Put bluntly, an IRA is a bank account where you can invest money and not have to pay taxes on interest (Roth IRA), or delay paying taxes on interest (Traditional IRA). So, a Roth IRA sounds a lot better, right? Well, in a Traditional IRA you put the money in before income tax, so your interest is earned on tax free money, and then you pay taxes once the money is withdrawn. Dang, I just realized how boring this topic is, but I'm going to power through. Okay, so I'm a fan of the Roth IRA for two reasons: 1) It's super easy to add money too because you just transfer money from your normal bank account to your Roth IRA account and you don't really have to worry about tax forms, and 2) since the amount of money you can put into either type is limited to $5,500 per year, if you can save $5,500 of after tax money, you're really saving like $7,500ish (I'm not going to calculate stuff) of pre-tax money.
So, that's the basics. I highly recommend Mr. Money Mustache and Mad FIentist if you want to get serious about saving money. Also, /r/financialindependence is a great community.
