Hi friends I'm Laura Adams and you're listening to the Money Girl Podcast.

You know that you should be saving for retirement, but retirement accounts can be

really difficult and time-consuming to figure out. Well, we're going to cut the confusion.

This is the first episode in a two-part series

that will give you the basics of six different retirement plans

created for individuals, employees, and businesses.

It's time to use them to turbocharge your savings so you have a secure, happy financial future.

You probably know that a retirement plan is a special account created by the IRS that allows you to save for the future and get money saving tax breaks.

However, you may not know that you could qualify for several of them,

depending on your work and financial situation.

Here are three of the most common types of retirement plans that you should know about.

Type number one, a traditional IRA. IRA is short for individual retirement arrangement, which means it's a plan

for individuals only. You can't own it with another person, not even a spouse.

You manage every aspect of an IRA, such as opening the account, sending contributions,

and deciding how to allocate your money.

It's important to understand that an IRA itself is not an investment,

it's simply an account.

Once you contribute money to it, you might choose to invest in things like stocks, bonds, or mutual funds.

Or you could keep money in non-investment accounts like a savings or CD.

You can move money and buy and sell investments within an IRA without paying a penalty.

Your contributions, including all earnings and investment gains in the account are never taxed until you make a distribution.

However, if you take money out of the account before age 59.5, you're typically subject to income tax plus an additional 10%

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