<prompt> Human: From what Ive gathered from lurking on this sub for a while is to get an emergency fund first. However, I think my personal situation is unique.I live at home with parents and pay no rent. All I pay for is gas, eating out, and gym membership which costs me about 200month. I bring in 1200month working part time while going to college. So realistically, I have about 1000month to save. I have an emergency fund of about 3k in a checking account. Im aiming to eventually have a 10k emergency fund, but having that much in an emergency fund is not necessary at the moment. So with my extra money every month, should I fund my IRA, or continue building my emergency fund?  <response>: You can put money into the Roth IRA and keep it as cash and not invest it until you feel comfortable with the ample true cash emergency fund. You can withdraw the contributions to a Roth IRA with not penalty and keep it as cash protects it against principal loss. 