<prompt> Human: I am a first year teacher in a charter school in Texas. At the beginning of the year, the school had a financial advisor come around to sign us up for our retirement accounts. I thought that it was an IRA. As the year winds down and I have some breathing room, I was finally able to read the fine print. It mentioned that there is no tax advantage in a variable annuity. My question is, in regards to saving for retirement about 25 years away from now am I better off in diverting the money Im putting into my variable annuity to an IRA? No matter how many times I read the fine print on both IRAs and variable annuities I have a hard time telling which would serve me best. Thank you,  <response>: Variable annuities have high fees, low liquidity, low returns and generate big commissions for the financial adviser who is actually just a salesman worried about his own commissions. Variable annuities are a much better deal for the salesman than they are for you.Do am IRA yourself. Vanguard, Fidelity, or Schwab. Index funds or target date funds that have a target date of when you will turn 59 12 