What Is a Retirement Account?

Written by Andrea Coombes
Fact-checked by Dayana Yochim
Edited by Carolyn Kimball

November 12, 2024

Andrea Coombes

Andrea Coombes is a financial coach and certified consumer credit counselor with 20+ years of experience helping people reach their financial goals. Her personal finance articles have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, MarketWatch, and more.

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A retirement account has special features, like tax benefits, that make it easier to grow your savings for the future. The main thing that differentiates retirement accounts from other types of savings and investment accounts is how they impact your taxes.

Retirement accounts like 401(k)s and IRAs can give big tax breaks that help you save for retirement. Depending on the account type, you can be rewarded with either an upfront tax break or tax-free withdrawals later on. And with all retirement accounts, you don’t pay any taxes while your money is sitting in the account.

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Retirement tax breaks

If you choose an account that offers an upfront tax break, like a 401(k) or traditional IRA, that means you don’t have to pay any income tax on the money you contribute to that account in the year you make the contribution. Plus, you don’t have to worry about taxes at all while your money is in the account. (Once you start taking withdrawals after you retire, then the IRS is gonna come knocking.)

If you choose a Roth IRA account, such as a Roth 401(k) or Roth IRA, then you don’t get that upfront tax break but you do get something at least as sweet: No taxes when you take the money out in retirement. That means your money grows totally tax-free and you will not be hearing from the IRS when you start taking retirement withdrawals.

Still wondering if a retirement account is right for you? Here’s a side-by-side comparison of the basic differences between retirement, investment and savings accounts:

Features	Retirement account	Investment account	Savings account
Available investments within account	Stocks, bonds, mutual funds, ETFs, etc.	Stocks, bonds, mutual funds, ETFs, etc.	Cash, money market funds
Growth potential	Based on investment returns	Based on investment returns	Limited by APY offered by bank
Offers a tax break on contributions or withdrawals	Yes	No (though capital gains rates are lower than income tax rates)	No
IRS limits on contributions	Yes (based on account type)	No	No
Investment gains	No	Yes, when an asset is sold	Yes
Penalties for early withdrawals (before age 59 ½)	Maybe (some types of accounts allow penalty-free early withdrawals)	No (though gains are taxable)	No
Requires minimum annual withdrawals after you turn 72	Maybe (depends on the type of account)	No	No
Best used for	Money you don’t plan to spend before age 59½	Long-term savings (5+ years, depending on your risk tolerance)	Money you plan to spend in the next 0-5 years

Bottom line: Saving for retirement is great. Investing for retirement is better. And investing for retirement with some help from the IRS? Priceless. If you’ve got a 401(k) or other workplace retirement plan, be sure to invest in that to secure any company match. If your company doesn’t offer a match, then open an IRA.

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About the Editorial Team

Andrea Coombes has 20+ years of experience helping people reach their financial goals. Her personal finance articles have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, MarketWatch, Forbes, and other publications, and she's shared her expertise on CBS, NPR, "Marketplace," and more. She's been a financial coach and certified consumer credit counselor, and is working on becoming a Certified Financial Planner. She knows that owning pets isn't necessarily the best financial decision; her dog and two cats would argue this point.

Dayana Yochim is a former Senior Writer/Editor at Reink Media Group who has written about personal finance and investing for more than 20 years. Her work has appeared in outlets including HerMoney.com, NerdWallet and the Motley Fool, and has been syndicated nationally. Dayana has also been a guest expert on "Today" and Good Morning America.

Carolyn Kimball is a former managing editor for StockBrokers.com and AdvisorSearch.org (formerly investor.com). Carolyn has more than 20 years of writing and editing experience at major media outlets including NerdWallet, the Los Angeles Times and the San Jose Mercury News. She specializes in coverage of personal financial products and services, wielding her editing skills to clarify complex (some might say befuddling) topics to help consumers make informed decisions about their money.