You have just gotten home from a long day at work. You pick up your mail and go through it and there it is . . . the envelope – an unremarkable white envelope with green printing on the outside of it. You have just received your yearly Social Security Statement.

You look at the envelope and can’t bring yourself to read it, but you are curious to see what the Social Security Administration says you will have for your “golden years”. You open it and you see this “. . . if you stop working . . . At age 62, your payments would be about . . . $924 a month”. You can’t believe that you’re reading it, but there it is in black and white “$924 a month”.

You put the letter down and think about your mortgage payment and it is twice that amount. You finally realize what your friends and economic professor told you . . . you need to have a plan for retirement. You realize that your Social Security payments and your 401K can’t make up the gap. But what do you do? Individual Retirement Accounts, or IRA’s, may be your safety net.

But, what is an IRA and how do you get one? Those questions are actually the easiest to answer. An Individual Retirement Account, or IRA, is an account that is either FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation) insured or non-FDIC insured. There are two different kinds: Traditional IRA and Roth IRA. A Traditional IRA is where you can make deposits over the lifetime of the IRA and not have to claim the interest earned on the account until you start making withdrawals. A Roth IRA is where you claim the interest throughout the lifetime of the IRA and then withdraw it interest free.

Both types of IRA’s are available at your local bank, credit union, or brokerage house. You can invest in an IRA until you reach the age of 70 ½ when you are required to withdraw a minimum distribution, then you can really enjoy your “golden years” in style!