<prompt> Human: I feel unsure of what I am doing with my finances, and feel indebted to listen to whatever advice my parents give me due to their assistance. I graduated last summer and landed a job at a school hard to get a job in my field until I get my masters so yay! that pays around 2,500 after taxes a month. I live with my parents so I have no rent. I pay them 150 for my groceries, use roughly around 150 a month for gas, have a car payment for 300 and insurance for 122. I have no student loan debt. After the guilty pleasure spending that I budget, I end up with around 1,500 left over for every paycheck. I obviously want to do something good with that, because what I do have saved up is sitting in my checking and Im tempted to spend it sometimes.My plan was open up an IRA and max it out every year until I return to school and put the rest into a savings account online for graduate school like Barclays as it seems like its pretty raved about. When I brought this up with my parents, they were absolutely against it and threw a bit of a fit, saying that Im already in the teacher retirement system and that choosing a local bank is wiser for savings, as anywhere like the before mentioned is only for people with a huge sum of money to save who like risk. They also told me that I shouldnt be putting any of my money into retirement, instead focusing all of it into graduate school so I dont have to take out as many loans later. After they told me that, Im left feeling kind of stumped. The local banks have laughable interest rates, and I want something on top of whatever retirement system my job has. Im 21 so the thought of how large my retirement account could get is pretty beautiful sounding. My parents are letting me live with them and paid for my college, so I want to respect their opinions. I just dont think theyre right. PF, could you point me into the right decision in what I should be doing? I know Im not required to listen to them and dont often because Im stubborn, so a lecture on that isnt quite necessary. I honestly just dont know what is wise. Assistant: IRA is pretty small amount for you per year. Just open it and dont tell them. Its none of their business, and fighting wont help. I think your parents might think youre opening a brokerage account. Which would be foolish for you, since youre not taking advantage of the tax shelter accounts. Human: I opened a joint account with my mother when I was younger, and this is still the same account. She checks to see where my finances go. Im working on fixing this right now, as I can agree with the fighting wont help idea you have.I would not open a brokerage account, as I dont even understand fully what that is. Is the online savings account with Barclays not a normal savings account, or am I misunderstanding? Or are there other savings accounts you would recommend?  <response>: Not to be mean to you, but I dont think your mother has any business whatsoever keeping track of her grown daughters bank account. I think your parents have failed to recognize that you are an adult and are trying to exercise control by disguising it as helping. You should get your own checking account that only you own. Your mother will be briefly upset but will get over it. Then you do what you want.Regarding Barclays or another bank, there is no risk. It sounds like your parents dont understand how banking works. All deposits into a savings account up to 100k are guaranteed by the FDIC. If Barclays fails, the FDIC will replace your lost savings account. Its possible that your parents dont understand that Barclays is just another bank. 