Why would I want to open an IRA?

[Siegmund]

You get to CHOOSE when you want to pay the taxes! There are two kinds of IRAs.

The traditional thinking is that you want to defer taxes now, while you have a relatively high income, and then withdraw the money after you retire to a more modest way of life and fall into a lower tax bracket.

On the other hand, if you are young / poor / already in a low tax bracket now and have aspirations of being rich later... or if you are a cynic who thinks tax rates are going to be significantly higher in 30 years than they are now ... you open a Roth IRA instead of a Traditional IRA, and make after-tax contributions now, so that you can withdraw both principal and interest tax free later.