still count for the previous tax year if you make them before April 15.

You can quickly see how much of a difference it would make by using this tax estimator (under the retirement button): http://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tools/calculators/taxcaster/

So basically you can open an IRA (I did through betterment.com cause it’s cheap and quick), move some money from savings, and put the retirement contribution on your tax return.

The only drawback is you cant withdraw it without a 10% penalty until you’re 59 years old, unless it’s for education, buying/building first home, or medical expenses – which are some of the primary uses of my savings anyway.