Originally Posted by motordavid

A Roth IRA is an excellent long term savings plan that differs
from a regular IRA in that no part of your "contibution" is tax deductible,
but withdrawls, after age 59.5, will be "tax free".

But you can't touch a nickel in it, without substantial penalties & taxes for another
39 years under current regs. And, I wouldn't bet on withdrawls being "tax free, nearly
4 decades from now, but that's another topic.

A Roth can be "opened" in any fiduciary vehicle, eg Fidelity, your bank,
etc., et al. One may contribute up to $4Gs into a Roth, per 2006,
and one may only contribute up to what one earned. If someone earned
$3Gs, they could not exceed $3Gs in Roth funding.


The feature of a Roth is regular annual contributions and compounding.
If you have the disposable income, at your age it's a no brainer; but you
must "forget about" that dough for decades.

Reading between the lines, I don't know what an "intern" pays so the
Roth Contribution rules may make any significant deposit, on your part, moot.

If you are looking for a place to park some dough for the next few, in
lieu of and, before getting into the workplace, I'd rec'd any no load
fund(s), through the cheapest fiduciary you can find, and pick off a
couple of Index Funds, ala the kind your mentioned. If it's dough you
may need at "any time & quickly" in the near term future, toss your cash into a
CD or MM fund. Those are available everywhere: brokers, on line, banks, etc.

Hope this helps, as your post describing your situ, was a bit sketchy.
GL,mD