<prompt> Human: I make 53,000 a year and bring home 1740 twice a month after taxes. I havent started my retirement yet age: 24. My employer doesnt match 401k. I opened a TD Ameritrade account for an IRA but havent done anything with it yet. I want to start contributing to it each paycheck but dont know how much I should or how to invest it. My wife is starting a new job next week and will bring home about 800 every other week. We plan on putting 40 into our checking and 60 of it into savings automatically. Now her employer doesnt 401k match either so I will need to set up an IRA for her too I deal with all finances. Just need some opinions and suggestions  <response>: Open a couple of Roth IRAs at Vanguard, contribute the maximum 5,500 this year, and buy the Target Retirement 2055 fund. Repeat each year. If you have excess retirement savings, dump them in the 401k. 