<prompt> Human: My situation:Im 28 years old.I use mint.com to track all my personal finances. Im very good at sticking to my planned budgets.At the end of each month, I have 1,000 left over. This is the equivalent of saving 28.6 of my monthly income.I have around 13k in cash thats receiving little-to-no interest.I have around 1,900 in a very high-risk investment thats currently performing ridiculously well. I consider any money put here to be a 100 loss, budget-wise. If I cashed out now, my 1,900 would turn into a little over 2,900.I have a fully-paid-off vehicle thats worth 28-30k.I have absolutely no debt whatsoever. I use credit cards for absolutely everything I possibly can, but I always pay off the balance before Id have to pay any interest.I currently rent the place I live. Ive run lots of numbers, and I strongly believe that Im saving money by not buying a house or condo to live in if I want to maintain my current location and standard of living.My thoughts: Ive played around with the stock market for a year or two and essentially broke even, or made a tiny profit. I find this very stressful. I also think I just dont have enough knowledge to do this effectively. My employer offers no retirement options benefits etc. Ive thought about an IRA, but I just dont really like the idea. Ive messed around a little with p2p lending prosper.com with some success. I sold all my notes I had though. Im considering buying some existing notes on the secondary market. Ones that have 100 good payment history and excellent credit scores. Im not really sure what is the best thing for me to do in my current position. I am not going to ever get married and I absolutely will never have any kids.So, any advice? Thanks in advance.Edit:Thanks for the replies. For the most part, it looks like I need to be putting 5k year in an IRA. Perhaps my anxieties about a retirement fund should be reconsidered and I should carefully review the details about early withdrawals and penalties.Assistant: Can you elaborate on your reasoning for not really liking the idea of an IRA?If you decide to simply dump it into a savings account, I recommend the Barclays Online account. Took me about 30 minutes to set up and it has a 1 APR with none of the extra fees and balance requirements that most places have.Human: Can you elaborate on your reasoning for not really liking the idea of an IRA?The primary reason is that I might not live long enough for me to start using it. I dont have any specific medical condition, I just really like the idea of having wealth I can use at any age without penalty....savings account...I have a SmartyPig savings account open but zero balance right now, that gives me 1 APR on any balance. I might transfer some cash there, but unfortunately I have to keep a minimum balance of 7,500 in my primary bank Wells Fargo to avoid monthly fees.So, I could transfer 5,500 1,000 each month into a 1 APR savings account. Not a bad idea, I have have been considering this option.  <response>: Consider a Roth IRAWith a Roth IRA you contribute after-tax dollars but the investments grow tax free. The reason it may be right for you is that you can withdraw contributions at any time penalty free. Its just the money your investments earn that cant be touched until youre 59. 