<prompt> Human: Hello all! Long time lurker and wanted to first thank the community for their advice and discussions. Its pretty awesome that I can better my personal life and finance through the Reddit Community!I am currently in my low 20s and recently got a job. I am currently putting 5 of my earnings into my 401k for my company match. On top of that I am feeding money into a mutual fund at Vanguard. My question is do I really need a Roth IRA on top of all this? Will the 401k contributions be enough since I started pretty early? Im having trouble fully understanding my situation when I am nearing retirement. I still have over 30 years ahead of me before I can touch a Roth IRA or 401k without penalty. So I am hesitant to go that route, since I cant grasp at all where I would be in the future.For now I am throwing all my money into traditional investing since that is what seems more realistic for me at this age I can take it out whenever I want and seems more like MY money rather than money locked awayI am fairly frugal, but at the same time want to accumulate enough money to some how use it in the future do real estate, start own company, etc.Thanks for any advice. TLDR: Having trouble justifying long term investments like Roth IRA over Traditional. Is this a youngnaive mistake? Am I only thinking near term?  <response>: and seems more like MY money rather than money locked awayI think its important to remember its all your money. And its not locked away and its not the property of the IRS or any financial instituion - you can get it whenever you want. Its just that the IRS may hit you with a penalty on any taxable withdrawals. I know 30 years is a long way off, but dont let that discourage you from saving. Your need for money will be there at retirement so its up to you to save, so you might as well save in a tax-advantaged account.Now for Roths vs 401k, theres that link on the sidebar. Basically an IRA, being selected on your own, will give you more choices. And if you happen to be taxed not-too-much now Id say if your AGI is below 35,000, putting you in the 15 bracket a Roth could save you some money rather youd get taxed now rather than in retirement. As influenzaremix noted, Roth IRA contributions are actually able to be withdrawn at any time without any penalty, so if you want liquidity, thats another checkbox for Roth. 