Investing 103: Accounts, IRA?

We've come a long way from squandering our disposable income on gadgets, beer, and sub woofers to pimp our rides. We found the motivation to take the money and stuff it into a brokerage of our deciding, now what right? Well were almost ready to start making money off of money but first ask "what kind of investing do I want?" for the future right, well it isn't that simple, yeah what a drag, but this decision will echo into the rest of your life, either favorably or the foreboding alternative.
So what is the question at hand? Are we investing for college education, retirement, short term investing, or all of the above? Based upon the answer a multitude of different accounts await, likely it will be long-term though and that means IRA, no not your grandpa Ira. IRA is an acronym meaning Individual Retirement Account generally either a Roth IRA or Traditional IRA, both require the money to be locked into the account until age 59. The bonus to these accounts is that the aggressive income tax associated with capital gains is deferred or disregarded entirely.

If the prospect of not seeing your hard earned money for thirty to forty years scares you, think about the alternative of having no investments at 59 with a family to support, and children such as yourself in college. Forty years of 11% return on your investment (the average long term return on stocks) sounds pretty good compared to the meager Bank of America savings of .5% interest!